Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
I agree with Balochistan university students that media has failed to highlight baloch issues, why is the media silent??
they spend hours on useless discussions, how about they bring the real issue on board.
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
Media need TRPs and Govt- SC tussle is enough to give them required TRPs 
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
Yes, quite. They were all pointing the finger at so-called security agencies.
If everbody is blatantly pointing at them, why isn't something being done about it or why aren't the agency representatives clarifying their position.
Why are the 'security agencies' such secretive that nobody hears from or sees them on media ?
Is the incompetent government doing anything else right that they would do something about this ?
When target killing started in Karachi the previous year the supreme court took suo Moto action against that but it has been very late to realize that in the case of balochistan. As far as the media is concerned it needs to bring out the reality, but they are bound by commercialism and balochistan does not create any ripples, besides when they start highlighting the case some people start calling them terrorist sympathizers or creating sensationalism (according to them everything is under control there). I believe that the media and judiciary have to play a big role to ensure that these things do not happen again.
I have been pointing out before that the response of the state should be different as compared to the rag tag militants but when that difference is eliminated then we have chaos like we have in balochistan.
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
2 more Hazara’s killed and 1 injured!
2 Hazaras killed, 1 injured in Quetta attack – The Express Tribune
shame on the government and security agencies, I mean what is really the difference between these monsters who are killing innocent people and these spectators who are watching everything silently and not taking any action against this brutality? what do I conclude from this that they are harbouring these terrorists?
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
Last episode:
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
thanks Tanvir for sharing
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
hi!
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
wow the IGFC clearly said more than one country is involved in financing, training and equipments of these monsters. so the proofs are there yet our spinless govt and security agencies do not want to take any action against it. What a Shame!
IGFC suggests sealing the borders.
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
If they have proofs they need to share them with the concerned countries and the people of the country. The fact remains the way government and Military have tackled this issue has complicated it over time. More than international meddling it's the result of the governments handling of the issue.
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
exactly you are right, establishment and govt is equally responsible for making things alot worse, everytime they have used force instead of a dialogue.
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
You would think they would learn from mistakes or history.
They must be very dumb or want to promote the stalemate/status quo..
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
Balochistan case: CJ says PM must act to improve situation | DAWN.COM
**ISLAMABAD: Defence Secretary Nargis Sethi and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Khushnood Lashari on Wednesday appeared before the Supreme Court bench hearing the Balochistan law and order case, DawnNews reported.
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A three-judge bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Jawad S. Khwaja was hearing a petition on the law and order situation and human rights violations in Balochistan at its Quetta registry.
**During the hearing, the chief justice again termed the province’s security situation as alarming. He said the provincial capital of Quetta had no-go areas and that police officers were not willing to work in Balochistan.
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The defence secretary told the bench that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence (MI) had prepared a report pertaining to the situation in Balochistan.
Sethi moreover said that she had spoken to officials from the ISI and the MI over the situation in the southwestern province.
The chief justice inquired of Principal Secretary Lashari as to what measures the federal government had taken to address the state of the province.
**Justice Iftikhar said that the province’s security situation had become so alarming that it was time the prime minister summoned the province’s governor and chief minister.
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**He moreover said that if the prime minister would not act to improve the situation, the Constitution would take its course and that might even entail the option of imposition of emergency.
Also during the hearing, Justice Khwaja said that Chief Minister Balochistan Aslam Raisani had been in Quetta for a mere seven days in the past six months.**
The court moreover issued summons for Balochistan’s home minister to appear before it.
The case’s hearing was subsequently adjourned to June 1.
Earlier during Tuesday’s hearing, the bench had expressed dismay over non-appearance of the secretaries of defence and interior and principal secretary to the prime minister before it and had observed that it appeared the government, police and law enforcement agencies had no interest in recovering the missing persons.
The court had on Monday summoned these officials, along with principal secretaries to the governor and the chief minister of Balochistan, to explain why the court’s orders had not been complied with so far.
Only Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Hafiz Basit appeared before the court during Tuesday’s hearing.
Also during Tuesday’s hearing, Deputy Attorney General Malik Sikandar Khan had informed the bench that he had resigned from his post, but he had conveyed to the officials concerned the court’s orders to appear before it in person.
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
US concerned on killings in Pakistan | DAWN.COM
**WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday voiced concern over extrajudicial killings and religious intolerance in Pakistan, including in its troubled southwestern province of Balochistan.
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**In an annual report on human rights, the State Department said that the “most serious human rights problems” in Pakistan included extrajudicial killings, torture and disappearances by both security forces and militants.
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“Lack of government accountability remained a pervasive problem. Abuses often went unpunished, fostering a culture of impunity,” it said.
In presenting the report, senior US official Mike Posner also highlighted an uptick in violations of religious freedom, including through controversial anti-blasphemy laws, as well as violence in Balochistan.
