Pak's habit of blaming 'foreign hand' unlikely to work in Balochistan case: Editorial

Islamabad, Aug 13 (ANI): Referring to Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik's claim alleging 'foreign hand' involvement in violence-inflicted Balochistan province, an editorial in a Pakistani daily has said the country's attempts to lay everything at the door of foreign hands, thereby turning a blind eye to its own responsibilities and culpability for trouble, has never worked in the past, and is unlikely to now.

If anything, such red herrings only make matters worse and widen the gulf between the two sides, the editorial in the Daily Times adds.

The elephant in the room that the government does not wish to recognise, and certainly not mention, is the role of the military, intelligence agencies and paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) in the province, it said.

None other than the Supreme Court has laid the issue of missing persons at the door of the FC.

Without reigning in the security forces from pursuing their repressive policies, including the notorious kill and dump practices in the province, no progress may be possible, it added.

According to the editorial, the real steps required to win back the alienated Baloch people are: withdraw the FC, account for the missing persons, identify and prosecute those responsible for the dumping of tortured bodies all over the province, provide due compensation to the families of those tortured and/or killed, and start a serious dialogue with those Kaira finds "intolerable".

The government may not like their separatist stance, but without finding ways to bring these forces to the negotiating table, nothing will change and the situation could conceivably produce a disaster for the country, it concluded. (ANI)