January 13, 2005 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
There is serious turmoil in Balochistan, irrespective of whether the rest of (Pakistan) is willing to acknowledge it. [Ilyas Khan/Herald]
For a cogent summary of the twentieth-century history of Balochistan, head over to Chapati Mystery.
Baloch Voice and Baloch Tawar tell the story from a Baloch angle.
This quote from Owen Bennett Jones’ book highlights Pakistan’s competing nationalisms.
‘I have been a Baloch for several centuries. I have been a Muslim for 1,400 years. I have been a Pakistani for just over fifty.’ The tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti Khan has little love for Pakistan. Secure in his heavily guarded, mud-walled fort deep in the Baloch desert, he runs a state within a state. Pakistan may have been in existence for over half a century but he still considers any Pakistani troops in his vicinity as part of an occupation army. Other tribal chiefs, feudal leaders and politicians in Balochistan, rural Sindh, NWFP and even some in southern Punjab share his attitude towards Pakistan. Islam was meant to be the binding force–but, for many, ethnic ties have proved to be stronger. [Pakistan: Eye of the Storm via Far Outliers]
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