“We’re very concerned about the violence in Balochistan. We’re concerned about the effects of those who’ve challenged some of the laws, like the blasphemy law,” said Posner, the assistant secretary of state for human rights.
Posner raised the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in November 2010 for alleged blasphemy.
Assassins last year killed Salman Taseer, the governor of the central province of Punjab, and Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs, who both defended Bibi and sought reforms.
In her own remarks on the report, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not name Pakistan but voiced concern over the treatment of religious minorities including the Ahmadi community.
The State Department report also accounted allegations of rights violations in Balochistan, a highly sensitive issue for Pakistan.
**The report, based largely on accounts by rights groups and officials, said that disappearances in Balochistan “remained a problem” with the mutilated bodies of 355 missing people found between June 2010 and December 2011.
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Baluch rebels rose up in 2004, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from oil, gas and mineral resources in the region. The unrest comes as the United States an Pakistan focus on Islamic extremism in lawless areas on the Afghan border.
The State Department report also said that prison conditions were “extremely poor” in Pakistan, with accounts of torture, sexual abuse, overcrowding, inadequate food and medical care, and discrimination against minority inmates.
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
look whos talking 
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
**QUETTA, May 23: “Welcome to the most afsurda district of Balochistan,” says a local political worker of the PPP as he greets the out of towners in a small room of the building in district Mastung.
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A primarily Balochi district that falls in the constituency of Chief Minister Raisani, his pessimism is striking.
But as other voices join in, describing the target killings, the enforced disappearances, the lack of business opportunities and the havoc electricity has wreaked on the agriculture, it is obvious that the worker was not indulging in hyperbole.
**A rotund young man sitting next to the worker says without any emotion that his brother, who was picked up 18 months ago, is now back, traumatised. “Woh ek zinda laash hai,” he says with barely a tremor in his voice.
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As someone else then speaks up, the young brother falls quiet and pulls a tissue out of his pocket. Is it to wipe away a solitary tear?
He simply soaks up the sweat on his forehead.
**His quiet dignity is not unusual. For most Baloch, the loss and suffering of their loved ones is to be borne quietly, with little impact on the national consciousness.
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**Not for them the national outrage that greets the Salala attack or the emotional outburst at Gyari or even the dramatic outpouring of the mother who went to court to ask for her sons who were picked up from outside Adiala — in her petition she had asked the court for their bodies so she could bury them.
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**For the residents of this desolate province, human tragedy is spoken about without emotion but it still leaves a mark **— like the landscape in Balochistan that is beautiful in its harshness and sparseness where the mountains are relentlessly brown and the grassy clumps dot the topography as if drawn by a child.
Short sentences tell an epic tale.
**Take the father of a missing man who says, “Hum bol bol kar thak gaye aur ro ro kar thak gaye.”
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But, harsh as their words may be for those who come from the power centres, there is hope in the fact that many of them are eager to reach out to a state and government that has been so brutal. As one young man from an NGO said disarmingly, “We need a jadoo ki japhee,” repeating a phrase that was made popular by an Indian film of some years ago.
**Marked change
**
This is not simply a superficial impression but one shared by regular visitors to the province. Asma Jahangir, a human rights activist and the former president of the SCBA, who has visited Balochistan frequently, insists that the change was marked.
“No one even spoke during the Musharraf years. Democracy with all its flaws has brought some change.” Now she points out that they speak and that they are willing to engage instead of speaking simply of separating.
She is right — from politicians to lawyers to students to businessmen, they all speak of their constitutional rights and not separation. Undoubtedly, none of the people spoken to were self-proclaimed separatists, but the latter succeed only if the society in general provides them the proverbial sea in which to swim. But, if significant numbers demand their constitutional rights, it bodes well.
Representatives of political parties including the nationalists conceded that they would fight the coming elections – in Quetta, in Pishin, a primarily Pushtun district, and even in Mastung where the people have not seen their political representative for years. When asked, a lawyer says he last saw Chief Minister Raisani when he came to submit his papers for the 2008 election.
During an interaction with mid-level political party representatives, a PkMAP member concedes that the boycott of the previous election had caused more harm than good. And Jamaat-i-Islami leader says that the next election, be it the national one or local bodies one, will end the suffocation here.
Even Zulfiqar Magsi, the laconic governor of the province, who like Clint Eastwood answers questions in short phrases offers hope. Criticism may not penetrate his defences and he is open that his role is no more than offering tea to guests, but he agrees that there is a change. “The toxic air of three years ago is dissipating,” he says as he gazes at the wall at the end of the plush room at Governor’s House in Quetta.
**The change, which is most evident in Quetta and beyond too, is mainly attributed to the chief justice of Pakistan.
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**His lengthy hearings in Balochistan earlier in the month simply repeated the antics that those in Islamabad have gotten used to — tell off civil servants; embarrass junior government officials and threaten and warn police officials.
