Humanitarian situation in parts of Balochistan deteriorating

With violence in parts of Pakistan’s southern province of Balochistan showing no signs of abating, provincial opposition leaders have appealed to humanitarian organisations to help those displaced by the conflict. “Since the violence has escalated, thousands of poor people have migrated from the scene of clashes between [Baloch] tribesmen and security forces in the district of Dera Bugti to neighbouring areas of Jafarabad and Naseerabad. They are living in the open in baking hot weather without food and other facilities,” Kachkol Ali, leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly, said in the southern port city of Karachi. Ali, who is also head of a regional fact-finding committee on the Baloch conflict, has asked leading national charity the Karachi-based Edhi Foundation for help to assist displaced people including children, women and the elderly. In response the foundation has sent an assessment team into the areas of Jafarabad and Naseerabad. “We’ve sent our survey team to assess the number of people affected by the conflict in terms of food, shelter, drinking water and health assistance,” Faisal Edhi, a spokesman for the charity, told IRIN from Karachi. “Once the survey teams get back in a day or so, we’ll be able to say something about the situation on the ground,” Edhi added. Balochistan is home to 8 million people and is the largest but least developed of Pakistan's four provinces. Endemic violence in the province has increased over the past year as tribal groups have protested against a government they say ignores their needs while extracting energy and minerals from the resource-rich province. The most recent upsurge in anti-government violence came in December 2005 when the government ordered a fresh crackdown after rockets hit the town of Kohlu during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf. The insurgents regularly attack gas pipelines, electricity transmission lines, railways and military and government installations, while clashes between militants and security forces are frequent. Civilians are often caught in the middle of these confrontations. Shahzada Zulfiqar, a leading political analyst in Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta, says both the rebels and security forces have mined parts of the districts of Dera Bugti and Kohlu in order to restrict movement. “Landmines have emerged as a major source of civilian deaths and injuries in the two districts.” Unconfirmed media reports suggest at least 40 security personnel and more than 50 civilians have been killed in landmine explosions since the start of 2006. The most tragic incident took place in early March when at least 26 people, mostly women and children, were killed as a trailer carrying a wedding party hit an anti-tank mine in the Dera Bugti area. Zulfiqar added that air strikes meant to target insurgents’ training camps often ended up killing and maiming civilians in Dera Bugti and Kohlu districts. “These strikes often hit the tents of nomads in the mountains, causing civilian deaths. So people are very scared and nearly 90 percent of the local population have migrated to safer places in neighbouring districts.”