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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KARACHI 000072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PHUM PK
SUBJECT: BALOCHISTAN - NATIONALIST PROVINCIAL OFFICIAL SHOT 
BY UNKNOWN ASSAILANTS 
 
REF: A. KARACHI 59 
     ¶B. KARACHI 42 
     ¶C. KARACHI 26 
     ¶D. KARACHI 18 
 
Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN FAKAN FOR REASONS 1 
.4 b and d. 
 
Summary: 
 -------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) A radical Islamic group and a new Baloch 
nationalist group have both claimed responsibility for the 
February 23 shooting of Balochistan's Provincial Secretary of 
Mines and Minerals Jan Mohammad Dashti.  The terrorist group 
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed it shot Dashti, an intellectual and 
author, because he wrote a book considered by the group to be 
blasphemous.  The previously unknown Baloch Gharib Perwar 
(Baloch Pro-Poor Group) claimed it attacked Dashit because he 
had sold Baloch land in Gwadar to the Pakistani army. 
Officials have not assigned responsibility to any party yet. 
The event and its aftermath have served to underscore 
Balochistan's increasingly complicated political situation. 
 
Attack on Provincial Secretary of Mines and Minerals 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) On February 23, unknown assailants riding a 
motorcycle shot Balochistan Provincial Secretary of Mines and 
Minerals Jan Mohammad Dashti and his driver.  Dashti was 
reportedly airlifted to a Karachi hospital, where he arrived 
in serious condition.  He is a noted Baloch intellectual who 
has authored several books and is affiliated with the Baloch 
Nationalist Party (BNP) ) Mengal. 
 
Who Shot the Secretary? 
----------------------- 
 
¶3.  (C) Journalist Malik Siraj told Post that two groups have 
claimed responsibility for the attack.  The first, 
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is a Sunni terrorist organization that has 
publicly claimed credit for recent sectarian killings in 
Quetta (refs B, C).  The other, Baloch Gharib Perwar (Baloch 
Pro-Poor Group), is the latest previously unknown Baloch 
group to claim credit for an act of violence (ref C).  In 
claiming responsibility for the assault, the group accused 
Dashti of selling Baloch land in Gwadar to the army.  (Note: 
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, designated a terrorist organization by 
both the USG and the GOP, has been linked to a number of 
terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the 1997 killing of 
four American oil workers in Karachi, the 2002 murder of 
Daniel Pearl, the 2002 killing of 11 French workers, and the 
2002 International Church bombing in Islamabad.  End comment.) 
 
¶4.  (C) Adding to the mix, Siraj theorized that the 
nationalist Baloch Student Organization (BSO) could have 
carried out the attack, since the group has accused Dashti of 
supporting the GOP.  In contrast, Quetta Police Deputy 
Inspector General of Operations Wazir Khan Nasir opined that 
responsibility for the attack lay with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, 
since the caller claiming responsibility for the attack 
mentioned a book Dashti had written supposedly containing 
blasphemy as a motive. 
 
¶5.  (C) Predictably, BNP ) Mengal Secretary General Habib 
Jalid accused the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the 
Military Intelligence (MI) of planning the attack.  He said 
the GOP had targeted Dashti because of his position as Editor 
of the pro-Baloch nationalist newspaper Asaap.  (Comment: 
Baloch nationalists routinely accuse GOP agencies of 
conspiring against them, without presenting evidence.  End 
comment.) 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶6.  (C) Officials have yet to assign blame for the attack on 
any particular organization.  Sunni extremists could have 
targeted Dashti, an intellectual, well known for his 
 
KARACHI 00000072  002 OF 002 
 
 
outspoken views on religion.  It is more probable, however, 
that a faction of one of the growing number of proclaimed 
Baloch nationalist groups may have orchestrated the attack, 
given their accusations of collusion with the GOP.  Many 
nationalists felt betrayed when he joined the Pakistani 
government as a civil servant.  In his position with the 
Balochistan Ministry of Mines and Minerals, Dashti oversees 
an issue at the heart of the Baloch insurgency ) the 
province's natural resources.  However, Quetta has become 
locked in a labyrinthine web of conspiracy theories that 
could make it difficult to ultimately discover who was really 
behind the attack. 
 
FAKAN