World: Turbulent Fragment

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Life among the Baluch is in many ways the same as it was in the days of the British raj, although camels are now less prevalent than the gaily painted trucks and triwheeled scooters that chug asthmatically around the streets of the province's capital, Quetta (pop. 250,000). Purdah (seclusion of women) and arranged marriage are accepted practices in this strict Islamic society. The chief source of relaxation is bung, a finely ground concoction of high-powered local marijuana that is chewed like tobacco or drunk as a herbal infusion. Tribal values revolve around honor, which the Baluch will go to any length to satisfy, including even paying for it. In one Baluch tribe, $400 is the traditional fine for murder, while the penalties for causing bodily injuries start at $50. Fiercely clannish, the main Baluch tribes are headed by chieftains called sardars. Says Baluchistan Times Editor Fasih Iqbal: "A tribe follows its sardar. If he goes Communist, so goes the whole tribe."

Three years after the rebellion was suppressed, the major towns of Baluchistan are still garrisoned with 30,000 Pakistani troops, mostly drawn from the populous eastern provinces of Punjab and Sind. At least 70% of the local policemen in the province are also outsiders. One Western diplomat in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad describes Baluch resentment against central government intrusion as "tremendous. For the Baluch there is no qualitative difference between the Punjabis and the army of Alexander the Great. They're both occupying powers." In the garrison town of Khuzdar, where a third of the 15,000 population consists of military personnel, civilians resent the fact that plumbing is only available in government housing. Merchants who accept a Pakistani soldier's money often ignore his attempts at conversation. Befriending a government trooper brings with it the risk of being branded a kasa chat (ass kisser).

The Baluch feel that their land is being colonized. Every year hundreds of settlers from the Punjab and Sind are assigned to the province's bureaucracy. Of the twelve provincial secretaries in Quetta, only one is Baluch. There are no Baluch on the staff that administers martial law. Among 1,120 students at the provincial university, only 269 are members of Baluch tribes.

In a Baluch separatist stronghold on the Afghan side of the border, grown men and teen-agers can be found drilling with 14-lb. Lee-Enfields and pre paring for an uprising in the indefinite future. Says Chakar Khan, 28, secretary of the Baluchistan People's Liberation Front: "We're weaning them away from tribalism. Today they're beginning to understand that we're not fighting the whole of Punjab province, but only a ruling clique." While Chakar Khan dreams of a Communist "chain across the subcontinent," there are, in fact, no more than 600 fighters in his force. Apart from sanctuary, support from the new Moscow-leaning Afghan government of President Noor Mohammed Taraki seems nominal at best: 300 per person per day and 44 Ibs. of flour per person per month.