Tazeen Akhtar
“Collateral Damage” was a notorious term introduced by USA in so called war on terror to justify the killings of innocents in so called operations against terrorists. As USA is trendsetter or states with inferiority complex voluntarily copy the Super Power, this Collateral Damage is on in other countries like Pakistan by both sides , not only by the state authorities but the terrorists as well. More than 50 lost precious lives in Mastung Balochistan by Terrorists’ suicide blast and 4 villagers were killed in Sindh during an Intelligence based Operation against some Sindhu Desh Movement separatists. In the meanwhile another suicide blast in Hangu KPK took lives of 5 while one suicide checked and gunned down. Both the suicide attacks were carried out on the Masjids.
Mastung attack is the most deadliest blast in Pakistan in recent waive of terrorist attacks.Authorities share that was a suicide attack at a religious procession in Mastung area of Balochistan province. Today the people in Pakistan are celebrating Eid e Meelad un Nabi (S.A.W) the birth of our last prophet peace be upon him.
How Collateral Damage is relevant here? In Mastung , authorities claim that DSP Nawaz Gishkori was the target who has been killed in the explosion. It means they wanted to kill one person only and the rest 49+ are Collateral Damage. In Sindh the Rangers wanted to arrest the separatists , therefore the death of 4 villagers in their effort to get their student released was Collateral Damage.
Pakistan is continuously facing such attacks in the latest wave for last couple of months along the long border with Afghanistan, from Chitral in KPK to Mastung in Balochistan and Sindh is also emerging on the surface of insurgency if we see today’s incident in Skrand. Pakistan Army has killed dozens of terrorists during last few months but at the same time many soldiers and officers of the army had to sacrifice their lives in the attacks and counter operations. Now it has become almost every week’s phenomenon.
Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan where decades-long insurgency has caused problems for Islamabad and Rawalpindi continuously with no end to the terrorism and sabotage. Few months ago the authorities claimed that the arrest of Gulzar Imam Shamby is big achievement in efforts to control the attacks and separatism in this highly sensitive province but the facts tell the other story.
The claim from the authorities that DSP was the target is not trustworthy reason for this big scale terrorism in the region. Some circles are connecting Mastung with Anantnag Indian Occupied Kashmir where a DSP was killed in an attack few weeks ago. An Indian Major and Colonel were also gunned downed in the same attack. Here in Mastung no Major or Colonel have been hit.And we need to keep in mind that India Pakistan enmity is much larger than the level of DSPs of Police.
It was certainly for other larger motives in which CPEC and Chinese personnel have been the target since the inception of the so called game changer project.Only few hours ago, in Islamabad, Embassy of China with full fledged Ambassador Jian Zedong celebrated National Day at a five star hotel in which Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani was the chief guest who spoke highly about China Pakistan and shared that everything is going fine between the two countries and with the CPEC phase 2 as well.
Embassy of China worked without Ambassador during the tenure of Prime Minister Imran Khan and later Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Ambassador Jiang Zaidong presented his credentials to the President of Pakistan only a couple of weeks ago. He dispelled the impressions in some Pakistani circles about the delay in CPEC phase 2. In his address at the national day event , Ambassador pledged to continue with the phase 2 as per agreement. But only after few hours the terror attack jolted the province where CPEC has most of its interests.
Unfortunately , all top men in the present regime of Pakistan belong to Balochistan the same province that is badly affected by the separatists, terrorists and proxy of some countries of the region and around. But no good we can see either in Balochistan or in Pakistan. The Prime Minister Kaakkard belongs to Balochistan. He was picked up only to take care of Pakistan but he is measuring the globe from Pakistan to France, USA, UK, KSA for last couple of weeks when the country is worst hit by terrorists and financial challenges. What is his role at UNGA when he is not allowed to take long term or big decisions by constitution?
Interim Interior Minister of Pakistan Sarfraz Bugti hails from the same province with previous experience as Interior Minister in Balochistan. He is in Islamabad and he has issued a video statement from his office at the ministry with the same rhetoric like ” No one will be allowed to do this , No one can do that etc.” People of Pakistan are wary of such shallow slogans since long and do not want to listen the same words having no meaning.
Sadiq Sanjrani also comes from the same province that has been hit severely again in Mastung where the hospitals have no proper arrangements and medicine. Sadiq Sanjrani was just a political coordinator to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and later became Chairman of Senate of Pakistan all of a sudden with no political background and no parliamentary experience whatsoever even in the Balochistan Assembly let alone the National Assembly or Senate of Pakistan.
Last month many factories of Narcotics were raided by the authorities and workers were arrested but no details of the owners was shared. Interestingly the Minister of Anti Narcotics Shah Zain Bugti is also from Balochistan. Most interestingly most of the factories are in Gulistan the native area of Caretaker Prime Minister. Same is his constituency from where he could never win any election.
“The fall of Shambay—A blow to the militancy in Balochistan” by Masroor Ahmad
Here it is also worth mentioning that the security forces of Pakistan and other concerned authorities were already on alert for an anti smuggling drive directed by the leadership of armed forces of Pakistan. The big blast inspite of already present alertness raises more concerns than it creates in routine.
The biggest smuggling in Balochistan is not from Afghanistan but from Iran. It is mainly petrol whose prices are out of control of the present regime and the public is being crushed with hike in prices after every couple of weeks. The smugglers in Balochistan “Import” petrol as “Informal Trade” from Iran. The volume of this illegal trade is upto $3 Billion a year. It is not a big deal here.
The most interesting thing is what Caretaker PM shared with media. He said,” There are 22 thousand vehicles that have a permit from the concerned Deputy Commissioner. They bring petrol from Iran. They pay 200 thousand fee to the district administration. We know the “Importers” and their supporters in the bureaucracy of Balochistan and Center but we want to nab them only when we have the proof.” Now one wonders here and feel at a loss to understand what the CT PM wants to state?
Ambassador of USA Mr. Donald Blome visited Gwader last month. He met with the authorities there including the Chairman of the port. He addressed the local people as well who staged big demonstrations in previous months for their rights in the region as well as in the sea regarding fishing freely. Many circles in Pakistan observed his visit to Gwader as rare and unexpected factor in the background of China Pakistan relations and CPEC in Balochistan.
No one is bothered to see or check how US Ambassador can address the local residents? No one is worried about how badly his visit can affect Pakistan’s relations with China and Iran? What is the interest of USA when everything there has been constructed with Chinese cooperation and Iran is also very near there.
This is the state of our state and that is why we are not astonished if people of Pakistan are being killed from all sides with no end to this game of death.
WOMEN SUICIDERS GANG POINTED OUT IN BALOCHISTAN – ONE MEMBER ARRESTED
