|
Pak hunt for attackers on Sui gas field |
 |
Households and industry across Pakistan are facing shortage of gas following a wave of rocket attacks against pipelines and other natural gas facilities in a remote southern region in Baluchistan which are blamed on ethnic militants. Thousands of paramilitary and regular troops have been deployed as guards and to hunt for the attackers who launched a barrage of hundreds of rockets on Jan. 11, hitting the State-run gas plant at Sui in Baluchistan Province, the principal source of natural gas for Pakistan’s 150 million people. Tribesmen demanding more gas royalties and jobs for locals often target security forces and the Sui gas facilities. But, this time the attacks dramatically intensified amid anger over the alleged gang rape of a female doctor earlier this month at a hospital owned by a State gas company. Hundreds of rockets were fired at the plant. The purification plant was hit by rockets and forced the shutdown of the largest natural gas field. The Baluchistan Liberation Force, a little known nationalist group claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks. Two small homemade bombs again exploded in a bazaar in Gwadar on Jan. 18. Nearly a week of attacks on gas facilities in Sui left at least eight civilians and soldiers dead and 35 others wounded.
Hundreds of Pakistani troops have been deployed in Baluchistan after the latest wave of insurgency sweeping the province after the provincial Government sought assistance of the federal Government to secure its gas installations. They are set to launch a massive crackdown on the tribesmen who pose a threat to vital Government installations. President Musharraf warned that the military could launch a major operation to crush the rebellion if the attacks on the gas facilities continued in Baluchistan. Hundreds of para-military troops are already searching homes for weapons in Sui and hunting for renegade tribesmen blamed for the assault on the natural gas facility. Many houses used by tribesmen to launch the bloody attack on the country’s main gas field have been bulldozed. The police has sought arrest warrants against 36 tribesmen for launching the Jan 11 attacks on the Sui field.
Any crackdown may, however, have serious ramifications because while the MQM may quit the Government, the Baluchs have threatened more bombings if the Government launched a military operation in response to the rocket attacks. The Altaf Hussain-led Muttahida Qaumi Movement [MQM], a part of the ruling coalition in Pakistan, has threatened to quit the government if the Army was deployed in the troubled province. And a prominent Baluch leader, Attaullah Mengal, has warned the Government of serious consequences if military action was launched. Attaullah Mengal, who is a senior leader of the Baluchistan National Party, has said, if military operations were launched, the Baluch people will fight a decisive battle this time as they are committed to safeguarding the integrity of their land till the last drop of their blood is split.
Leading the insurgency are provincial tribal chiefs – Nawab/Akbar Bugti [in whose area of dominance the Sui gas fields are located], Nawab Khair Bakhsh Mari and Sardar Attaullah Mengal. Mengal played an important role in investigating an armed rebellion with Bugti and Mari in the mid-1970s, but the revolt was crushed. At stake is a greater share of natural resources in the province. Besides, the chiefs oppose additional military garrisons that the Army plans to set up in the near future. In fact, the looming civil war was sparked by Gen. Musharraf’s decision to set up three new cantonments in Baluchistan to help control the restive Baluchis irritated by attempts to extend Punjabi military domination to support the exploitation of the region’s huge natural resources ranging from the Gwadar deep-water harbour to the Sui gas and copper and gold deposits and change the demography in Punjab’s favour.
Gen. Musharraf cannot allow the Balochi tribesmen to upset his plans to use Baluchistan’s natural endowments to give Pakistan an economic fillip. Already his dream of living contentedly on the proceeds of a gas pipeline connecting the Iranian gas fields to India has gone up in smoke. Either he pays the price of greater economic autonomy in Baluchistan by giving the Balochi tribesmen a more equitable share of the spoils or he must try to crush the rebellion.
The problem is that on the periphery of the Baluchistan uprising are others waiting to throw off the yoke of Punjabi domination in Pakistan, the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement, PONM. Of its constituents, the Saraikis are the most influential and though they have hitherto shown no inclination to take to arms [not that there is any shortage of weapons in what is the soft underbelly of Pakistani Punjab] but it is very likely that they will add to the Pakistan Army’s difficulties by disrupting its logistics and supply trains needed for any campaign in Baluchistan if there is an all-out war.
While the Maoist rebels in Nepal released on Janurary 16 all the 14 Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army who had been taken hostage last week, the Indian Government is planning to impose restrictions on Indians travelling to Nepal in the wake of the upsurge in Maoist violence there. On the other hand, a red alert has been sounded along the entire Indo-Nepal border.
Minister of State for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal told newsmen in Jan. 18 that there might be restrictions on travel to Nepal from India even as vigil had been mounted along the entire 1690 km long Indo-Nepal border. He said the Governments of West Bengal, Sikkim, UP, Uttaranchal and Bihar, which have borders with Nepal, have been instructed to remain alert against possible “adverse fallout of Maoist upsurge in the neighbouring country. The number of Special Security Bureau battalions deployed along the Indo-Nepal border is being doubled to foil possible attempts by Maoist guerillas to infiltrate into the country from Nepal. The Centre has also been tipped off by various agencies about attempts by the Maoist insurgents to strike a nexus with militant outfits from north-east India including the banned ULFA.
All the 14 Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army were set free following the intervention of Informal Sector Service Centre, a human rights body. The Maoists have, however, abducted two Royal Nepalese Army personnel from the same area. The released Indian soldiers later said they were treated well. While releasing them, the rebels clarified they had taken them hostage only to find out if they were working for the Royal Nepalese Army or were involved in any kind of espionage. Nepalese Army sources say the Maoists kidnapped the Indian soldiers to get publicity at a time when they had suffered a series of military setbacks.
Even as the Indian soldiers were freed Maoist rebels abducted 360 students from different schools in central Nepal on Jan. 19, 50 of whom managed to escape from their captivity. They were reportedly taken away to be given lectures on Maoist philosophy. In another incident, at least 18 Nepalese security personnel were killed by Maoist insurgents in Ilam district bordering Darjeeling.
Political uncertainties continue with the Maoists rejecting the Government’s 13 January deadline for talks and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s reported plans to hold general elections in April. Political observers say, he might have to rethink strategy because unless there is an understanding with the Maoists on a ceasefire, there is really no guarantee of free and fair elections.
Deuba said elections would be held in Nepal within the year even as the country came to a grinding halt after the opposition called for a strike. Life was thrown out of gear in the country on January 17, with the four major opposition parties calling a one-day strike in Kathmandu in protest against the recent hike in petro product prices while the Maoist guerillas clamped down a 72-hour closure in western Nepal over the same issue. Former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepal Congress party led the protest in the valley followed by People’s Front, Nepal Peasants and Workers Party and Nepal Sadhbhavana Party.
|
