Daily Times

In a stark reminder that the Baloch insurgency is still a very real war being waged in the largest province of the land, the Quetta Express was ambushed on its way to Peshawar, some 60 miles from Quetta, killing three people and injuring some 20 others. The assailants used guns and rockets that they launched from a nearby mountaintop after which troops of the Frontier Corps (FC) and police personnel launched retaliatory fire. Although the ambush caused some fatalities, the rockets missed their target. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility but they made it clear that their targets were not the passengers on the train but the FC security personnel on the train. It seems the ill-fated passengers, who were on their way to celebrate Eid with their families, were collateral in this fierce battle between the nationalists and the FC.

The attack on the Quetta Express is just another incident in a long line of such violent episodes by both the insurgents who have been wrestling with the state for their rights, and the FC that has stationed itself in the province to guarantee the bounty of the resources available there. It has oft been a brutal war with many innocent people dying in the crossfire, just like the victims of the Quetta Express. The FC and the military establishment have been trying, unsuccessfully, to crush this insurgency by force — the brutal kill and dump policy by those who oppose the nationalists is just one such example — but this has not worked in the past and is unlikely to now. The whole thrust of this insurgency is political and, therefore, it requires a political solution. Successive regimes have failed to grant the Baloch their rights and freedom. Instead such justified demands have invariably been met with military force. This PPP government managed to announce the Balochistan Package but little has been done to implement it in its true spirit. Unless the insurgents are brought to the negotiation table, separatist sentiment will be stoked further and the insurgency will spread. It is in the interest of all parties concerned that peace through political discussions be brought to Balochistan’s troubled people. *