【Editor's Note】This article is authorized by the founder of the Great Diplomatic Think Tank to authorize the "Qin'an Strategy" headline platform to be published exclusively and originally, and reprinted from the public account "Kuzhi Jiaotong University". The author is Zhu Fangdi, a trainee commentator of the Great Diplomatic Think Tank "Zhiben Qingyan".
At 2 p.m. local time on April 26, a terrorist attack occurred near the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, killing three Chinese Confucius Institute teachers. Pakistani terrorist group Balochistan Liberation Army (BAHR) Majid Brigades declared responsibility for the incident. After the incident, the Chinese embassy and consulate in Pakistan launched an emergency plan at the first time, expressed deep condolences to the victims of the two countries, and asked the Pakistani side to make every effort to treat the wounded and severely punish the murderers. Pakistani Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif strongly condemned the terrorist attack, calling it a "cowardly attack" and saying it would be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.
Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif writes a message at the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan on April 26, saying that he wants to punish the culprit (Source @ Global Times)
Pakistan has been challenged by separatism since the last century. Among them, the Balochistan separatist forces and terrorism are the most rampant, posing a great threat to Pakistan's sovereignty and security, territorial integrity and the personal safety of the Chinese in Pakistan. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BAHR), the organization that planned the attack, and the potential separatism represented by Balochistan Province, have become factors that cannot be ignored in the process of China-Pakistan cooperation.
I. The Balochistan Liberation Army: A Microcosm of Regional Problems
Balochistan Province, also known as Balochistan Province, is the largest province in southwestern Pakistan and an important mineral resource. Balochistan is strategically located at the junction of the three countries, bordering Afghanistan to the north, the Arabian Sea to the south, and Iran to the west. The province has a large number of ethnic groups, in addition to the Baluch, there are Pashtuns, Sindhi, etc., the regional languages are Urdu and Baluch, most of the people believe in Sunni Islam, and the economic resources are mainly animal husbandry and agriculture.
Influenced by history and geography, nationalist sentiment in Balochistan is very strong. Because of its important geographical location, Balochistan is facing shocks from other ethnic civilizations such as India and Iran, so the region places great emphasis on national superiority and cultural independence. At the time of the British colonial invasion of Pakistan in the last century, the Balochian elite created the Balochistan Solidarity Organization to lead the local people against foreign invasions. After the Mountbatten Plan established the principle of the partition of India and Pakistan, the Balochistan state of Karat was hostile to the newly established central government of Pakistan and instigated the first round of ethnic rebellion, and the nationalism in the region gradually developed towards separatism. Although the Karat rebellion was suppressed by force by the Pakistani government a year later, the Balochistan separatist forces were not completely quelled, and in the decades since, the Baloch ethnic rebellion has continued.
The failure of the armed insurgency, combined with specific historical factors, has spawned the rise of Balochistan terrorism. As a result of the failure of numerous armed insurgency, the Balochistan separatist forces, deeply aware of the disparity with the military strength of the government, have come to realize the importance of guerrilla harassment and terrorist thinking to take root in the region. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Pakistan provided support and assistance to Afghanistan. In order to contain Pakistan's support, the Soviet Union secretly divided Pakistan internally, including the "Balochistan Liberation Army".
Armed members of the terrorist organization "Balochistan Liberation Army" (Source @ Baidu)
The early development of the PLO was inseparable from the support of the Soviet Union, which embarked on the path of terrorism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union dealt a great blow to the foundations of the liberation, and the organization fell silent for a time. However, after the 9/11 incident, the PYONG found a new breakthrough point, and in conjunction with the internal turmoil in Pakistan to carry out terrorist activities, completely stood in opposition to the people and justice.
Terrorism is a major problem in the governance of modern Pakistani states. In addition to the PIRA, there are also many terrorist organizations in Pakistan, such as the Baluchistan Republican Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front. On November 23, 2018, the P&S attacked the Chinese consulate in Pakistan. On May 11, 2019, The Intercontinental Hotel of pearls attacked the city of Gwadar. On August 20, 2021, a convoy carrying Chinese was attacked by suicide in Pakistan. These events are engraved in the hearts of every Chinese people, and the terrorist attacks have been tragic and numerous, and have become the cancer of the times.
On August 20, 2021, a Chinese convoy was attacked by a damaged car at the scene (Source @ Xinhuanet)
Second, the dilemma of division and terror
The difficulty of separatism and terrorism in Pakistan is multifaceted. Factors such as the regional imbalance of domestic historical baggage and political and economic development, the support of interventionism by major powers outside the country, and extreme religious trends such as pan-Islamism, coupled with the catalysis of other factors, have jointly created an unstable situation in Pakistan.
