A total of
six districts, Awaran, Kech, Gwadar, Panjgur, Chaghi and Khuzdar have been
affected by the earthquake. The scale of the affected territory is daunting.
The enormous destruction of the area can be gauged from the fact that death
toll is inching towards 400. However, there are 337,980 people within 100km of
the epicenter who could potentially be affected, according to the Global
Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS).
Awaran's
population is scattered over an area of more than 21,000 square kilometers.
More than 60,000 people live within 50 kilometers of the epicenter, according
to the UN disaster agency, mostly in easily collapsible mud homes. Workers were
facing difficulties in reaching out to survivors since the communication system
has been severely affected by the earthquake.
Attack on
helicopter carrying Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA),
Major General Mohammad Saeed Aleem and Major General Samraiz Salik is not an
ordinary incident. The purpose was to
disrupt relief and rescue work and create hurdles in reaching out to earthquake
survivors and target security forces engaged in a massive relief and rescue
operation in Awaran the worst hit area of Baluchistan.
It has been
highlighted repeatedly that the rebels operating in Baluchistan are not local
but militants funded by external forces. Critics go to extent of saying that
these militants wear various caps, at time they are called ‘Baloch Liberation
Army’ and if opportunity comes they become the custodians of rights of Sunnis.
However, their sole objective remains causing dent to Pakistan by killing and
sabotaging.
They just
don’t want exploration and production activities to continue in the province.
At times they appear to be working for annexing Baluchistan from Pakistan, as
was done in Sudan and Indonesia, oil and gas rich areas were annex from these
two countries. The games continued for a decade in Iraq and being played in
Syria for the last two years.
One can also
take cue from whatever has been happening in Northern areas of Pakistan, the
fight is only to get control over reserves of precious stones and metals and
oil and gas. These agents have been creating havoc only because if mining of
minerals, oil and gas start in these areas all the economic woes of Pakistan
will be over. The supporters of these perpetrators want to weaken Pakistan and
present India as ‘Regional Super Power’.
It is not a
secret that the United States is the biggest proponent and wants to create
Indian hegemony in the regional. Experts say that now the United States
‘outsources’ the job. If British Prime Minister Toney Blair was used as
‘mouthpiece, for creating justification for attack on Iraq, France is playing
the most active role mobilizing public opinion for attack on Syria, it may be
other thing that other stakeholders of the region have been frustrating these
efforts.
One of the
conspiracy theories is that the five countries on the US ‘hit list’ include
Syria, Iran and Pakistan. Assad’s government in Syria would have been toppled
in few days had other stakeholders of the region not posed such a massive
resistance.
If Syria is the biggest
thorn in the creation of Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, getting control
over sea trade passing trough Indian Ocean and creation of military camps
around Iran is not possible without creation of an Independent Baluchistan.
