Is the new government up to the task?
The new provincial government, headed by Dr Abdul Malik, is facing its first serious challenge on the security front as the province is under attack from terrorists and separatists. Just the other day the terrorists, belonging to Harbiyar Marri-led separatist movement Balochistan Liberation Army in this instance, gutted down Ziarat Residency in Ziarat, Balochistan, a popular tourist place where Quaid-e-Azam spent last days of his life, with rocket propelled grenades. Having no regard for its historic value, the terrorists have not only attacked the Quaid and what he stood for but also by extension the core values of Pakistan. They have proved that they don’t care much about the ideals of freedom, independence and progressive thought.
Backward as the destruction of the historic building may sound, three bomb attacks, one in a bus carrying female students, and the other two inside Bolan Medical Complex where the injured of the first bomb attack were taken, and ensuing stand-off between Special Forces and the terrorists, who had taken control of a building in the hospital appeared to be more horrific than scenes from an action packed cinematic thriller. That the majority of students in the bus were Hazaras and that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has taken responsibility of the attack on the bus, make the incident ethno-sectarian in nature while the killing of Deputy Commissioner, Quetta, Dr Abdul Mansoor Khan Kakar, who had rushed to the hospital to visit the injured students, make it a high profile one so much the so that the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had to ask Interior Minister Ch Nisar to help the provincial government in containing the situation. Assistant Commissioner Anwar Ali, an SHO and a CNBC Pakistan reporter are also reported to be injured with the first two being seriously injured.
Dr Abdul Malik, the new chief minister, is facing an uphill task but the question is if he is the man for the job, to bring peace to the restive province and unite the people under one banner of a federal Pakistan. The new chief minister who is supposed to represent the interests of middle class deprived Baloch population, instead of those of nawabs and sardars, might find standing up to the separatists, extremists and security agencies, whose role is tainted on so many counts in this mess, a gigantic task. Nevertheless, this is something Dr Malik will have to do or he would risk falling in the same pattern as the governments before his have so often been.
That terrorists have no religion, only an ideology based on fanatic delusions which any religion would denounce, has no doubt. That following this ideology is more of a psychological problem than following a religion is also beyond doubt. The terrorists choose the ways of terrorism instead of reasoning and logic which gives them an excuse for an utter disregard of ethics, morality and human values. With two distinct types of extremists working in the province – one, TTP and its affiliates, including the sectarian terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi; two, the Baloch separatists – the provincial government, fully backed by progressive Baloch leaders and the central government, is in a much better position to handle the situation. The TTP and its affiliates have no love for Jinnah. For them he was both a secular leader and a Shia. The Salafist streak in TTP has led them to attack shrines in the past. They could have considered the Residency as a virtual shrine, as thousands visit it over the year, and thus they demolished it. The Baloch separatist groups, on the other hand, want to eliminate anything in Balochistan that shows its connection with Pakistan. They too could have targeted the historic place.
Whatever the case, the acts of violence, terrorism and vandalism are highly condemnable. Terrorism in Balochistan will take time to be eradicated and that too through a combined effort of provincial government, Islamabad, armed forces and security agencies. However, it remains to be seen if they are on the same page.