South Asia Terrorism Portal

PAKISTAN

Balochistan: Kill and Dump
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
 

On October 1, 2020, a bench of the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed, while hearing a petition at its Quetta registry seeking recovery of missing persons in Balochistan, categorically rejected the inquiry report submitted by the Police. The SC bench ordered that the person who prepared the inquiry report must be removed from service and sent back home. "Is this a report? Person who prepared [this] must be fired from service," the CJP remarked.

The CJP observed, further,

The report was submitted to the bench by Senior Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch (Investigation), Muhammad Akbar Raisani. The Court remarked, “You are a PSP [Police Service of Pakistan] officer but you do not know how to investigate.”

The hearing of the case was adjourned for four weeks, with direction for the Balochistan Inspector General of Police Mohsin Abbas Butt to appear through video link in the next hearing to be held at the Supreme Court in Islamabad.

During the hearing, the Court also expressed concern over the plying of smuggled vehicles on roads, aerial firing and other illegal acts committed daily in Balochistan, and ordered the authorities concerned to take action in this regard.

On September 20, 2020, Mama Qadeer Baloch, the vice-chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) – a group which pursues and monitors cases of enforced disappearances – asserted that state-backed death squads had spilled the blood of the Baloch in several areas of Balochistan.

On October 3, two dead bodies were recovered in separate incidents from Panjgur District and Lasbela District of Balochistan. The body of a man identified as Muhammad Niaz was found in the Kahen-Zangi area of Panjgur. The dead body of a 56-year-old man, Sabir, was discovered close to a hill near the Sakran Attock Cement Factory in Hub city.

On September 10, the mutilated dead body of Hafizullah Mohammad Hassani, who had been missing for four years, was found at Pul-Choto in Dalbandain area of Chagai District in Balochistan. Hassani was a resident of Killi Qasim and a farmer by profession. He was forcibly disappeared on August 30, 2016. According to locals, the body was discovered due to the recent rains.

Five incidents were reported in August 2020:

August 28: The bullet riddled body of a man, identified as Ashraf Dadain (50), resident of Buleda, was discovered from the mountains of the Kulbar area in Kech District, Balochistan. According to the locals, the man was abducted by unidentified armed persons a few days earlier.

August 11: A missing person’s body was recovered from the Buleda area of Kech District in Balochistan. Rahim,son of Dad Baksh, was abducted along with two others about a week earlier, allegedly during a raid by the Security Forces in the Kuchag area of Buleda. The other abductees are still missing.

August 6: The body of a man was recovered from the Killi Gishkori area of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

August 6: The body of an unidentified man was recovered from the Labour Colony area of Hub town in Lasbela District.

August 6: The body of man, identified as Hussain-ul-Deen, was recovered from Sibi District.

According to Pakistan’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances data, as on August 31, 2020, atleast 509 cases cases of alleged Enforced Disappearances have been registered from Balochistan since March 13, 2011, when the Commission was formed.

However, the VBMP stated in 2018 that, between 2002 and September 2018, at least 6,428 persons have gone missing in the Balochistan Province.

Indeed, on June 17, 2020, the Balochistan National Party (BNP) quit the Imran Khan-led Federal Government saying it was upset over unfulfilled promises of the Government to address Baloch grievances, including the worsening issue of the missing people. As reported on July 20, 2020, when he led the BNP into an alliance with Khan’s coalition about two years ago, Akhtar Mengal gave a list of 5,128 missing people. Since then, Mengal claimed, another 1,800 were reported to have disappeared.

Shockingly, Pakistan is now practising the method of enforced disappearance on the Baloch Diaspora abroad as well. On March 2, 2020, a Baloch journalist and activist Sajid Hussain was ‘disappeared’ from Sweden. His body was later found in a river in Uppsala on May 1, 2020. Earlier, another Baloch social activist, Rashid Hussain, was arrested and ‘disappeared’ from Sharjah, by UAE secret agencies on December 26, 2018. Rashid had been living and working in UAE for several years. After six months Rashid Hussain was illegally deported and handed over to Pakistani authorities by UAE.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's ‘kill and dump’ policy in the Province continues. Mutilated dead bodies, in different stages of decomposition and beyond recognition, dotting the roads of Balochistan are a common occurrence. These are part of the nefarious 'kill and dump' policy of the Pakistani state.

According to a March 2019 report, mass graves were found in Balochistan for the first time in 2014 in the Turbat District. Since then, every year, the people of the region have discovered similar graves in different areas. In each case the discovery follows the same pattern – the Army and intelligence agencies cordon off the area, keeping people away. Nobody really knows how many bodies are buried there or who they were. The report further states that, according to the Federal Ministry of Human Rights, since the year 2011, nearly 1,000 dead bodies have been found, mostly in the areas of Quetta, Kalat, Khuzdar, and Makran. 

As reported on March 15, 2020, acknowledging the grievous situation, Nigel Adams, the British Minister of State Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development, noted,

Enforced disappearances and recoveries of dead bodies have become rampant in Balochistan. Though the Supreme Court's latest observations highlight the existing lawlessness, it is highly improbable that Rawalpindi will make any changes in its practice of using unbridled force against Baloch nationals.

INDIA

Assam: BTAD: Promising Peace
Oyindrila Chattopadhyay
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

The Assam Government has constituted a five-member Commission to look into the issue of the alteration of the boundary of the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) Districts. The Commission, headed by former Chief Secretary P.P Verma, will submit its recommendations within six months from the date of notification.

