History of Balochistan

The history of Balochistan covers several thousands of years in the modern region, consisting of the Pakistani province of Balochistan, the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan and the Afghan region of Balochistan.

Balochistan is known to be the largest province and one of the four provinces of today's Pakistan. The British Empire on October 1, as paramount power in the region reached a security agreement with the princely state of Kalat which was ruled by the Khan of Kalat 1887 but the kingdom retained its sovereignty in all other respects.In 1947, when Pakistan became independent, Pakistan signed a standstill agreement with the state of Kalat (a land-locked state surrounded by Pakistani territory and covering 23% of the territory of the current province of Balochistan) which recognized its autonomy and sovereignty, subject to future negotiation of the relationship. However, both houses of the Kalat parliament had asserted independence in 1947 and the Khan subsequently acknowledged that he had no right to accede to Pakistan's demand for annexation which he said he had only done under the threat of military force. Since then, a number of separatist groups in the province have engaged in an armed struggle against the Pakistani government; the first was led by Prince Karim Khan in 1948, and later by Nawab Nowroz Khan in 1968. These tribal uprisings were limited in scope, a more serious insurgency was led by the Marri and Mengal tribes between 1973 and 1977. All these groups fought for the existence of a "Greater Balochistan" — a single independent state ruled under tribal jirgas (a tribal system of government) and comprising the historical Balochistan region,found within Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2005 there was another struggle to achieve these aims, in 2006, the Pakistan army killed Nawab Akbar Bugti, the man they blamed for the violence. Although Bugti had been proclaimed an offender by former president Pervez Musharraf he has become a hero for separatists.However,he is accused of devouring federal funds for the development of the province,as well as gas royalties,and was also accused of operating unauthorized jails and dungeons in his territory.

For more details on this topic, see Balochistan conflict.