history of balochistan

History Balochistan’ s unforgiving landscape and fiercely independent peoples have made
it perilous to invade and – until the discovery of natural gas – unrewarding to rule. Even today, the writ of the
government is light at best, and its
inhabitants regard themselves as among
the toughest and bravest people on earth.
These factors collide to make Balochistan
one of contemporary Pakistan ’ s prime political flashpoints. Evidence from Mehrgarh – the oldest known archaeological site on the
subcontinent – and elsewhere indicates that Balochistan was inhabited as early as
the Stone Age and was part of an ancient
line of communication between the Indus
Valley and Persia, and then Mesopotamia. Cyrus the Great conquered the
inhospitable coastal belt known as the
Makran in the 6th century BC. The Persians
subsequently went on to rule all of
Balochistan until Alexander the Great tore
through in 330 BC, although even that great figure ran into trouble here, beaten
by the desert rather than the locals. In subsequent times the region
encountered numerous power shifts that
included the Kushans, Arabs, Mongols,
Persians and Mughals. A unity of sorts
coalesced around the Khans of Kalat in
the 15th century, which prevailed until the British arrived in the mid-1800s. Following a disastrous war in Afghanistan in the 1840s, the British moved on Balochistan to protect their
back door to India, but didn’ t formally declare the region British territory until
1887. Following this, Balochistan was
established as an agency under the direct
responsibility of the governor general of India, and was ruled with the lightest of touches. Balochi feudal chiefs retained
considerable control over the
administration of tribal justice, collection
of revenue and levying of tribal armies,
while the British controlled courts of
appeal and arbitrated in intertribal disputes. At the time of Partition in 1947, military
coercion forced the tribal chiefs to give up
their powers. However, with little
investment in infrastructure both before
and since Independence, central control
over the province has remained weak, with intertribal fighting and instability a
persistent theme of recent times. The 1952 discovery of natural gas at Sui in
east Balochistan only compounded
matters. Balochis saw little dividend from
their natural wealth and political
alienation led to full-blown conflict in the
1970s that saw direct military rule imposed on the province. After two
decades of relative calm, increased gas
exploitation and political backsliding
from Islamabad fanned the flames of discontent until insurgency broke out
again in 2005. Widespread violence was
only temporarily halted by the army ’ s killing of the Baloch nationalist leader
Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti a year later, and
the calamity of the huge floods that
swept Balochistan in the summer of 2007.