Soviet-backed Baluchi revolt takes toll

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33425, 5 January 1974, Page 14

Soviet-backed Baluchi revolt takes toll

(By

RALPH JOSEPH)

TEHERAN. Clashes between Government forces and Baluchi guerrillas belonging to the Marri and Mengal tribes in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan have taken a toll of over 80 lives during the last seven months, with troops. Government scouts and guerrillas among the dead. The latest of the big clashes occurred at the end of August in the Marri district of Gisni, near Sibi, where 50 guerrillas reportedly surrounded Government troops and wiped out 20 of them before pulling back. The rebellion is seen to be clandestinely backed by the Soviet Union and aimed at carving an independent Baluchi state out of Pakistan, along the lines of Bangladesh. Among the local powers seen to be assisting the guerrillas are Iraq and Afghanistan. Some 1000 to 1500 people from Baluchistan are reported to have crossed into Afghanistan after the arrest in August of left-wing Baluchi leaders, chiefly MirGhaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, Khair Bakhsh Marri and Sardar Ataullah

Mengal. The arrested leaders are members of the proMoscow National Awami Party. currently being, accused of seditious activities in the province. Bizenjo and Mengal were governor and chief minister of Baluchistan before their dismissal on February 15 by I (then) President Zulfigar Ali Bhutto, following the discov-l ery five days earlier of Soviet-made arms being; smuggled into the country through the Iraqi embassy in, Islamabad. Significantly, on Agust 17, t the day after the arrest of the N.A.P. leaders. Radio Kabul in a broadcast expressed Afghanistan’s concern about the arrests. The radio said that the Afghan deputy foreign minister had called the Pakistani ambassador. M. A. H. Ispaham. to his office, conveyed to him his country’s feelings of concern, and asked for an explanation of the arrests. Newspaper seized A day later the Baluchilanguage newspaper “Tapaki-e-Rah’’ w. . seized in Quetta. ’’Put into circulation by unknown persons,” as a Government handout put it, the paper is printed in Iraq and carries propaganda materia! of the Free Baluchistan Movement, based in Bagdad. Together with the Persianlanguage ‘‘Rah-e-lttehad.’’ it has been smuggled into Baluchistan as of October last year through the mail and by other means, when the Biz-enjo-Mengal Provincial Government was still in power. Bizenjo and Mengal had a majority of seats in the Baluchistan Provincial Assembly, in a coalition with the Jamaite Ulemae Islam party. After their dismissal, a former Baluchi rebel (Ayub era), Sardar Akbar Bugti, was made governor of the province. presumably tn reward

for his revelations of sedi-l tious activities and preparations for secession by the YAP It' however, took Bhutto six months to put together another provincial cabinet, headed Mir Ghulam Qadir Khan. The new chief minister announced the arrest ofBizenjo and Mengal in August. He also released at a press conference a 24-page t statement, running into about 8000 words, detailing the activities of the Baluchi guerrillas. The statement is; known to have been prepared, in Islamabad and flown toi Quetta. It said that Khair; Bakhsh Marri, one of the; arrested leaders, had been! “directing the hostiles” at Maiwand. a remote and (then) almost inaccessible valley in Marri country near Sibi. The “Central Armed Forces” had reached Maiwand on May 23, however. Khair Bakhsh Marri had been (allegedly directing the guerrillas “through an intermediary, Siri Chand, a Hindu,” and had established three camps — at Thadri, Gorankoh and Bombore I range—to train the guerrillas. Foreign experts The services of foreign experts, identified by other sources as East German, African and Russian, were said to have been enlisted, and “about 6000 to 7000 men have been trained until now.’’ Baluchi guerrillas have in fact been gradually stepping up their activities over the last seven months, and apparently began their revolt after the dismissal of the majority coalition government in midFebruary. The following are some of’the more salient incidents which have occurred in this period: Within a week of the ouster of Sardar Mengal’s Government an Army train bringing reinforcements into the province was derailed near Jacobabad, killing four On March 2, the Govempersons and injuring seven, ment announced the arrest of a Marri guerrilla chief, Sher Mohammad Marri, nicknamed “General Sheroff” and alleged to have been in command of 20,000 guerrillas. .Sher Mohammad Marri was the leader of the combined

.Baluchi guerrilla forces,! 'which fought a secret war; against Ayub Khan between' 1958 and 1968, but observers; believe he was no longer! active in fighting at the time, of his arrest and had been; replaced by younger and more fiery men. Smaller clashes There were then four or : five smaller clashes and an-' i other train derailment 71 1 miles from Quetta. After a ■ilull of six weeks, trouble! • suddenly erupted again in i mid-Apnl, when a Govern-: • ment jeep was attacked at ■ Jhaljao, about 137 miles from ■ Karachi, killing one person/ and two days later a patrol' of eight Government scouts; was wiped out by guerrillas: armed with automatic wea-i ’ pons at Tandoori, near Sibi. I Each scout was riddled with 15 to 20 bullets. ; The army then stepped up, : its operations in Baluchistan, and reports have it that its; presence in the province was 1 boosted from two divisions; ‘ in February to one corps as ’ of now. Sardar Mengal in a _ press statement in Karachi: f said that air and ground J operations had been launched in the Tandoori area, where ’ the eight scouts had been wiped out. A Federal governj ment spokesman in Rawal-! . pindi denied the strafing' t charges. ?’ Towards the end of April,' . the army began building a i road into the Marri area. 3 stretching from Maiwand to s Kohlu — a distance of 100 • miles. j Maiwand was the centre of

Baluchi guerrilla training ! camps, and sniping attacks on ■ the construction teams took/ place during the road-build-' ing. The road was neverthe-:] less completed within a ' month, and work then began on a second strategic road: _ from Maiwand to Kahan.i ] linking it to Sibi. There were scattered; ' clashes betwen May and mid-! ; June, when guerrilla activities; : were intensified in the; ; Jhalawan area, near Kalat.: ’ Five more scouts were killed; ’ in another two clashes. Once; [more automatic weapons; J were used against them. , After another attempt at. .derailing a train, and some! j, reported surrenders of hostile [ tribesmen, on July 9 seven! 1 tribesmen belonging to the 2 pro-Govemment Jamote tribe! r were killed in Kunrej village; near Lasbela, when guerrillas: . burst into the hotel where; lithey were bedded for the] r! night and wiped them out. ; ij On July 28, a goods train j ■ ’ was derailed near Quetta, and: -'a day later eight troops were a killed in two separate inij cidents in Kalat district and t,! the Marri area near Kahan, e where the second stratgeic i-|road was being -built to; : Maiwand. August saw a stepping up] J of clashes with troops, scouts; 'or guerrillas being killed in ( twos and threes. g The big clash pear Gisni,; I where 20 troops were wiped; n out, was the largest reported! ” toll in any single encounter] p so far, but at least 14 more e deaths were reported in four - or five different clashes ber tween the end of Autist and L th first week of September.

Part of the Kremlin’s grand design in South Asia, in a period of supposed detente with the West, is to nurture the emergence of a client state in what is now the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, presumably to give the Soviet Union a foothold in a strategic area at the mouth of the oil-rich Persian Gulf. What looks like a guerrilla war was started in Baluchistan seven months dgo, with Bai gladesh-style secession from Pakistan as one of its aims.