Where the pipelines are concerned, the nationalists appear to be gripped by a common delusion that America secretly wants Baluchistan to secede from Pakistan, in order to secure the superpower a new source of oil. Indeed, the uniformity of the nationalists’ expressed grievances and conspiracy theories, is striking. Traditionally, the government found it easy to use patronage to divide the warring tribes. Of late, however, a greater coherence has emerged. Last year, the four Baluchi nationalist parties, including three headed by sardars, formed an alliance to put their demands to the parliamentary commission. Also last year, the Bugti and the Marri ended a 50-year feud. No Baluch nationalist seems to condemn the BLA‘s murderous campaign. In his handsome Karachi home, Ataullah Mengal, the third senior sardar—and another grand old man—says: “The armed struggle has begun, the Chinese engineers have been killed, bomb-blasts are going off every day. The cost will be dear, but we are asking for something dear and for that we must pay dearly, even with our lives.”

Another novelty in the nationalists’ campaign is the part played by Mr Bugti, in his blood-splattered town. A former minister of interior and of defence, Mr Bugti is no separatist. He has long sparred with successive governments for money and political influence, and has spent nearly a decade in prison. But the status quo has given him untrammelled power over his tribe and a fund of gas royalties amounting, by one estimate, to 120m rupees a year. Nonetheless, since Bugti tribesmen arose against the government in January, to decry the rape of a female doctor at the Sui gasfield, he has appeared to adopt the nationalist cause. “It’s not all about pounds, shillings and pence. Man cannot live on bread alone,” he told this correspondent—“though I’m sure it was not an Englishman who said it.” ~The Economist (5 May 2005)