The September 28 notification issued by State Commissioner and Secretary (Home and Political department), read,

The Commission will examine issues concerning the inclusion and exclusion of villages on the basis of ethnic composition and contiguity to BTAD. The tribal majority areas will be included and majority non-tribal populations will be excluded from the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) when it is formed.  

On January 27, 2020, the Union Government and State Government signed a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS)  with representatives of the four factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and civil society groups – the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU) and United Bodo People's Organization (UBPO). According to the MoS, the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) with greater legislative, executive, and financial powers, will replace the existing BTAD.

Notably, the hastily signed February 20, 1993, 1^st Bodo Accord collapsed on account of the lack of well-defined boundaries.

Subsequently, the 2^nd Bodo Accord with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) was signed on February 10, 2003. BTAD, which extends over an area of 8,970 square kilometers in the four Districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri, came into existence on October 31, 2003. Subsequently, the Bodoland Territorial Council was formed on December 7, 2003.

The area administered by the BTC has a population of 3,155,359 and the major ethnic groups residing in BTAD are the Bodos, Assamese, Bengalis, Koch-Rajbongshis, Rabha, Garo, Adivasis (descendants of tribals from the Central Indian States of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Odhisa), Muslims and Nepalese.

Unfortunately, the creation of BTAD did eliminate the violence in the area. A total of 607 fatalities (277 civilians, 21 Security Force personnel and 303 militants) have been recorded in the BTAD region since its creation. Though the violence declined in recent times due to Security Forces’ action in India as well as in Myanmar – where Indian Insurgent Groups find safe haven – grievances remain alive.

However, in 250 days since the signing of the latest Bodo accord on January 27, no militant-linked fatalities have been reported from the region. In the preceding corresponding period, the region had recorded four fatalities (all terrorists) including two reported days before the signing:

January 15, 2020: Indian Army in an encounter killed a militant of the Saoraigwra faction of NDFB (NDFB-S), Jwel Narzary, in the Deka Damra area of Kokrajhar District.

January 5, 2020: Security Forces killed NDFB-S militant Sansula Basumatary alias B. Sotbangsa, near the Dwimalupara village in Chirang District.

1,615 cadres of four factions of the NDFB surrendered arms at a ceremony held in Guwahati in Kamrup (Metro) District. Those who surrendered included 836 from the Dhiren Bodo faction of NDFB (NDFB-DB) and the Gobinda Basumatary led-Pro-Talks faction (NDFB-PTF); 579 from the Ranjan Daimary faction of NDFB (NDFB-RD); and 200 from NDFB-S.

Crucially, these surrendered militants deposited just 178 weapons and 4,803 rounds of live ammunition. It was believed that illegal weapons were held back for the future, either for resurrecting rebellion or using them to influence forthcoming BTC elections.

Indeed, according to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 23 incidents relating to arms recovery were reported from the four BTAD Districts since the signing of the Bodo Peace Accord on January 27. According to reports, the Assam Police recovered 50 AK Rifles, three HK Rifles, two SLRs, four INSAS rifles, two LMG/MMGs, 30 pistols/revolvers, 4,039 rounds of ammunitions, 219 hand grenades, one rocket launcher, six mortar shells, one wireless set, 206 detonators and 22 kilograms of explosives from four BTAD Districts since January 27, 2020 (till October 4).

Moreover, after the signing of the peace accord, former NDFB-DB chairman Dhiren Bodo and NDFB-S ‘general secretary’ Ranjit Basumatary alias B.R. Ferenga joined the former All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) President Pramod Boro-led United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL). UPPL is contesting these elections against the incumbent Hagrama Mohilary-led Bodoland People’s Front (BPF).

BTC elections, due since April 4, 2020, were indefinitely deferred due to the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). After the end of its five-year term on April 27, 2020, BTC is currently being administered by the Governor.

Worryingly, the increased political competition combined with availability of illegal arms could create a space for violence by opposing groups in their bid to gain power.

Meanwhile, non-Bodo groups remain apprehensive about the January 27, 2020, MoS.

On February 16, 2020, non-Bodo villages under the aegis of O-Boro Suraksha Samitee, (Non-Bodo Protection Committee) organized a massive rally at Goreswar in Baksa District, demanding the security of land, political, economic, language and cultural rights of non-Bodo people in the future BTR. Asom Jatiyabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad president Biraj Kumar Talukdar stated,

The All Assam Koch-Rajbongshi Students' Union (AKRSU) has said it cannot accept the BTR. On September 27, 2020, Hiteshwar Barman, Chief advisor of AKRSU, alleged

Similarly, minor militant groups that claim to represent Koch-Rajbongshi interest, such as the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), are trying to occupy the void left by the surrender of Bodo militants. In 2020, Police arrested eight KLO militants in the Chirang and Kokrajhar Districts of BTAD. Although the KLO now stands severely depleted, there is a need for constant vigil as armed groups have taken advantage of ethnic antagonisms in BTAD. BTAD witnessed several instances of ethnic violence in the year 2008 , 2012 , and 2014 .

Peace in the BTAD region has been achieved at a great cost. It is necessary to ensure that the forthcoming elections are held in a peaceful environment. The signing of the peace accord does not mean the end of violence, as ethnic antagonisms survive and the accord has left many issues un-addressed. The complex issue of inclusion and exclusion of tribal and non-tribal villages, respectively, in the proposed BTR, will need careful and sensitive handling. Otherwise, the accord could potentially lead to the renewal of the demand for a separate State of Bodoland, even as ethnic and militant strife revives.