Baluchistan separatists gaining strength

TURBAT, Pakistan, July 12 (UPI) -- Islamabad faces a growing second insurgency in its southwest were those who want Baluchistan separated from Pakistan are gaining strength, analysts say.

Since the discoveries of the bullet-riddled bodies of three senior Baluch nationalists on April 8, the province -- which makes up third of Pakistan's territory -- has been volatile, with rioting, strikes and civil disobedience common, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Politicians and analysts reportedly are warning that Baluchistan's troubles are providing a distraction from Pakistan's fight against Taliban militants in its northwest, drawing off U.S.-supplied resources that are instead being used to quell disturbances in Baluchistan.

Interviews conducted by the Times with people in and around the Baluch city of Turbat revealed that instead of sending promised aid, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is continuing the unpopular policies of his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, by employing the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies to doggedly pursue nationalist sympathizers.

"Their tactics are not only to torture and detain, but to eliminate," said Mir Kachkol Ali, the lawyer of the slain nationalists who witnessed their abduction by plainclothes officers.