Balochistan, with its long coastline on the Arabian Sea and deep reserves of minerals and natural gas, is in the throes of unrest after the death of a power feudal chieftain in an army operation. After the killing of Sardar Akbar Bugti in an operation by the Pakistan Army, the media is rife with all kinds of parallels — to 1971, 1973 and 1979.

What does that mean?

The 1971 reference is to the momentum set in the months preceding the formation of Bangladesh. In 1979, then prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged during military rule under General Zia-ul Haq. That killing touched off a new stridency in Sindhi nationalism and commentators in Pakistan fear that by rendering Bugti a martyr, the army has galvanised Baloch nationalism. This development could enable the rebels to overcome the divisions and tensions among the three most powerful Baloch tribes — the Bugtis, Marris, and Mengals.

And 1973?

It refers to the third armed conflict in Balochistan, the first two being in 1948 and 1958. In 1973, Bhutto, then prime minister, dismissed the Baloch provincial government, a coalition of the local People’s Party, originally launched by the Khan of Kalat, with the Jamiat Ulema Islam. The pretext was the discovery of arms at the Iraqi embassy in Islamabad. These, claimed the government, were meant for a Baloch rebellion.

The dismissal of Ataullah Mengal’s government immediately sparked a full-fledged armed insurrection that drew in its fold various strands — from Soviet influenced Sardars to feudal chiefs anxious about losing a traditional way of life and governance to urban intellectuals, dreaming of a Marxist revolution. It brought in the Pakistani army, and over the next four years, 5,300 rebels, 3,300 army personnel and an unspecified number of civilians died. Violence ended after Zia arrived at a political truce with the Baloch leaders.

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