The India-Pakistan ties are set for fresh brinkmanship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirming his stand on Balochistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) during his 90-minute Independence Day speech.
This is the first time in recent memory any Indian PM has spoken from the Red Fort about Balochistan and PoK in the same breath. The talk of India’s help for Balochistan, however, is not new.
In 2009, Balochistan had figured for the first time in a joint statement that India and Pakistan issued after the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani met on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
It had recorded that when Singh reiterated the need to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice, “Prime Minister Gilani mentioned that Pakistan has some information on threats in Balochistan and other areas.”
That statement sparked a huge political row in India as Gilani’s allegations regarding India’s role in Balochistan were seen to be legitimised by the document.The first thing Gilani did on his return to Islamabad from Sharm el-Sheikh was to accuse India of interference in Balochistan.
Since then, Pakistan has repeatedly accused India of supporting insurgents in Balochistan, where it has been facing a long separatist struggle, much to the chagrin of India.
Balochistan has had a similar history to Kashmir where the Maharajah had dithered in signing the Instrument of Accession with India till Pakistan invaded the Valley. In 1947, the Khan of Kalat, the ruler of Balochistan, had dragged his feet on signing the legally necessary Document of Accession. Pakistani troops moved into the region in March 1948 and took control, using brutal force several times since then.
When Modi came to power, some Pakistani military officials had warned that India might use the “ethnic-nationalist insurgency” in Balochistan in a tit-for-tat campaign against Pakistan’s proxy war in Kashmir.
So far, Pakistan’s first response to Modi’s latest speech has come in the form of a fresh invite to India for talks on the Kashmir issue, which New Delhi has already rejected outright two days ago.
New Delhi had made it clear on Saturday itself that a dialogue can be had only on “contemporary and relevant issues in India-Pakistan relations”, which is mainly cross-border terrorism and the support for anti-India groups by the establishment in that country.
Diplomats are tight-lipped about the immediate fallout of the PM’s new stand and on whether it will lead to a more direct confrontation. Many officials believe that it is essentially to send a strong response to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s statement of July 22 that “we are waiting for the day (when) Kashmir becomes (a part of) Pakistan.”
A week prior to that, Sharif had declared Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani, who was gunned down by Indian security forces on July 8, a “martyr of the independence movement.”
Chairing a special meeting of his Cabinet in Lahore to discuss the situation in the Kashmir Valley, he had said Pakistan will observe July 19 as Black Day to express their solidarity with the people of Kashmir.
On August 14, at a function in the Pakistani embassy, Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit said his country was dedicating its Independence Day to Kashmir’s “freedom”.
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