QUETTA: Pakistani authorities on Tuesday brought a top Baloch separatist commander accused of carrying out lethal attacks on security forces and government installations in the southwestern Balochistan province in front of the media, where he urged members of other armed groups to give up violence against the state.
The army’s media wing, ISPR, announced the arrest of Gulzar Imam, also known as Shambay, the founder of the banned Baloch National Army (BNA), after a “carefully planned and meticulously executed operation” in April this year.
The BNA is among several armed factions operating in Balochistan, which shares a porous border with Iran and Afghanistan, and has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baloch nationalists for around two decades. The separatists say they are fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s wealth by the federation. The Pakistani state denies it.
“The path I had selected to secure the rights of the Baloch nation was wrong because the insurgency in Balochistan damaged the Baloch nation and took it back to the Stone Age,” the BNA leader, who joined the armed insurgency about 15 years ago, told the media in Quetta city. “I am urging other separatist groups and fighters to come forward for talks with the state because the war is not a solution.”
He was accompanied by Balochistan’s home minister, Mir Zia Langau, and Senator Prince Agha Umar Ahmadzai.
“Today, Balochistan is facing a myriad of issues, and we are all responsible for this,” he continued. “Now we have to do something about the damage. I hope the state will give us a chance to correct our mistakes, and I apologize to all those who lost their loved ones because of me.”
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif congratulated the law enforcement institutions and intelligence agencies for capturing the wanted militant leader.
“Congratulations to Pakistan for nabbing one of the most high-profile militant leaders, the founder and head of BNA: Gulzar Imam Shambay,” he wrote in a Twitter post. “My appreciation to the security forces for their untiring efforts to restore peace. [Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence] deserves the nation’s highest commendation for carrying out, with great sophistication, the first of its kind and the most complex intelligence operations involving various geographical locations.”
Sharif expressed optimism that Balochistan would soon be more peaceful and prosperous.
Speaking to Arab News, Abdul Basit, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said there was a deadlock in the battlefield of Balochistan since it was difficult for Pakistan to impose a military solution, and the Baloch insurgents could not win against the army as well.
“Only a genuine political dialogue addressing the genuine grievances of the ordinary Baloch can provide a viable solution and bring an end to the insurgency in Balochistan,” he said.