(1) Endogenous splitting
Affected by the partition of India and Pakistan, the Baloch have become a "cross-border ethnic group" that is distributed in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and other countries. The history of great power colonization and the "national" division of the Baluch have, to a certain extent, created the separatist ideology of the Baloch people in Pakistan. From the many attempts to establish an independent state in the last century to the frequent terrorist activities of this century, all of them revolve around separatism, but in different ways. Terrorism is a new tactic used by separatist forces to force the Government to comply after repeated failures in armed rebellions. Ethnic contradictions will not ease up every day, and separatist tendencies will be difficult to eliminate every day.
The uneven development of the domestic region in Pakistan has also indirectly contributed to the instability of Balochistan. In "Batie Brothers? Do the Chinese really understand Pakistan? In the article, the author talks about the problem of regional political parties from the "family nature" of Pakistan's party politics, and the lack of representation of political parties, especially ruling parties, often leads to the failure of national governance. Pakistan's two major ruling parties, the Muslim League and the People's Party, which mainly represent the interests of Punjab and Sindh, have not fully taken into account the country's public welfare and public office selection. Balochistan is rich in resources, but the proceeds of resource development are not well used in local construction. Uneven regional development has led to dissatisfaction with the government by regional political parties or tribal forces. According to statistics from scholars, many indicators such as the health and literacy rate of the people in Balochistan rank at the bottom of the country, which has caused public dissatisfaction.
Pictured here are two primary school students in Quetta City, the capital of Balochistan Province, where the level of social development is very low and education is particularly backward (Source @ Sina News)
(2) Interference by external forces
External forces mainly refer to great power interventionism, including the negative spillover of interference in neighboring countries, as well as the direct interference of major powers in Pakistan. Through the above combing, we can find that imperialism and great power intervention have played a very negative role in Pakistan's development history. In the twenty-first century, the transformation of the great powers of interference has become more and more rampant.
On the one hand, the intervention of the United States and other Western countries in the Middle East and Central Asia has caused a large number of war refugees to be left homeless, and the influx of refugees into Pakistan has aggravated domestic turmoil. The Government's social protection for refugees was unsustainable, and terrorist forces used refugees for activities such as drug smuggling, which developed refugees into factors of regional instability. On the other hand, the direct intervention of major powers such as the United States and India also poses a challenge to regional stability. The United States has used human rights and counterterrorism gimmicks to intervene in regional affairs, while expanding its pro-AMERICAN power in Pakistan with the help of allies. India has yet to list Pak-Bai as a terrorist organization, distracting it from its efforts in Kashmir through support for separatist forces within Pakistan and adding to Pakistan's cooperation with other countries. The former Afghan government, dissatisfied with Pakistan's relations with the Afghan Taliban, was once very hostile to Pakistan and secretly supported terrorist activities in Pakistan. Baloch once became a battlefield for the secret game of great powers.
(3) Religious extremism
Karl Polanyi once said: "A social catastrophe is first and foremost a cultural phenomenon". In "Double Panism: Social Thought Behind the Decline of the Stabilization Dividend in Central Asia," the author analyzes why pan-Islamism and pan-Turkism influence social politics. Extremist religious forces in Pakistan have fanned the spread of terrorism.
Balochistan had its own tribal culture earlier and was not a concentration of Islamic culture. In 1977, Zia Haq came to power and introduced Islam into the region on a large scale in an attempt to counteract Balochistan's identification with tribal chiefs and replace different ethnic identities with a unified Muslim identity. However, the spread of Islam has provided a breeding ground for Balochistan terrorism, and those with ulterior motives have taken the opportunity to promote fundamentalism and train religious extremist youth with religious institutions as the vehicle. The extremist group Islamic State infiltrated Balochistan, co-opting different rebels and carrying out terrorist activities against foreigners.
International Seminar on Middle Way Thought in Islam Against Extremist Religious Forces (Source@China News Network)
III. Conclusion
Separatism and terrorism in Pakistan run counter to justice. Terrorism threatens the security of all mankind, seriously undermines the national harmony of all countries, greatly hinders the economic development and social progress of all countries and undermines the process of peace and development in the world. Economic backwardness and social injustice cannot be used as a pretext for extremism, and trampling on people's life freedom and the dignity of the law is not allowed at any time.
Terrorism is an organized, systematic and purposeful political extremism and madness, and its existence is inseparable from ethnic and religious contradictions and the complex international situation, which dooms the fight against terrorism to be complex and arduous. While ensuring the safety of the lives and property of Chinese citizens in Pakistan, China should strengthen intergovernmental consultation and dialogue and international counter-terrorism cooperation, and use the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to promote the settlement of Pakistan's domestic problems. While combating terrorism with military force, Pakistan should also pay attention to the balance of development between regions and the reform of culture and education. As Mr. Mao Siwei, a former veteran diplomat on the mainland, said, "There is still a long way to go to eradicate religious extremism, and we look forward to Pakistan's rebirth." ”