It's amazing how little media coverage there has been of these events.
Pakistani troops and the tribes of the regions bordering Afghanistan are now
in open conflict, with casualties in the dozens.
Another article.
Just today a gas pipeline
was blown up.
But this might be only the beginning. A nuclear armed nation of 150 million where reglious fundamentalism is strong could be the makings of a disaster if there is chaos.
There are already internal refugees as as this article details.
More than 3,000 people fled a desert town in western Pakistan yesterday as a simmering conflict between tribesmen and President Pervez Musharraf's government risked exploding into all-out civil war.
A day-long battle in the town of Dera Bugti, 400 miles south-west of Islamabad, last week killed at least 45 people, including eight soldiers from the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force charged with maintaining order in the tribal areas.
Yesterday a fragile ceasefire was holding as hundreds of heavily armed tribesmen gathered on the line of jagged hilltops overlooking a besieged garrison of 300 soldiers.
[...]
Money, honour and nationalism are driving the bloodshed. Although Baluchistan is rich in oil, gas and other minerals, most of which remain unexploited, its people are the poorest and least educated in Pakistan. A 2003 UN study found that Dera Bugti had the lowest standard of living of any Pakistani district.
In contrast, the giant Sui gas plant, 30 miles to the south on Bugti land, pumps about 45% of Pakistan's production. The sense of alienation from far-off Islamabad is widespread.
"It is a great injustice," said a goat herder, Foj Ali, angrily clutching a 20 rupee [18p] note in the town market. "They are making billions of rupees pumping gas from our land to the rest of the country, and we are still using firewood."
Critics counter that the nawab and other tribal leaders are also to blame. "The sardars [chiefs] will not allow anything - schools, roads or army posts - that could undermine their authority," a senior government official in Baluchistan said.
The Baluchi have a long history of chafing against central authority, having revolted four times since independence in 1947. Today they still consider their government a foreign and colonising force - a hostility that was visible on the streets of Dera Bugti before last week's fighting.
But the fighting isn't limited to just Baluchi.
South Waziristan has also been a hot spot until a recent cease fire.