Won’t hold negotiations with Baloch insurgents linked to India: Chaudhry

Pakistan will not hold negotiations with the Baloch insurgents, who were either directly linked with India or involved in terrorism in the country, the federal information minister said Tuesday.

“The disgruntled or nationalist Baloch leaders who were not directly linked with India, and they were annoyed over political issues…we have started working on a plan for talks with them,” Fawad Chaudhry, who is a part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet, told the media.

The remarks from Chaudhry come a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan hinted at holding talks with armed insurgent groups in Balochistan. “I have been thinking about talking to them,” said PM Khan in Gwadar, while referring to the armed insurgent groups in Balochistan. “Perhaps, they had some grievances in the past and [they are] being used by the other countries [and] India uses them to create chaos.”

Violence in Balochistan has drastically increased in recent years after China invested billions of dollars in the infrastructure and other development projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

In 2019, the gunmen had stormed a hotel in Gwadar, killing at least eight people. In June, 2020, gunmen targeted the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi. Both the attacks were claimed by the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army.

Officials in Pakistan often accuse India of sponsoring terrorism and supporting Baloch armed group in the country.

Jadhav, a serving commander of the Indian Navy and a spy of the India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was arrested in Balochistan in 2016. In his trial at a military court, he had confessed to his involvement in acts of terrorism and was sentenced to death in 2017.

“Those who were linked with India and involved in terrorism, there is a separate criteria for them,” the information minister said without sharing specific details.

Pakistan has successfully broken a terrorist network of India in Balchistan, he said, referring to Jadhav’s arrest.