Pak tribal violence casts shadow on gas pipelines

Pakistan this week sent more than 1,000 troops to the country's largest gasfield in poverty-stricken Baluchistan province and closed the main plant there after a series of clashes with tribesmen left eight people dead.

Violence erupted five days ago at the state-run Sui gas facility, which the tribesmen -- who have long campaigned for more royalties and jobs from the plant -- said followed the alleged gang rape of a woman doctor.

"This is something of concern to everybody," Asian Development Bank (ADB) country chief Marshuk Ali Shah said, as the tribe's chieftain predicted a major military assault.

The resource-rich province is a potential staging point for a number of gas pipeline projects, which have been proposed to satisfy the demands of energy-hungry South Asia.

One would carry gas from Iran to India while another parallel proposal would go from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan to Pakistan, and then possibly to India again.

But dissatisfaction is ripening among ethnic Baluch tribes, who blame Islamabad of purposely depriving them of the economic benefits from the natural gas and political rights they say they are guaranteed by the constitution.

A low-level uprising has been brewing for years in the region and similar attacks on the Sui gasfields two years ago caused winter gas shortages for millions of Pakistanis.

"These projects are of no good for us -- they are only a source of earning money (for Islamabad) by selling gas to India," said influential tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti, the province's former governor and chief minister.

Energy industry representatives say that Pakistan will suffer if it cannot show that it is capable of policing its own power and natural resources infrastructure.

"This is very bad. It is not in the interests of Pakistan and would have very bad impacts on foreign investment," said Pakistan Exploration and Production Companies Association spokesman Jameel Hasan.