[Reader-list] Sindh Liberation Army: Myth or Reality?

[Zulfiqar Shah]

Sindh Liberation Army: Myth or Reality?

 

Even as the federal government is trying to make sense of the Balochistan Liberation Army and deal with the situation in that province, a shadowy outfit calling itself the Sindh Liberation Army has emerged in Sindh, another province with longstanding problems with Islamabad. While rumours about the existence of the organisation have been making the rounds in government circles, including intelligence agencies, for some time now, senior officials refuse to give the SLA much credence and say the outfit by no means poses a �serious� security threat to the province. Critics disagree and say Cheema and his team are being too complacent when they claim that the SLA poses no �real� threat to security. Recent events also prove otherwise. Through anonymous phone calls to police officials and journalists, the SLA has claimed responsibility for several attacks and bomb blasts in the recent past. These include two bomb explosions near the district headquarters of Rangers in Larkana and blasts at
 two electricity towers in the Sibi district of Balochistan in which about 12 people were injured. The Sibi attack plunged Quetta and much of the province into darkness. It also shows that the SLA might be operating outside Sindh also and perhaps in collusion with the BLA. While authorities have so far only speculated about groups and individuals responsible for these attacks, it is the first time that they have publicly declared in the media that the SLA is involved in the aforementioned blasts.

While claiming responsibility for the recent blasts in Hyderabad and Larkana, the unknown caller, who identified himself as an SLA activist, warned authorities that there would be more blasts if the construction of controversial projects like the Greater Thal Canal and Kalabagh Dam were not abandoned. With last month�s rape of a Sindhi doctor in Sui, Balochistan, and the consequent rumour that the army would launch a military operation to contain the backlash, organisations like the BLA and SLA seem to have gained strength and have emerged quite overtly, clearly wanting to take matters into their own hands. Analysts say the synchronisation of various acts of sabotage in Sindh and Balochistan shows a link between the SLA and the BLA. �The groups are certainly connected,� said an analyst. �They are either being headed by the same person or have the same members. In any case, they seem well-coordinated and well-connected,� he added. �There is no doubt that this is a dangerous
 situation,� remarked an observer. �Factions like the SLA spring up when individuals and organisations struggling for their rights get fed up by their continued failure to accomplish their goals non-violently and hence opt for militancy.�

However, most statements about the BLA, and now the SLA, are dismissed as nothing more than conjecture because experts don�t have enough knowledge about the two militant groups to provide definite answers about their structure and working. Some observers say the BLA has the same structure as the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and might be an offshoot of the Baloch Peoples Liberation Organisation (BPLO), which was active in the province in the 1970s. On the SLA front, observers believe that it might be made up of disgruntled leaders from several nationalist organisations. �This group could be a desperate attempt by nationalists who are unhappy with their leaders for having withdrawn their separatist struggle for Sindh,� said an observer. While nationalist parties in Sindh deny the existence of the SLA, Baloch nationalists firmly believe that the SLA is a reality. Hard-line Baloch leader Nawab Bugti has referred to the outfit on countless occasions and only recently in an
 interview snubbed a Sindhi interviewer for being unaware of the existence of the SLA.

 

Courtesy: Rantburg 

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=56186&D=2005-02-11

 

 


		
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