ISLAMABAD: The chief minister of the southwestern Balochistan province on Thursday accused India’s top intelligence agency of attempting to unite militants who seek to destabilize Pakistan, as Islamabad struggles to contain surging militancy in its western regions.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land yet its poorest by almost all social and economic indicators, has been hit hard by an insurgency for decades now. Ethnic Baloch separatist militants accuse Islamabad of denying locals a share in the province’s mineral resources, an allegation the federal government and military deny.
These militant groups, the most prominent among them being the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), have frequently launched attacks targeting law enforcers, civilians and commuters from the eastern Punjab province.
“They [India’s intelligence agency RAW] have launched an intelligence-based war against us and are trying to unite all those who seek to destabilize Pakistan,” Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti told reporters at a media briefing in Islamabad.
India, Pakistan’s arch-rival and nuclear-armed neighbor, has repeatedly denied Islamabad’s accusations that it arms and funds militant groups in the southwestern province. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting militants in the disputed Kashmir territory it administers, a charge Pakistan has always denied.
Apart from accusing India of stoking militancy in Pakistan, Islamabad also blames Afghanistan’s government for not taking action against militants that it alleges operate from sanctuaries in Afghanistan. The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan rejects these allegations and urges Pakistan to resolve their security challenges internally.
Bugti reminded Afghanistan’s government that it had assured Islamabad it would not allow militants to use Afghan soil to launch attacks against Pakistan.
“They [terrorists] have safe havens in Afghanistan and have been provided places for the training camps,” he said. “And they attack us from there.”
The chief minister pointed out that several militants recently killed by security forces in Pakistan were Afghan nationals.
Pakistani security forces have intensified operations in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan province after an uptick in violence in these regions. According to an Islamabad-based think tank, Pakistan witnessed a sharp escalation in militant violence in August, with attacks reaching their highest monthly level in more than a decade.
The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), which tracks militancy, recorded 143 militant attacks in August in a report it published earlier this month. It said Balochistan saw 28 attacks in August that killed 52 people, including 23 security personnel and 21 civilians.
Last week, unidentified kidnappers killed senior government officer Assistant Commissioner (AC) Muhammad Afzal and his son in Balochistan. On Sept. 15, five soldiers were killed in an IED blast that took place when security forces were moving for a sanitization operation in Balochistan’s Kech district.
