Renewed Ethno-Nationalist Insurgency in Balochistan, Pakistan: The Militarized State and Continuing Economic Development

Abstract

Since December 2005, Pakistan's army has once again been fighting its own people in the country's most impoverished, marginalized, and violated province, Balochistan. The military government claimed that the operation was launched against militant nationalists who attacked government personnel, buildings, and installations, but its attacks have been indiscriminate and resulted in loss of life and property of innocent people. Militant nationalists maintain that the operation is the Punjabi-dominated army's attempt to strengthen its control over Balochistan's natural resources, which are already being exploited by the central government. This is the fifth time the Pakistan army has launched an armed operation in Balochistan during the past six decades.