Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Wednesday appeared before the Islamabad High Court in compliance with the court orders in the case of Baloch missing persons. During the court proceedings, PM Kakar claimed that the government was working in line with the constitution and the law. The Prime Minister Kakar told the court that being a Baloch, he has more knowledge about the situation where people face armed resistance in the province. According to him, Balochistan had been facing terrorism problem for decades and the activities of non-state elements were reported in Balochistan. Kakar stressed that the issue is dire and needs to be addressed on an urgent basis.
Balochistan grapples with a multifaceted conflict fueled by foreign powers that has been made worse by the religious and sectarian violence in the past decades. The Baloch ethnic insurgents had been fighting against the government to achieve greater autonomy or even secession from the country. Historically, Balochistan has been the soft target for anti-Pakistan forces because of its peculiar geographical location and demography, political issues and smear separatist insurgency that had been at a low brawl throughout the past five decades but it got an uptick after the killing of former Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti during a security operation in 2006. The construction of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) further complicated the issue and brought the province in the centre stage of the ongoing rivalry between major powers. Meanwhile, Pakistan staunch enemy, India and Afghan Intelligence used Baloch rebels as proxy against the state of Pakistan.
The issue of Baloch missing persons and enforced disappearances is a serious and longstading problem that is often linked with the state’s counterinsurgency operation. The state institutions termed it a perceived strategy of Baloch insurgent groups which they use as a tactic to defame state institutions during their illegal self-exile in neighbouring countries including Iran, Afghanistan and even India, which has appeared as the biggest sponsor and financer of Baloch insurgency in recent years. In fact, the government and the LEAs must record and make public the arrest of Baloch miscreants after necessary investigation, so the state’s enemies fail in their attempts to discredit and defame Pakistan.
