Pakistan Government Covertly Supporting Taliban To Suppress Balochs / Pakistan Uses Taliban As A Proxy Against Balochs

Pakistan Government Covertly Supporting Taliban To Suppress Balochs / Pakistan Uses Taliban As A Proxy Against Balochs

(NSI News Source Info) Peshawar - January 6, 2009: The Pakistan government is providing covert support to the Taliban to capture land in eastern and western Quetta in order to undermine the Baloch nationalist movement and promote Talibanisation in Balochistan. Balochistan National Party (BNP) information secretary and former Senator, Sanaullah Baloch, said that the government is fully aware of these encroachments, but it was deliberately silent because the Taliban enjoy the support of the government and its intelligence agencies who wish to pit the religious elements against the Baloch nationalists.

The Daily Times quoted Baloch as saying that the government had failed to establish its writ in Quetta, where the Taliban and their supporters were consolidating their grip.

Several parts of the provincial capital have become ‘no-go areas’ where the Taliban and their supporters have consolidated their position, he added. “We are surprised why the government does not undertake a military operation against these elements who have openly challenged the writ of the government,” Baloch said.

“Military operations were carried out in Dera Bugti and Sui areas by the government on the pretext of establishing the writ of the government, but the state machinery does not move against the Taliban and their supporters who have illegally and forcefully captured large areas of land in Balochistan,” he said.

Baloch said that the government was trying to patronise the Taliban elements in Quetta and its outskirts in order to undermine the power of the actual democratic forces.

The Afghan refugees, besides being a burden on the economy of Balochistan, have become the biggest cause of lawlessness and terrorism in the country’s largest province, Baloch said. Billions of rupees were being spent on eliminating the Taliban and their supporters in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the NWFP, he said, asking why the government was ignoring the ‘alarmingly dangerous moves’ of the Taliban and giving them protection in Quetta. The BNP leader criticised the government for initiating fresh operations in Dera Bugti and Naseerabad areas, adding that such unprovoked operations were likely to escalate tensions in Balochistan.