Jaffar Express: Facts and Fiction

A full spectrum of hijacking of Jaffar Express in Pakistan is not known, and it will never be known anytime soon. Pakistani establishment has its own traditional mindset not to reveal everything about the horrifying ordeal that the country underwent after the train was assaulted and hijacked. It is suffering from a complex which prevents it from acknowledging the bitter reasons behind such attacks. It is scared of admitting its failures as that would lead to many questions as to why it is allowing the things to come to such a pass.

The basic flaw with Pakistani mindset is that it believes hiding facts would serve its purpose for all the times to come. It is perpetuating self deception as a tool to hide the facts from the public view. It believes that admitting some portion of the facts and hiding the rest would keep its image intact. That it is not as turbulent as the world would see it if acknowledges the whole truth. In this era of internet and social media, the gaps between the stated truth and the actual truth are filled by a little imagination and conspiracy. Then begins an alternative narration – less focus on the dangers tampering the territory and more on deflection. That is what Pakistan is now doing.

As and when the security forces or the political elite start seeing solution in deflection, it indulges in self deception. That is more harmful than admitting and telling the truth. Blaming external forces for the internal troubles is a sign of inner weakness  and evading the responsibility to diagnose malaise. This is much more dangerous than the intelligence failures or security lapses. Pakistan knows this but still persists with the alternate and deflection theories, and that is what is making it to witness severe incidents of terrorism.  This is a universal truth and Pakistan cannot change it by the theories that it is trying to pedal. It is pulling  wool over its own eyes.

It would be a grave mistake to see Jaffar Express incident merely as Pakistan-centric problem. Its dimensions are so wide that it needs to be studied and understood in the challenges that it has thrown across the conflict zones across the regions. That makes it more important for Pakistan to reveal the facts, reasons behind the hijacking of the train and what all happened before and after the hijacking episode was declared solved.

A considerable time has passed since the train was  assaulted by Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)  on March 11  and claimed to have been freed on March 12 evening. By now ISPR that took the responsibility of explaining to the media and the world what it was all about, should have collected facts and broadcast them. It did part of the job – it picked up few points, conveniently obliterated the rest and directed all its energy and rhetoric in blaming India for “terrorism in Balochistan,” via Afghanistan.

This is a time tested strategy of Pakistan, to blame its eastern neighbour for everything negative that swamps the country. Now, western neighbour, Afghanistan, is also on radar. It helps it to absolve itself of its own responsibility toward its own people – to protect them.  While blaming others for its own internal problems, it ignores the necessity to place even the most innocuous details before its own people.

First, till date, it is not known as it  has not been revealed that how many passengers were  travelling from Quetta to Peshawar in that ill-fated train  on March 11. Initial figures suggested that there were approximately 500 passengers on board when the train was attacked in Bolan in Balochistan. Later, on March 13, at a joint press conference with DG ISPR  Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti insisted that  425 passengers had bought tickets. The ISPR chief stated that 354 were  rescued, 26, including five security personnel, were killed by the hostage takers. That accounts for 380. If the figure of 425 passengers is true, what happened to the rest of the 45? This question had a bizarre answer: some might not have boarded the train at all, or others who ran in different directions when the BLA men were targeted might have lost their way. It sounds intriguing that Pakistan is not answering this question in specific terms but trying to pedal theories which serve purpose of neither the people of Pakistan nor its so-called fight against terrorism.

In fair analysis, no counter-terrorism theory and action can achieve its goals if it is simply based on military approach – intelligence gathering and launching of kinetic action against terrorists and their hideouts, genuine or perceived. The violence of this nature that Pakistan claims to be fighting to neutralize its perpetrators in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two provinces that are witnessing almost daily bombings, shootouts, suicide bombings and a wave of killings – can neither be imported nor it is born in vacuum. There are combined social, political and economic reasons which spawn conflicts and create a fertile ground for rebels to take birth and grow. They resort to violence to challenge the state that oppresses and suppresses their legitimate political aspirations, economic rights and denies access to their own natural resources. They take over the role of representing their people, replacing state. They run a parallel state at odds with the conventional state. This is true of all conflict areas, and Balochistan is no exception.

Where does it lead to – understand the problem. The separatist movement in any part of the world, again Balochistan is not a single story of its own, succeed only when state fails to read their content and contours, and seeks to impose its narrative dumping local sensibilities and sensitivities. Patriotism can neither be bought nor imposed by unilateral actions. Pakistan is seeing its authority in Balochistan in its symbolism, in its flags flying in the province without realizing that these symbols exist because of the fear of the armed forces and their atrocities – enforcing disappearances and dispersing protests with brute forces.

Pakistan has tried to impose its writ on Balochistan without making Baloch people partners in the idea of Pakistan. All the development  in the province is selective. It is because of Pakistan’s obligation to China under Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The China-centric development has disadvantaged the locals  as they have been denied to access to  Gwadar waters – they cannot fish in the area  and that has rendered fishermen workless. Investments that are brought and made to Balochistan to benefit the State of Pakistan and China are unmistakeable signs of colonization. That breeds and fuels rebellion.

So, Jaffar Express story will have to be read and understood  for its profound impact on Pakistan and  Balochistan in particular, in far wider spectrum than the area where it was attacked and hijacked. That can be understood only when the whole truth is spoken.