Baluchistan Conflict in Pakistan

Baluchistan conflict started in April 1948, when government of Pakistan sent the Pakistan army to force Mir Ahmed Yar Khan to give up his state in favour of Pakistan. Mir Ahmed Yar Khan signed an agreement ending Kalat's independence. But his brother, Prince Karim Khan, decided to carry on with the struggle. Basing himself in Afghanistan he conducted guerrilla war against the Pakistan army. Later he was killed in clash with the army along with many of his supporters. After some years Nawab Nowroz Khan took up arms in resistance to the One Unit policy designed and initiated by the federal government to eliminate ethnic and provincial divides and prejudices. He and his followers were charged with disloyalty and arrested and confined in Hyderabad jail. Five of his family members were afterward hanged. Nawab Nowroz Khan later died in captivity.

After the second conflict the Federal government sent the Army to build new garrisons in the key trouble areas of Balochistan. Sher Mohammad Bijarani led like-minded militants to start guerilla warfare against the establishment of these posts by creating its own posts of insurgency spreading over 45,000 miles of land from the Mengal tribal area in the south to the Marri and Bugti tribal areas in the north. The insurgents bombed railway tracks and ambushed convoys. The Army retaliated by destroying vast areas of the Marri tribe. This insurgency ended in 1969 when Yahya Khan abolished the "One Unit" policy and the Balochs agreed to a ceasefire. This eventually led to the recognition of Balochistan as the fourth province of West Pakistan  in 1970.

 In 1972, major political parties from a wide spectrum of political ideology united against the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (the then President of Pakistan) and formed the National Awami Party NAP and demanded more representation for the ethnic Baloch in the government. This did not sit well with Bhutto's approach, seen by some as elitist and authoritarian. In February 1973, in the presence of news media and the Iraqi ambassador to Islamabad, the police opened a consignment of Iraqi diplomatic pouches containing arms, ammunition and guerilla warfare literature. The Pakistani intelligence agencies claimed these arms were en route to the Baloch (Marri) insurgents of Balochistan. Citing treason, Bhutto subsequently dismissed the provincial government of Balochistan and imposed governor rule. Dismissal of the provincial government led to armed insurgency. Khair Baksh Marri formed the Balochistan People’s Liberation Front (BPLF) which led large numbers of Marri and Mengal tribesmen into guerilla warfare against the central government.

According to several authors, the Pakistani military lost 3,000 to 3,300 soldiers during the conflict with the Balochi separatists, while the Balouch lost 5,300 men, and civilian casualties during this period are estimated at 6,000.

Due to government policies in 2004 Baluchistan was up in arms against the federal government, with the Baluchistan Liberation Army, Baluchistan Liberation Front, and People's Liberation Army conducting operations. Rocket attacks and bomb blasts have been a regular feature in the provincial capital, particularly its cantonment areas of Kohlu and Sui Town, since 2000, and had claimed over 25 lives by mid-2004. In response Pakistan army demolished many houses and Marri areas and killed many civilians as war is still going on though media is not reporting much on it because of restriction on media in Pakistan.

The New Gwadar Port project employed about 500 Chinese by 2004. On 03 May 2004, the BLA killed three Chinese engineers working on the Port. Gwadar airport was attacked by rockets at midnight on 21 May 2004. On 09 October 2004, two Chinese engineers were kidnapped in South Waziristan in the northwest of Pakistan, one of whom was killed later on October 14 in a botched rescue operation.

Pakistan blamed India and Iran for fanning insurgency in Baluchistan. Violence reached a crescendo in August of 2005 when the Pakistani government attempted and killed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, an eighty one years old Sardar (tribal leader) who had fought against the government for decades.

Pakistan Army claims that Balochistan Liberation Army is being funded by the Afghan government and its arms supposedly flow into Baluchistan through the Pakistan-Afghanistan borders. Iran also has strategic interests in the region and keep an eye on the affairs of Balochistan. The Indian government has been trying to help Pakistan with this grievance in spite of bitter relations between the two countries.

Balochistan's population consists of mix between Balochi & Pashtuns but Pashtuns enjoy a reasonable representation in the state & military jobs of Pakistan and their more religious leaning makes them mainly more pro-Pakistan but after 9/11 they have been fighting too, for the pro-Baloch independence. It is widely believed that the government of Pakistan needs to bring an end to the tribal system and provide more job opportunities to the common Balochistani, in the name of education, outsiders (especially Punjabis and Urdu speaking) are being settled in different parts of Baluchistan turning majority of Baluch area into minorities which threats local tribesmen. As such, steps are being taken for industrialization of the province and industrial zones are planned along the new Gawadar-Karachi highway. This development is expected to bring accelerated progress in the near future although uprisings against the decline of the tribal system will probably accompany such a situation.