Baloch rights movements ‘proxy’ for militant groups, criminal mafia — Pakistan army

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The combination of photos shows Pakistan Military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry (right) speaking during a press conference in Islamabad, on August 5, 2024, and people from the Baloch community taking part in a demonstration in Gwadar of Pakistan's Balochistan province on July 28, 2024. (Photo courtesy: PTV News/ AFP/ File)
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Pakistani army personnel stand guard along a road in Quetta on February 7, 2024. (AFP/File)
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Updated 05 August 2024
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Baloch rights movements ‘proxy’ for militant groups, criminal mafia — Pakistan army

  • Military spokesman says no “softening” of stance toward May 9 rioters 
  • 139 soldiers killed in anti-terror operations in 2024 amid militancy surge 

ISLAMABAD: Military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said on Monday there was no “softening” of the army’s stance on riots last year led by alleged supporters of ex-premier Imran Khan, calling a Baloch ethnic rights movement holding protests a “proxy” for militant groups.

Pakistan’s army said last month protesters taking part in a march in the southwestern city of Gwadar had attacked security forces deployed to guard them, killing one soldier and injuring 16 others.

A nationalist ethnic Baloch movement led by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) had been demonstrating in the port city, blocking a highway to press their demands for the release of members of their movement they say were detained by security forces.

Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, where the port city of Gwadar is located, borders Iran and Afghanistan and has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by separatist groups who say they have been fighting for a greater share in the region’s rich mineral resources. The province, Pakistan’s largest by area but its most impoverished, is also central to Beijing’s economic interests in the region, which is funding the Gwadar port and other projects.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, the military spokesperson said the purpose of the BYC and the Baloch Raaji Muchi (Baloch National Grand Jirga) it had convened in Gwadar was to make development projects and investments “controversial” and incite people against the Pakistan army and other security forces involved in operations against militancy and crime. 

“This Raaji Muchi, this is a proxy of terrorists and criminal mafia that has been exposed,” Chaudhry told reporters. “This is what the reality is. They are nothing more than proxy of terrorist organizations and illegal smugglers, this is a mafia.”

The BYC has held other protests in the past, including a long march to the capital to against enforced disappearances. Political leaders, human rights activists and families of victims have for decades spoken against enforced disappearances in Balochistan as well as killings by security agencies in staged encounters, a practice where officials claim the victim was killed in a gunfight though they were summarily executed. Authorities deny involvement in such incidents.

MAY 9 RIOTS

Answering a question about whether there was a softening of the army’s stance against May 9 rioters, Chaudhry said the army’s stance was “clear.”

“There is no change in it and neither will there be a change,” he said. 

Alleged supporters of ex-PM Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party attacked and damaged government and military installations on May 9, 2023, after his brief arrest that day in a graft case. The attacks took place a little over a year after Khan fell out with Pakistan’s powerful military, blaming the institution for colluding with his rivals to oust him from office in a parliamentary vote in April 2022. The military rejects the allegations.

Hundreds of PTI workers and leaders were arrested following the May 9 riots in a state crackdown and many remain behind bars as they await trial. The military has also initiated army court trials of at least 103 people accused of involvement in the violence. Many close Khan aides have since deserted him, due to what is widely believed to be pressure from the army, which denies interfering in politics.

Khan has been in jail since August last year, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of a parliamentary election in February have either been suspended or overturned. He has recently made a “conditional” offer of talks to the army, if “clean and transparent” elections were held and the “bogus” cases against his supporters were dropped.

The military — which has repeatedly said Khan and his party were behind the May 9 attacks on military installations — has ruled out any talks with him.

ANTI-TERROR OPERATIONS

Speaking about anti-terror operations across Pakistan, Chaudhry said at least 139 Pakistani soldiers had been killed in the campaigns during the first seven months of 2024.

Pakistan has faced a decades-long insurgency by separatists in the southwestern Balochistan province, while religiously motivated groups, including the Pakistani Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have waged a fight in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province that borders Afghanistan and launched attacks in other parts of the country also. 

