Resource rich Balochistan new target in US' 'war on terror' - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Pakistan's largest province in terms of area and a region rich in natural resources, such as copper and natural gas, Balochistan, may soon find itself engulfed in the 'war on terror', as the US is pressing Islamabad to take on the 'Quetta Shura' (Taliban's Union Council). According to The Guardian, in a report to US President Barack Obama in September, the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said the 15-man war council led by Mullah Muhammad Omar, his deputy Mullah Baradar and his military commander Abdullah Zakir was dictating the pace of the war in Afghanistan from the Quetta, Balochistan's capital. "Afghanistan's insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan. The 'Quetta shura' conducts a formal campaign review each winter, after which Mullah Omar announces his guidance and intent for the following year," Chrystal had said in his report. Experts also believe that focussing on Balochistan was more important as the region has until now gone unnoticed in the 'war on terror', and it is probably for this reason why it has become the favourite hideout of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda leadership. "It makes perfect sense to focus on Balochistan, which has been largely neglected until now, "the newspaper quoted Art Keller, a former CIA case officer who worked in Pakistan in 2006, as saying. "The question is how," Keller said. In the recent past, stream of US officials like CIA Director Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen have visited Islamabad urging the Gilani government to act forcefully, especially against the Sirajuddin Haqqani network in North Waziristan. However, Pakistani officials have refused to pay heed to the appeals, saying they can not open war on all fronts. "We can't fight everyone, everywhere. We need to be pragmatic. And we will not be dictated to," a senior official with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) told the newspapers, on conditions of anonymity. He said drone attacks in a densely populated city like Quetta would prove "disastrous" both in terms of civilian casualties and anti-American sentiments. "I think this is just pressure tactics, the Americans aren't stupid enough to (extend drone strikes). But if their objective is to destabilise Pakistan, that would be a good way to do it," the official said.