New Delhi, September 3
There is a certain degree of concern over Pakistan Army’s reported activities of construction of concrete bunkers and reinforcement of manpower along the Line of Control as Islamabad is upping its ante before the anticipated bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of NAM summit in Havana barely a fortnight later.
The Pakistani move has the potential of wrecking the November 2003 ceasefire between the two neighbour’s armed forces — a key Confidence Building Measure that has withstood volatile fluctuations in the Indo-Pak ties for nearly three years.
As of now, the South Block has not taken up the matter with Pakistan diplomatically. New Delhi has so far let the issue be dealt with at the DGMO-level contacts which are routinely being made even after the low in bilateral relations since July 11 Mumbai blasts.
However, a summit between India and Pakistan is being increasingly viewed as a should-happen event to inject a new life in the moribund peace process.
Significantly, the Pakistani move has come in the wake of August 26 killing of Pakistan’s greatest rebel leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in Baluchistan. Pakistan is clearly sending a hands-off-Baluchistan signal to India by increasing its military activities along the LoC.
Baluchistan is a yet-to-be
opened Alibaba cave for Islamabad -strategically and economically.
This largest province of Pakistan, which accounts for 46 per cent of total Pakistani area, has proven huge gold and copper deposits which are yet to be tapped. It also has Pakistan’s biggest reserves of uranium and natural gas, apart from many important minerals.
Besides, Baluchistan also houses Pakistan’s premier missile-testing and nuclear sites. The 1998 nuclear tests were conducted on Baluchistan soil.
Baluchistan has another hugely important strategic asset coming up on its soil - the Gwadar port which is scheduled to be operational in 2009. The Pakistan-China pact of 2002 for the construction of Gwadar, located in the Arabian Sea on the mouth of Persian Gulf, has made Baluchistan important to Islamabad like never before.
Along with the Gwadar port, Islamabad also has ambitious plans of creating a massive road network which will facilitate the movement of goods from China and Central Asian Republics to the countries of the Persian Gulf, West Asia, East Africa, the Indian Ocean and beyond.
The Gwadar port, the brainchild of China, will give Beijing easy and smooth access to Central Asia for trade and strategic cooperation.
Unfortunately for Islamabad, Baluchistan has a history, and a bitter one at that. Few would know that after partition of India and Pakistan, Baluchistan remained an independent kingdom for seven-and-a-half months.
The present-day Baluchistan was then known as Kalat comprising several small principalities, apart from the vast Baluchistan. The assembly of the Kingdom of Kalat had passed a unanimous resolution in August 1947 declaring independence as the people of Kalat did not wish to accede to Pakistan.
After persistent diplomatic efforts from Pakistan the King of Kalat travelled to the Pakistani capital in March 1948 and signed the accession deed. Immediately thereafter, the King was put under arrest.
Meanwhile, a massive rebellion started in Baluchistan and people took to streets in Quetta and other Baluch cities. Pakistan used brutal military might to suppress the Baluch struggle. Since then the Pakistan Army has launched brutal repression of Baluchistan four times, the last one continuing currently.