In recent months, both KP and Balochistan have seen a massive spike in terror attacks, with daily assaults on army, paramilitary and police forces, and targeted assassinations of security and government officials.

“139 Pakistan Army officers and soldiers embraced martyrdom in counter-terror operations,” Chaudhry told reporters, providing figures for 2024. “The entire nation pays tribute to these brave sons and their families.”

Security forces and law enforcement agencies had conducted 23,622 small and large-scale intelligence-based operations across the country this year, with 2,045 operations carried out over the last 15 days in which 24 militants had been killed, Chaudhry added. 

He said Pakistan’s army, police, intelligence and law enforcement agencies were conducting over 100 operations against militants daily. 

“Pakistan’s armed forces, law enforcement and intelligence agencies are fully focused on guaranteeing Pakistan’s external and border security,” the military spokesman said. “Our war against terrorism will continue till the last terrorist and the terrorism associated with him is not eliminated.”

Islamabad has blamed the rise in militant attacks in recent months on insurgents based in neighboring Afghanistan and says it has consistently taken up the issue with Kabul’s Taliban administration, raising tensions between the neighbors whose security forces have clashed at the border in recent months. 

The Taliban government denies allowing the use of Afghan territory by militants.


Pakistan and Indonesia conclude week-long, joint military exercise to counter militancy

Updated 16 September 2024
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Pakistan and Indonesia conclude week-long, joint military exercise to counter militancy

  • Pakistan routinely holds joint air, ground and sea exercises with friendly nations
  • These military exercises help foster interoperability and joint deployment concepts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Indonesia have concluded a week-long, joint military exercise, Elang Strike-II, to counter militancy, the Pakistani military said on Monday.
This was the second exercise between the two countries in the counter-terrorism domain, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
It began on September 8 and continued for a week at the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) in Pabbi town of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
“The exercise was aimed at mutually beneficial sharing of experience and training methodology between the two armies which have strong brotherly relations,” the ISPR said in a statement.
Senior officials of Pakistan Army and Col. Budi Wirman, defense attaché of Indonesia, attended the closing ceremony.
Pakistan routinely holds joint air, ground and sea exercises with friendly nations. These drills help foster interoperability and joint deployment concepts to counter threats to regional and global peace.
The South Asian country, which has fought back militancy for decades, also hosts cadets from these brotherly nations each year to undergo specialized military training.


Pakistani man to appear in US court on assassination plot charges

Updated 16 September 2024
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Pakistani man to appear in US court on assassination plot charges

  • Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Asif Merchant, 46, spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot
  • Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the US, prosecutors said

NEW YORK: A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran is set to appear in US court on Monday on charges of scheming to assassinate an American politician in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander Qassem Soleimani.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Asif Merchant, 46, spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot.
Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organize protests in the United States, prosecutors said.
The defendant named Donald Trump as a potential target but had not conceived the scheme as a plan to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Court papers do not name the alleged targets, and no attacks were made. As president, Trump had in 2020 approved the drone strike on Soleimani.
There are no suggestions that Merchant was tied to an apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, or a separate shooting of the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.
Merchant faces one count of attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries and one count of murder for hire.
He is expected to enter a plea before US Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in Brooklyn at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT). Merchant was arrested in Texas on July 15.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August that the “modus operandi” described in Merchant’s court papers ran contrary to Tehran’s policy of “legally prosecuting the murder of General Soleimani.”


Pakistan says global commodities trader Gunvor Group ‘keen’ to invest in petroleum sector

Updated 16 September 2024
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Pakistan says global commodities trader Gunvor Group ‘keen’ to invest in petroleum sector

