Development and Militarization in Balochistan, Pakistan

Abstract

This article examines the interplay of development, militarization and culture of impunity in Balochistan. It contends that the State’s pursuit of large-scale infrastructure projects is intensifying the conflict. Balochistan has increasingly been positioned as the potential fulcrum of Pakistan’s economic revival due to its vast, untapped resources and significant Chinese investments. While this vision seems promising, it has heightened Baloch anxieties and resistance. Large development initiatives bring about socio-economic disruptions, fuelling existing anti-State sentiment. The article argues that the imperative to protect expanding economic assets has enabled the region’s further militarization, engendering an environment wherein the security-intelligence apparatus employs force inordinately and arbitrarily with impunity.

Keywords:

• Militarization
• Development
• CPEC
• COIED
• Impunity
• Accountability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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7. Cited in Shakoor A. Wani, ‘The New Baloch Militancy: Drivers and Dynamics’ India Quarterly, 77(3), 2021, pp. 479–500.

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13. Cited in Shakoor A. Wani, ‘The Baloch Insurgency in Pakistan and the Chinese Connection’, Kulturní Studia, 17(2), 2021, pp. 82–99.

14. Ibid.

15. A. Ahmed, The Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam, Brookings Institution Press, Washington D.C, 2013, p. 136.

16. Shubh Mathur, no. 5.

17. Ibid.

18. Pakistan National Human Development Report. The three Ps of Inequality: Power, People and Policy, United Nations Development Programme, Islamabad, 2020.

19. Cited in Shakoor A. Wani, no. 7.

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22. Ibid.

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28. Ibid.

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30. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Balochistan: Neglected Still, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Lahore, 2019.

31. ‘Frontier Corps—Conflict Driver’, Center for Research and Security Studies, 2012 at http://crss.pk/?p=2816 (Accessed (13 January 2022).

32. As an example, the case of Bashir Azeem, the 76-year-old pro-independence political worker is telling. Bashir, hung upside down and severely tortured, was told bluntly that ‘Even if the president or chief justice tells us to release you, we won’t. We can torture you, or kill you, or keep you for years at our will. It is only the Army chief and the [intelligence] chief that we obey’. See Human Rights Watch, ‘We Can Torture, Kill, or Keep You for Years’: Enforced Disappearances by Pakistan Security Forces in Balochistan, Human Rights Watch, New York, 2011, pp. 38, 107.

33. Jeffrey A. Sluka, ‘Introduction: State Terror and Anthropology’, in Jeffrey A. Sluka (ed.) Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2000.

34. Ibid.

35. Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster, London, 2006, p. 237.

36. Shakoor A. Wani, no. 7.

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45. According to the Federal Ministry of Human Rights, at least 936 dead bodies were found in the province between 2011 and 2016. VBMP claimed to have recorded 1,200 cases of dumped bodies during this period while noting that it has not been able to document all the cases. See BBC, ‘Balochistan war: Pakistan accused over 1,000 dumped bodies’, 28 December 2016 at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38454483 (Accessed 7 February 2022).

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48. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, no. 30, p. 15.

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51. V. Badalič, no. 42, p. 165.

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55. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, no 30, p. 6.

56. Reema Omer, no. 52, p. 162.

57. ‘Entrenching Impunity, Denying Redress: The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan’, International Commission of Jurists, 2020 at https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Pakistan-Commission-of-Inquiry-Advocacy-Analysis-Brief-2020-ENG.pdf (Accessed 5 April 2022).

58. M. Hameed, ‘The case of missing persons in Balochistan’, The Herald 6 August 2018 at https://herald.dawn.com/news/1398543 (Accessed 10 June 2022).

59. V. Badalič, no. 42, p. 166.

60. Reema Omer, no.52, pp. 162–63.

61. A.S. Waseem, ‘Ordinance extends actions in aid of civil power to entire KP’, Dawn, 18 September 2019 at https://www.dawn.com/news/1505809 (Accessed 11 April 2022).

62. S. Hafeez, ‘How Imran Khan Betrayed Pakistan’s Missing Persons’, The Diplomat, 2022 at https://thediplomat.com/2022/04/how-imran-khan-betrayed-pakistans-missing-persons/ (Accessed 10 June 2022).

63. International Commission of Jurists, no. 57.

64. COIED, ‘Monthly Progress on Cases of Alleged Enforced Disappearances- November, 2019’, 2019 at http://coioed.pk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/MONTHLY-SUMMARY-NOVEMBER-2019.pdf (Accessed 13 November 2021).

65. H. Duschinski and B. Hoffman, ‘Everyday Violence, Institutional Denial and Struggles for Justice in Kashmir’, Race & Class, 52 (4), 2011, pp. 44–70.

66. Malik S. Akbar, ‘The Mass Graves of Balochistan’, Huffington Post, 19 May 2014 at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malik-siraj-akbar/the-mass-graves-ofbaloch_b_5696642.html Accessed 7 December 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shakoor Ahmad Wani

Dr. Shakoor Ahmad Wani teaches International Relations at Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, Kashmir. He holds a PhD in South Asian Studies from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.