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**Cases against FC
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**But in a province where the people have suffered the abuse of the state for years now and where the political government is written off as a failure by most, the CJ is being seen as a saviour because he has tried to take the FC to task and to help the families of the missing people.
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**As an old man in Mastung remarked, “Allah ke baad courts hain.”
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On the surface of it, the mood in the civilian bureaucracy was similar.
**One of them explains that despite the fear and oppression, 64 people turned up in the court to register complaints, most of which identified the FC as the culprit. Since the hearings, the civilian authorities have registered a case against a colonel in Khuzdar, while three cases have been registered in total.
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**This may not seem much and as Mohammad Hanif, the well-known writer and journalist pointed out, “Is it consolation enough for a mother who has lost her son that a case has been registered against a colonel who may never be brought to justice?”
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He is right. It is not enough. But can’t we still celebrate the first drop of rainwater after a long drought? It may be too late for hundreds but it still spells hope for many, many others.
This is why in the anger too there is hope, expressed in the question of one long suffering relative who asks why the chief justice could not have come before 500 mutilated bodies were found.
Running parallel to this is also an awareness that the military-led forces whose brutality have led to this sense of alienation are on the defensive.
**What is not clear is whether this is simply because of the court’s proceedings and the recent media spotlight on the issue.
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**Indeed, it cannot be denied that the SC proceedings as well as the hearing on Balochistan in the US legislature earlier this year led to a heated discussion of the province in the print and electronic media.
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**A third reason, which too is hard to evaluate, is that the military leadership has also realised that brute force cannot work.
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A journalist points out that a recent change of military officers posted to key positions in the province also hinted at a change in the tactic if not strategy.
That the strategy of brute force is still in place is evident from the account of a rights activist from Makran who does not feel that elections could be held there.
**Healing touch
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And unlike the government officials in Quetta who felt that SC proceedings proved to be a healing touch, he recounted that in 2012 alone 17 people had disappeared; 21 had been released and three bodies had been found. Those released and found dead include the 50 who went missing the year before.
“Extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances and raids take place every day,” he says.
His stories, which he recounted in the comforts of a hotel in Quetta which keeps the city’s tragedies and violence at an arm’s length by armed guards and concrete bunkers, bring home the cruelty the state visits upon areas that are now too dangerous to be visited.
**He spoke of a fateful day in the last week of April when a small village in Turbat was raided for a man, possibly an insurgent.
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**Around 30 vehicles turned up and carried out an operation for hours. The operation that took out Osama bin Laden used four helicopters and lasted about an hour. How dangerous could this man have been?
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They killed four and kidnapped 16. Those who came back are now so scared they deny being kidnapped. They have erased their own memories.
**He spoke of villages that were being emptied of men as the male members were picked up; and if they returned their families sent them to the nearby Gulf; of targeted killings of Baloch, Punjabis and others; and a levies force which did nothing but collect bodies.
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“The Pakistani flag flies only where the FC is,” he says. But what does a flag symbolise when it can only flutter under the protection of guns?
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
Speakers call for early solution of Balochistan issue - geo.tv
http://images.geo.tv/updates_pics/5-26-2012_51107_l.jpg
**ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a conference on Saturday called for urgent measures for the resolution of the Balochistan issue and to remove the sense of deprivation among the residents of the province.
**Expressing their views at a National Conference on “Balochistan Issue and Its solution,” organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), the speakers from various political parties stressed for taking on board all segments in the province over all policies and development projects, besides, redressing their genuine demands.
Mushahid Hussain Syed, Secretary General of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, said the province enjoyed an important strategic position in the region which had wider impacts on the neighbouring countries.
“There is a need to change the mindset. Instead of a strong centre, strong provinces can guarantee a stable Pakistan,” he added.
Lauding the Parliament for taking initiatives on various issues, he said that 18th and 19th amendments were adopted in consultation with all political parties.
"I will laud my brother Mian Raza Rabbani, who heads the Parliamentary Committee on National Security under whose supervision, the body can discuss all security and national issues in a threadbare manner.
Issues of missing persons were also discussed with facts and nothing was concealed," he added.
Mushahid emphasized upon ensuring right to life which was the basic fundamental right of all citizens and called for putting the house in order.
He said, being the larger federating unit, the issue of missing persons should have been raised by Punjab.
The PML-Q leader suggested that all political prisoners should be released and dialogue with disgruntled elements be held for permanent peace in the province.
He also praised Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the lawyers’ community for taking the initiative over the issue and assured that all political parties would be standing behind them.
Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Jammiat Ulema Islam-F leader, said present times called for the existence of a welfare state.
The legislation in the Parliament over all issues should be done in accordance with democratic norms and not with the thrust of majority, he added.
Asma Jahangir, former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, remarked that the solution of Balochistan issue was vested with the political parties and they should take immediate initiatives in that regard.