  • Last month, Gunvor Group signed an agreement to acquire 50 percent shares of Pakistan’s Total Parco oil marketing company
  • PM Shehbaz Sharif informs Gunvor Group chairman of reforms undertaken to increase foreign investment in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Global commodities trader Gunvor Group has expressed its “keen” interest in investing in Pakistan’s petroleum sector, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said on Monday.
The statement came after Sharif’s meeting with Gunvor Group Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist and Total Energies Vice President Oceania & Southeast Asia Mehmet Celepoglu
During the meeting, the prime minister highlighted the rapid reforms that were underway to increase investment and business activities in Pakistan, according to PM Sharif’s office.
“Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist expressed the Gunvor Group’s keen interest in investment in the petroleum sector of Pakistan,” it said in a statement.
The prime minister was informed that the Gunvor Group had signed an agreement in August to acquire 50 percent shares of Total Parco Pakistan Limited, a subsidiary of French oil giant Total Energies.
A joint venture between Total Energies and Pak-Arab Refinery Limited in Pakistan, Total PARCO Pakistan Limited has a retail network of more than 800 service stations and is involved in fuel logistics and lubricants.
“The prime minister directed the relevant authorities to provide all possible facilities to the Gunvor Group,” Sharif’s office said.
Since avoiding a default last year, Islamabad has been making attempts to boost foreign investment and trade to drive economic growth in the South Asian country.
In recent months, Pakistan has reached multiple investment deals with a number of countries, mainly the Gulf states, in infrastructure, energy, maritime, ports and other sectors.


Pakistan reports sixth case of mpox virus in Islamabad

Updated 58 min 8 sec ago
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Pakistan reports sixth case of mpox virus in Islamabad

  • Patient admitted to the isolation ward of Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences
  • Mpox is mild but people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complication

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health authorities on Monday confirmed a sixth case of mpox virus in the federal capital of Islamabad, saying the patient was admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital.

The Border Health Staff (BHS) detected mpox symptoms in a 44-year-old man during screening at the Islamabad International Airport, according to the federal health minister.

Since confirming its first mpox case last month, Pakistan has implemented stringent screening protocols at all airports and border crossings for the screening of travelers.

“The sixth case of mpox has been reported in Pakistan,” a health ministry spokesperson said in a statement. “The travel history of the 44-year-old man is from Gulf countries.”

Patients who contract mpox get flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Mpox is usually mild but can kill. Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complications from the infection.

On Sept. 8, health authorities declared Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province mpox-free after all four patients previously infected with the virus recovered.

Dr. Mukhtar Bharath, the prime minister’s coordinator for health, said the health ministry was working closely with provincial authorities to monitor new cases and around 630,000 passengers had so far been screened at airports.

“Effective measures are being taken to protect people from mpox,” Dr. Bharath said.

The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency over the spread of a new mutated strain of mpox named clade I, which first emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has since spread to several countries, leading to increased monitoring and preventive measures worldwide.


Sindh minister orders security for polio worker who says she was raped on duty

Updated 16 September 2024
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Sindh minister orders security for polio worker who says she was raped on duty

  • The polio worker testified before a local court on Friday that she was raped while she was on duty
  • But the woman later retracted her statement amid threats by her husband for being an ‘adulteress’

KARACHI: Provincial Health Minister Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho on Monday took notice of alleged rape of a polio worker in the Jacobabad district of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province and instructed police to provide her round-the-clock security.
The incident occurred in Allah Baksh Jakhrani village of Jacobabad. The polio worker testified before a local court on Friday that she was raped while on duty, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported. A day later, the polio worker retracted her statement and said she was robbed, reportedly amid threats by her husband for being a ‘Kari,’ an adulteress, who deserves death. 
The Sindh health minister has instructed police to provide security around the polio worker’s current residence and requested Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to provide the woman with monetary compensation to help her take care of her children.
“Our female polio workers are the backbone of the polio program and protecting them has always been the utmost priority of the program,” Dr. Pechuho said. “I am taking every necessary action to ensure that she gets the justice she deserves.”
On Sept. 9, Pakistan launched a week-long, nationwide polio campaign amid a spike in militant attacks. The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly strikes children under the age of five and typically spreads through contaminated water.
Two days later, a roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying officers assigned to protect health workers conducting polio immunization in the northwestern South Waziristan district, in the same province, wounding six officers and three civilians. The militant Daesh group later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Since January, Pakistan has reported 17 new cases of polio, jeopardizing decades of efforts to eliminate polio in the country. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which the spread of polio has never been stopped.