Separatist Movements Of Pakistan

There are separatist movements in Pakistan which are based on ethnic and regional nationalism, including independence movements in Balawaristan, Sindh and Balochistan. The government of Pakistan has attempted to subdue these separatist movements.

The separatist movement in Balochistan is engaged in a low-intensity insurgency against the Government of Pakistan.

In 2009, the Pew Research Center conducted a Global Attitudes survey across Pakistan, in which it questioned respondents whether they viewed their primary identity as Pakistani or that of their ethnicity. The sample covered an area representing 90% of the adult population, and included all major ethnic groups. According to the findings, 96% of Punjabis identified themselves first as Pakistanis, as did 92% each of Pashtuns and Muhajirs; 55% of Sindhis chose a Pakistani identification, while 28% chose Sindhi and 16% selected "both equally"; whereas 58% of Baloch respondents chose Pakistani and 32% selected their ethnicity and 10% chose both equally. Collectively, 89% of the sample opted their primary identity as Pakistani. Similarly in 2010, Chatham House conducted an opinion poll in the Pakistani and Indian-administered regions of Kashmir asking respondents if they favoured independence or an accession to either countries; in Azad Kashmir controlled by Pakistan, 50% of respondents voted to join Pakistan, 44% voted for independence, and only 1% voted for accession to India, while in Jammu and Kashmir (state) administered by India only 2% voted to join Pakistan. In the northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan, longstanding local sentiments oppose any merger of the area with Kashmir, and instead demand a constitutional integration with Pakistan. The poll conducted among residents of Jammu and Kashmir administered by India and Azad Kashmir administered by Pakistan shows that 21% of the population said they would vote for the whole of Kashmir to join India while 15% said they would vote for it to join Pakistan.

Bangladesh

Pakistan was established in 1947, from the partition, as a state for Muslims. The driving force behind the Pakistan Movement were the Muslims in the Muslim minority provinces of United Province and Bombay Presidency rather than the Muslims from the Muslim majority provinces. Its formation was based on the basis of Islamic nationalism.

As part of the Partition of India in 1947, Bengal was partitioned between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Pakistani part of Bengal was known as East Bengal until 1955 and thereafter as East-Pakistan following the implementation of the One Unit program. However, rampant corruption within the ranks of the Pakistani government and bureaucracy, economic inequality between the country's two wings caused mainly by a lack of representative government and the government's indifference to the efforts of fierce ethno-nationalistic politicians, like Sheik Mujibur Rahman from East Pakistan, who fought for Bangladeshi independence, resulted in civil war in Pakistan and subsequent separation of East Pakistan as the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Bilateral relations between the two wings grew strained over the lack of official recognition for the Bengali language, democracy, regional autonomy, disparity between the two wings, ethnic discrimination, and the central government's weak and inefficient relief efforts after the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which had affected millions in East Pakistan. These grievances led to several political agitations in East Bengal and ultimately a fight for full independence.

Balochistan

The Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) separatist group was founded by Jumma Khan Marri in 1964 in Damascus, and played an important role in the 1968-1980 insurgency in Pakistani Balochistan and Iranian Balochistan. Mir Hazar Ramkhani, the father of Jumma Khan Marri, took over the group in the 1980s. The Balochistan Liberation Army (also Baloch Liberation Army or Baluchistan Liberation army) (BLA) is a Baloch nationalist militant secessionist organization. However, Jumma Khan Marri ended his opposition and pledged allegiance to Pakistan on 17 February 2018. The stated goals of the organization include the establishment of an independent state of Balochistan separate from Pakistan and Iran. The name Baloch Liberation Army first became public in summer 2000, after the organization claimed credit for a series of bomb attacks in markets and railways lines. The BLA has also claimed responsibility for the systematic ethnic genocide of Punjabis, Pashtuns and Sindhis in Balochistan (about 25,000 as of July 2010) as well as blowing up of gas pipelines. Local Balochs have also been targeted by the separatist groups in the province. Brahamdagh Khan Bugti, alleged leader of Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), also asked separatists to conduct ethnic cleansing of Non-Baloch citizens from the province. In 2006, the BLA was declared to be a terrorist organization by the Pakistani and British governments.

However, the insurgency led by the Baloch separatists in the province is on its last leg. Baloch separatists have been losing their leaders and they have been unable to fill their ranks. There is also currently ongoing infighting between the different insurgents groups. The last insurgent leader, Balach Marri, was able to keep the different insurgent groups united. However, after his death in Afghanistan, infighting broke out between various insurgent groups. The insurgents were unable to replace him. Similarly, Baloch separatist follow Marxism. However, the Marxism ideology died across the world and there is no other ideologies to succeed it. So the founding father of Baloch separatist are dead. Moreover, attacks on pro-government leaders and politicians who are willing to take part in election has also contributed to the decline in separatist appeal.

''The News International'' reported in 2012 that a Gallup survey conducted for DFID revealed that the majority of Baloch do not support independence from Pakistan. Only 37 percent of Baloch were in favour of independence. Amongst Balochistan's Pashtun population support for independence was even lower at 12 percent. However, a majority (67 percent) of Balochistan's population did favour greater provincial autonomy. Majority of Baloch also don't support separatist groups. They support political parties who use legislature to address their grievances. Experts also claim that most of the nationalists in the province had come to believe that they could fight for their political right within Pakistan.

As of 2018, the Pakistani state was using Islamist militants to crush Balochi separatists. Academics and journalists in the United States have been approached by Inter-Services Intelligence spies, who threatened them not to speak about the insurgency in Balochistan, as well as human rights abuses by the Pakistani Army, or else their families would be harmed.

Sindhudesh

Sindhudesh ( sd, سنڌو ديش, literally "Sindhi Country") is an idea of a separate '' Homeland for Sindhis'' proposed by Sindhi nationalist parties for the creation of a Sindhi state, which would be independent from Pakistan. The movement is based in the Sindh region of Pakistan and was conceived by the Sindhi political leader G. M. Syed. A Sindhi literary movement emerged in 1967 under the leadership of Syed and Pir Ali Mohammed Rashdi, in opposition to the One Unit policy, the imposition of Urdu