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India supporting Baloch separatists, says Salim Nawaz
Baloch nationalists have for decades campaigned for greater autonomy and control of
the province's abundant natural gas and mineral resources, which they say are
unfairly exploited to the benefit of other parts of the country. — Photo by
Reuters
QUETTA: India and Afghanistan are
supporting an insurgency in Pakistan's Balochistan province, trying to bolster
the leadership of separatists fighting the Pakistani government, a top security
commander said on Saturday.
Baloch nationalists have for decades
campaigned for greater autonomy and control of the province's abundant natural
gas and mineral resources, which they say are unfairly exploited to the benefit
of other parts of the country.
Separatist guerrillas have also been
fighting a low-level insurgency for decades.
‘A lot of evidence of Indian involvement
through Afghanistan is there, supporting the separatist movement,’ Major
General Salim Nawaz, inspector general of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force
in Balochistan, told Reuters in an interview at his headquarters in the
provincial capital, Quetta.
India and Pakistan have fought three
wars since their independence in 1947 and accuse each other of supporting
militant groups in each other's countries.
Pakistan has been accused of backing
militants fighting Indian security forces in the disputed Himalayan region of
Kashmir. India has been accused of backing the Baloch militants.
Nawaz said the separatists were not very
strong as they did not have enough foot soldiers or a proper command.
‘The foreign element, especially the
element there in Afghanistan, is trying hard to create more leadership,’ he
said.
Brahamdagh Bugti, the grandson of a
Baloch militant leader killed in late 2006, is said to be hiding in Afghanistan
and is regarded as one of the main Baloch separatist leaders.
Nawaz said proof of Indian involvement
had been provided.
‘The proof has been given at various
levels...photographs have been provided,’ he said. He did not elaborate.
Pakistan and India compete for influence
in Afghanistan where India is one of the main backers of President Hamid Karzai
and his US-backed government.
Pakistan has been accused of being the
main backer of the Taliban until the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United
States.
While Pakistan officially stopped
supporting the Taliban at that time, US and Afghan officials suspect some
elements of the Pakistani security agencies are still helping the Taliban, the
main Afghan faction opposed to Indian involvement there.
On Thursday, a bomb attack on the India
embassy in the Afghan capital killed 17 people. The Taliban claimed
responsibility but many in India also see the hand of Pakistan, which considers
Afghanistan a fall-back position in the event of war with India.
The Indian government has not blamed
Pakistan which condemned the attack.
No Quetta Shura
Nawaz denied US accusations that the
Taliban leadership was based in and around Quetta, saying the United States was
looking for an excuse for the difficulty it was facing with an intensifying
Taliban insurgency.
‘These allegations have been levelled in
the past,’ he said.
‘They had been dying a death but lately
they have started again. In my view, whatever is happening in Afghanistan, if
they are not succeeding, there has to be some escape route.’
The United States had handed over no
information to back up its assertion regarding the Taliban ‘Quetta shura’, or
leadership council, he said.
‘If they have any evidence — which they
have not given us a bit of until this moment — they should share it with us.
Pakistani forces are quite capable of sorting them out,’ he said.
Nawaz said it was impossible for Taliban
leaders such as Mullah Omar to go unnoticed.
‘If he has to move, or if their
leadership has to move, they have to move with some paraphernalia, they need to
make some arrangements,’ he said.
Source: DAWN, Saturday, 10 Oct, 2009
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