Pakistan says it is winning the battle against separatist insurgents in the restive province of Balochistan. But Baloch activists say abductions, torture and killings by the army are deepening hostility for Pakistan.On a hot sunny day, a group of aspiring young men and women are attending classes at a small university in Turbat. Established two years ago in rented accommodation, it's the city's first public university."Just look at our campus," says Hani Abdur Rasheed, an outspoken student doing a Master's in commerce. "You could hardly call it a university."
For a region with a strong sense of grievance against the central government, it's a rudimentary start.
The university, which has about 500 students, is attracting enrolment from remote areas of southern Balochistan.
"Lack of education has been the biggest obstacle for us. And it's all due to decades of official neglect. The government spends more on soldiers than schools and colleges," says Ms Rasheed.The army has fought separatist Baloch militants on and off during much of Pakistan's existence.
The latest wave of insurgency was triggered after the army bombed and killed an elderly Baloch tribal chief, Nawab Akbar Bugti, in 2006.Nine years on, the army says the militants - or "the miscreants" as it likes to call them - are either on the run or increasingly laying down their arms.
The government has encouraged that in an offer for a general "amnesty". The scheme involves financial rewards for fighters who agree to renounce violence against the state.
Pictures and news footage of tribesmen publicly surrendering their weapons before government officials have been running prominently on the Pakistani media.
But Ghani Parwaaz, a respected Baloch poet and writer in the city of Turbat, dismisses the campaign as farcical.
"Everyone knows it's a part of an official propaganda," he says. "Hardly any one of those shown surrendering on television news channels is a known fighter. In fact, many of them are reportedly extortionists linked to the army-backed politicians in the government."
Balochistan is a sparsely populated region, rich in gas and coal reserves, as well as copper and gold. Yet it has remained Pakistan's most impoverished province. Baloch nationalists have long accused the central government of exploitation and denying the province its due rights.
The region has been under renewed spotlight after Pakistan and China announced plans to build a multi-billion dollar economic corridor, linking Gwadar Port in Balochistan to the city of Kashgar in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang.
Over the years, the army and its subsidiary security force, the Frontier Corps, has captured and killed hundreds of suspected separatists.To this end, the forces were accused of employing "death squads", gangs of criminals allowed to unleash a reign of terror against those deemed enemies of the state.
From a military standpoint, the approach may have yielded some results. But in the longer run, it has further tarnished the army's image as a ruthless force on a killing spree of its own citizens.
Separatist militants say they are fighting for a free Balochistan. The insurgents operate from their bases in remote mountains, but they also enjoy considerable support and sympathy among ordinary Balochs.Last April, a group of gunmen shot dead 20 labourers at a construction of a bridge over a flood drain in Turbat. Baloch separatist militants were blamed for the massacre as they consider anyone employed by the government or army-sponsored projects fair game.
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