Balochistan, a picture with beautiful sceneries like Hanna Lake and huge mountains come to mind when the name pops up. The province is a composition of a variety of minerals and sceneries. The irony is that, due to certain issues this province faces various outrageous dilemmas, for instance, terrorism, insurgency, underdevelopment etc. It is the only province which has faced a five-time major era of the insurgency. It is a matter of fact that due to separatism, Balochistan became a multilayered Pandora Box having different kinds of chaotic issues. It is natures rule that there is dawn after dusk, morning after night. Same goes with Balochistan’s fate, the millennium project OBOR (One Belt One Road), now being called as (BR) Belt and Road is developing on a fast pace by China. Balochistan has a strategic importance as it is situated at the crossroads connecting Pakistan with Central Asia and the Middle East. Tapping this strategic view point, China started working on CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor). Balochistan being the lynchpin of this project.
This project eventually uplifts the province fate in every aspect. From insurgency to peace, the rise in the rate of literacy, health progress is getting even better, remote areas are connecting towards the mainstream of Balochistan. The irony is that these developments become the main source of pain for the enemies of Pakistan and China as well. Non-state elements want instability in the region. In order to accomplish their desired objectives, their easy target is Balochistan due to its troubled history and geography. Various groups want a separate Balochistan, greater Balochistan or even a Balochistan being connected to Iran. Different groups have different variations in them having different ideologies.
From a bird’s eye view, Balochistan is in a transitional phase. Even today, abduction, killing, bombing are the pondering points which is why the security situation of Balochistan is a chokepoint. Analyzing the fact, last year there were a number of Ferraris who actually surrendered, which ultimately put the blame on terrorists rather than insurgents. Terrorism is being sponsored by our neighboring states. It has been proved from various sources that Afghanistan and India are not happy with the ongoing development in Balochistan. The Quetta carnage, Kulbushan Yadav case, abduction of Chinese teachers are the strings from the same abacus.
Recently in the ongoing operation conducted by Pakistan Army Radd-ul-Fassad, the Frontier Corps Balochistan has seized a large chunk of arms and ammunition from the Afghan Nationals. 14 Afghan nationals were busted in an Intelligence Based Operation, having a large cache of LMGs, rifles, hand grenades, RPGs and other ammunition. All these terrorists were hiding in different outskirts of Balochistan such as Pirkoh, Murgha Faqir Zai, Surki, Dera Bugti.
As discussed above, Balochistan is in the transition phase. DG ISPR said that “The situation in Pakistan has changed as post-Zarb-e-Azb, Radd-ul-Fasaad is also going on so we don’t have any terrorist-organised sanctuaries anymore,”. The statement shows that security challenges are still there but they are under the threshold and can be contained more effectively which will lead Balochistan and Pakistan on paths of glory and development.
