Pakistan Victors Want Dialogue With Militants

[Salim]

Indeed the situation is becoming real complicated and unpredictable.

[maqsad]

Isn't the BLA a CIA backed organization? I thought it was an open secret that the US/UK/Israel axis is supporting Baloch separatists. Maybe it is part of a game to either carve out an independent puppet country to loot and rape with the help of a few top leaders, or to squeeze the most out of Pakistan in terms of royalties and other concessions for Balochistan mineral rights.

The machinations of evil « An upward gradient

British intelligence is allegedly providing covert support to Balochistan separatists (which from the outset have been repressed by Pakistan’s military). In June 2006, Pakistan’s Senate Committee on Defence accused British intelligence of “abetting the insurgency in the province bordering Iran” [Balochistan]..(Press Trust of India, 9 August 2006). Ten British MPs were involved in a closed door session of the Senate Committee on Defence regarding the alleged support of Britain’s Secret Service to Balcoh separatists (Ibid). Also of relevance are reports of CIA and Mossad support to Baloch rebels in Iran and Southern Afghanistan.

It would appear that Britain and the US are supporting both sides. The US is providing American F-16 jets to the Pakistani military, which are being used to bomb Baloch villages in Balochistan. Meanwhile, British alleged covert support to the separatist movement (according to the Pakistani Senate Committee) contributes to weakening the central government.

The stated purpose of US counter-terrorism is to provide covert support as well as as training to “Liberation Armies” ultimately with a view to destabilizing sovereign governments. In Kosovo, the training of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the 1990s had been entrusted to a private mercenary company, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), on contract to the Pentagon.

The BLA bears a canny resemblance to Kosovo’s KLA, which was financed by the drug trade and supported by the CIA and Germany’s Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND).

The BLA emerged shortly after the 1999 military coup. It has no tangible links to the Baloch resistance movement, which developed since the late 1940s. An aura of mystery surrounds the leadership of the BLA.

Washington favors the creation of a “Greater Balochistan” which would integrate the Baloch areas of Pakistan with those of Iran and possibly the Southern tip of Afghanistan (See Map above), thereby leading to a process of political fracturing in both Iran and Pakistan.

[blain2]

Originally Posted by roadrunner

^ I don't really buy that the ordinary Baloch wants autonomy. The sardars who make money out of the gas do want autonomy. The ordinary people of Balochistan generally would not want this. PPP may want to try and win the BLA seats, but how well do they tell us what the people of Balochistan want? They shouldn't be given any autonomy until a referendum is carried out. I don't think the PPP care much what the ordinary Baloch think, they just want to get a couple more seats from the BLA is all.

The BLA is an instrument used by the Sardars...they know that when they put impossible conditions in front of the GoP, the compromise would actually be somewhere in the middle...its been the same old tactic for the past 5 decades. Autonomy is fine however within the federation. Give them say over the province's resources (understanding that they owe money to the central government) just like its done in Karachi (revenue is shared with the center from the business hub of Pakistan).

[t-birds]

WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said any new government in Pakistan should be wary of holding talks with the pro-Taliban insurgents. Gates told the BBC that efforts of the previous administration to negotiate with the militants had not worked out.

Speaking in Delhi, Gates said the polls had been bad for Musharraf. But Gates said the US hoped to continue working with the man he described as the elected president of Pakistan. Gates said the new government would have to face the reality that the al-Qaeda militants and insurgents were operating along the frontier.

"Even the Musharraf government tried talking and doing deals in Waziristan. That didn't work out very well," he said. "Maybe this new government in Pakistan will have to go through the same experience itself," he added. Opposition leaders have hinted they are willing to talk to the insurgents, with a view to drawing them into the political process.