As Islamabad reels from mosque bombing, Pakistan’s military fights insurgents in border regions
Last week, a suicide bomber attacked a mosque during Friday prayers and killed more than 30 people, with dozens more wounded in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.
The regional Islamic State affiliate, known as Islamic State in Pakistan, claimed responsibility in a statement posted on its Amaq News Agency on Saturday. Four suspects have been arrested.
This was the latest incident in a string of violence in the country, as Pakistan’s security forces fight an insurgency concentrated in the province of Balochistan.
The World’s Carolyn Beeler spoke to Akbar Notezai, a reporter for the Pakistani news organization, Dawn, to learn more.
Carolyn Beeler: How significant is it to see a suicide attack like this in Islamabad?
Akbar Notezai: Well, as far as [the Feb. 6] attack is concerned, this is not something new that has taken place. These kinds of attacks on Shia Muslims, who are known as a minority in Pakistan, have been targeted in the past by Islamist militants.
And was the attack [that happened on Friday] on a Shia mosque?
Yeah, it was on a Shia mosque.
Right. So Pakistan has seen suicide bombings like this before. It has seen attacks on the minority Shia Muslims before. What about recently? Can you tell me more about the violence that has been happening recently in Pakistan?
Yeah, in Pakistan, the violence has taken place for quite some time now. In Pakistan, two districts which are known as Balochistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan and Iran, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which also shares a border with Afghanistan, these two provinces have been hit by militancy for quite some time now. For more than two decades.
Has that violence intensified in recent weeks? Or is the military crackdown in Balochistan a periodic thing?
Yeah. Let me tell you, you know, Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province, which is located in the southwestern part of the country, and it shares a border with Iran and Afghanistan and the Arabian Sea. So in Balochistan, I mean, the Baloch separatists have been fighting the state of Pakistan from day one.
The Balochistan separatists, you said, who want a separate state for Balochistan.
Yeah, this is the fifth insurgency in Balochistan, which started back in early 2000. So in recent weeks, I mean, they have carried out big attacks in Balochistan.
So this is an intensified violence by the separatists in Balochistan, but it is ongoing.
Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, this is an intensified violence in Balochistan, and Balochistan has experienced its largest ever coordinated militant attacks.
And the military has been cracking down there recently. It said it has killed over 200 insurgents in its recent operation. Can you tell me more about the government and military response?
Pakistan military says that it has killed 216 fighters in Balochistan’s campaign. The military says the operation began on Jan. 29 against the militants which carried out attacks in Balochistan’s 12 cities. So they have been cracking down and so far they have claimed to have killed 216 fighters in Balochistan.
Is this a part of a larger pattern of insurgent violence increasing the military cracking down?
Yeah, actually, you know, Balochistan is strategically an important province in Pakistan. And more importantly, Balochistan is known as the resource-rich province of Pakistan. This is one of the reasons that the Baloch separatists are fighting the state of Pakistan. And then China has been heavily investing in Balochistan for more than two decades. I mean, there are corporate projects which are located in Balochistan being run by China. In recent years, the Canadian company, which is known as the Barrick Gold, has also come to Balochistan. So mostly Baloch separatists, they’re opposed to the foreign investments. That is why, they have carried out such a big scale attack to just give a message to the foreign investors.
Oh, interesting. So, that’s what’s behind the uptick in recent violence, is that the Baluch separatists are trying to say, ‘We do not tolerate this foreign investment in our region’.
Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, that is why they carried out the attacks.
And where do things go from here if this is a pattern that is familiar?
Well, I think in Balochistan, as I told you earlier, this is not for the first time that these kinds of attacks have taken place. And this is the fifth insurgency which is ongoing in Balochistan since 1948. So, I mean, the situation is going from bad to worse. I’m afraid it will further escalate in the coming months and years, because as far as the issue in Balochistan is concerned, it is a political question which needs to be resolved politically. But unfortunately, from day one, it has been dealt with force. And as a result of that, problems are further compounded in Balochistan.
So going back to [Friday]’s news, which happened in Islamabad, the capital, not in Balochistan, it obviously raises questions about security. What are authorities saying they’re going to do to respond to that attack?
Authorities say that they’re holding responsible the neighboring countries, Afghanistan as well as India, because Pakistan has already been at loggerheads with India from day one since its creation. But in recent years, things have gone bad with Afghanistan as well.
So Akbar, the government is blaming Afghanistan and forces from there for the attack today? Is that what you’re saying? And who exactly are they blaming and is there any evidence to that?
Authorities sYeah, yeah. Actually, in the past, Islamists have carried out these kinds of attacks in Pakistan, especially the Tariq-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is a banned Sunni extremist group in Pakistan. And then they’ve also blamed the Islamic State in Pakistan and Islamic State, in the past too, has carried out this kind of attacks. So they are also saying that they might carry out these attacks.
So what happened in Islamabad is consistent with past attacks by the so-called Islamic State?
Yeah, it is, it is.
What would you like people to understand about what is happening in Pakistan that they might not already know?
As far as this insurgency is concerned, the security situation in Baltistan has further deteriorated. Even a couple of days back, the Baluch separatists carried out attacks. I mean, in just a single day, they attacked 12 cities. So this is something big. I’ve been covering Balochistan province for over the last 15 years. This is a big, big, big attack that has taken place in my journalistic career, and this is not going to stop here.
AP contributed to this report.
Parts of this interview have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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