She also found solace in holding of free and fair elections under the supervision of an independent Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). The commissioner should be free from all outer and judicial influences, she added.
Referring to appointment of new CEC, she warned that if the status quo continued, the elections could not be held in time.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, former Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, was of the opinion that a society could not survive without justice and enforcement of Consttution could ensure all fundamental rights and provincial autonomy.He said the rights of Baloch people over natural resources should be fully acknowledged.
Yasin Azad, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), said the solution of Balochistan problems was not in taking suo moto actions because the Court could only recover the missing persons.
“The political parties have the solution to overcome hurdles being faced by the Baloch people as they are elected representatives of 180 million,” he added.
He said the purpose of the conference was to give proposals for betterment in the province and to send a message to the community that the whole nation was with them and felt their pains.
He urged the political parties to come forward for the solution of problems of Balochistan and assured the lawyers’ community support.
Vice President of Pakistan Bar Council Akhtar Hussain asked all the stakeholders to review the situation and introduce remedial measures for restoring peace in the province.
Haji Abdul Qayyum Changazi, President of Hazara Qaumi Jirga, in his speech lamented massacre of his community and said that fresh elections should be held across the province.
Senator Abdul Malik Baloch of National Party said every one had to accept the status of all people living in the country as laid down in the Constitution.
Awnash Bugti of the Jamhori Watan Party suggested that free and fair elections could be a base for the solution of Balochistan issue.
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
all this TALK is useless, if no action is taken!
btw, what solutions did they provided to tackle Balochistan issues?
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
2** killed, 14 injured in Quetta rocket attacks**
**QUETTA: At least two people were killed and 14 injured as two blasts rocked Quetta on Saturday evening, Express News reported. **According to CCPO Quetta Mir Zubair Jabbar, two rockets were fired from an unidentified location. One of the rockets fell outside a shoe store in the Kandhari bazaar, near Manan square, as its owner was closing down for the night. The explosion killed two men and injured 10 others.
The second rocket destroyed three houses on Kasi road, injuring four people.
Police and rescue officials had reached the site of the blast, shifting the injured to Civil Hospital, while the police had cordoned off the area.
Talking to Express News, CCPO Quetta said that similar attacks have occurred in the past and that they will soon bring the assailants to justice.
2 killed, 14 injured in Quetta rocket attacks – The Express Tribune
Quetta bleeds again …
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
Re: Balochistan crisis & its resolution!
**ISLAMABAD: ** In seemingly the first serious move to address the problem fuelling insurgency in Balochistan, the country’s top political and military leaders have decided to meet today to decide how to resolve the contentious issue of enforced disappearances.
To be presided over by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the meeting to discuss the missing persons’ issue will be attended by Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and other heads of federal and provincial law enforcing agencies. The enforced disappearances are primarily blamed on the country’s secret intelligence agencies including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with the issue tarnishing the country’s human rights credentials since 9/11.
Premier Gilani told Geo News on Monday that his government was concerned about the rising number of missing persons and had called a meeting to find out how the issue could be resolved once and for all.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee on the National Security (PCNS) began on Monday the process of preparing recommendations for the government to address this issue and called for legislative and administrative measures to rein in secret outfits.
During its last meeting, the 13-member bipartisan, bicameral panel decided to propose landslide amendments in laws governing the country’s anti-terror regime in a bid to address human rights violations.
The committee, headed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Raza Rabbani, sought a briefing from the interior ministry on the proposed amendments to the Anti-Terror Act of 1997 — seeking more powers for the military and intelligence agencies battling hardcore militants in the country’s tribal belt.
The committee had already expressed concerns over giving intelligence agencies a ‘free hand’ to deal with suspected terrorists, fearing more powers would exacerbate the issue.
Pakistani military and intelligence services are often blamed for extra judicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances — some of these problems fuelling a nationalist insurgency in Balochistan.
Senator Rabbani said these issues were undermining the government’s political and administrative initiatives to win back the loyalties of Baloch separatists for Pakistan.
The head of the committee said the panel would have a briefing on anti-terror laws later this week to start the process of reviewing them. The committee has decided to forward the government two separate sets of recommendations, legislative and administrative, to sort out one of most complicated human rights issues facing the country.
A participant of the meeting told The Express Tribune that the panel has decided to toughen laws not only to bring intelligence agencies under civilian control but to also ensure that the detained terrorists do not escape because of weak prosecution or lack of evidence.
On the administrative side, he said, the committee would recommend how provincial governments should take certain measures to address the widespread anti-state dissent in Balochistan and Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa.
The decision to amend laws to control intelligence and law enforcing agencies came days after the Supreme Court observed that the Frontier Constabulary (FC) was behind almost 90% of the enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
Missing persons issue: Political-military huddle to discuss disappearances – The Express Tribune