Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
^ nice article
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
^ I am exremely surprised to see that you still believe that our military establishment can cope with the Taliban all by itself. Extra-judicial killing may help in Balochistan, but your "snipers, drive-by shooters or commando actions" will not work against Taliban. They are thrashing us like anything for the last 4 years. And you believe that we are tolerating it all by choice? Buddy, when you talk about talking to them, it means you simply can't eliminate them. Can't you see it in Afghanistan? Get your thoughts in the right frame of mind.
I am surprised you still believe drone attacks can eliminate terrorism.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
This is a load of crap. I personally know that in every SINGLE department in balochistan, 90% of the people are currently baloch. Go to any govt office in balochistan and from peon till DG, all are balochs. Most of them can’t even spell their names correctly, but all share the love for dark sunglasses, huge shalwars, hatred against other ethnicities and Pakistan in general. So spare me such idiotic articles. Balochs are EVERYWHERE and occupy ALL the positions in balochistan and are plundering balochistan’s resources like anything. Quite frankly, people in balochistan know that the only “rights” that balochs want is that they wanna sit at their homes and receive pays without having to lift a finger.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
This is a load of crap. I personally know that in every SINGLE department in balochistan, 90% of the people are currently baloch. Go to any govt office in balochistan and from peon till DG, all are balochs. Most of them can't even spell their names correctly, but all share the love for dark sunglasses, huge shalwars, hatred against other ethnicities and Pakistan in general. So spare me such idiotic articles. Balochs are EVERYWHERE and occupy ALL the positions in balochistan and are plundering balochistan's resources like anything. Quite frankly, people in balochistan know that the only "rights" that balochs want is that they wanna sit at their homes and receive pays without having to lift a finger.
your points are valid, even if we take the population equation of baluch into consideration they have more jobs in federal & provincial then the quota. Just look at the Army as an example.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/27/a-weaker-insurgency-but-with-new-contours.html
**A weaker insurgency, but with new contours
**QUETTA: **The decline in insurgent violence over the past year, at the cost of savage violence by the state, has produced a fragile recovery in Quetta and other insurgency-hit parts of Balochistan.
**
**In the provincial capital, markets are open past sunset, rowdy traffic clogs streets well into the evening and the occasional park in the city has more visitors than a year ago.
**
But fear and apprehension are never far from the surface. The Baloch quarters in Quetta are accessible to non-Baloch visitors, but outsiders are still cautioned by residents against frequent or unnecessary visits. The modern and spacious Sheikh Zayed Hospital in the Sariab Road area is largely deserted. Doctors, mostly non-Baloch, are still unwilling to work in the Baloch neighbourhood.
“The no-go situation of earlier years is perhaps no more,” according to Dr Ishaque Baloch, a central vice president of the National Party, “But it’s still very tense. Similarly, you can travel outside Quetta now, but there are dangers.”In Mastung, a town south of Quetta, residents acknowledged that while insurgent violence was down, fear and uncertainty are still rife. Teachers bussed in from Quetta each day arrive irregularly and the local womenfolk return home before sunset. Locals reported that shops shut early, roads were deserted after sunset and few residents left their homes after dark.
**A low-level insurgency
**
Gauging support for the fifth Baloch insurgency since Pakistan’s creation or assessing the number of active insurgents is particularly tough given the two-pronged threat confronting independent voices: from the security apparatus and from insurgents.
Meanwhile, official statements are often problematic because of stakes in the present set-up and because of the deep ethnic and tribal fault lines that characterise the province.
“Go around the province, visit the different Baloch belts and you’ll see that the insurgency does not have much support,” said Nawab Aslam Raisani, chief minister of Balochistan. But Raisani’s home district is Mastung, where insurgent and criminal activities have left residents fearful.
Aslam Bhootani, speaker of the provincial assembly, also tried to downplay the strength of the insurgents: “More people die in Karachi each day. When diplomats visit here, they urge us to tell the world more about the realities of Balochistan. Balochistan is more normal than people expect.”
But MPAs move in heavily guarded convoys in Quetta.
What seems relatively clear, though, is that the present insurgency is much less severe than the last one. “This isn’t like the insurgency of the ’70s when tens of thousands participated. There are only a few hundred now. The support just isn’t there,” claimed Anwarul Haq Kakar, a local PML-N politician.
That view was echoed by several journalists, notables and locals of Baloch areas who spoke off the record.
**Mapping the insurgency
**
The present insurgency has three main components. The Baloch Republican Army focuses on Dera Bugti, Kohlu, Jaffarabad and Naseerabad. It is led by Brahmdagh Bugti, who left his base in Afghanistan for Switzerland earlier this year.
The Baloch Liberation Army is operationally headed by Hyarbyar Marri, who is in self-exile in London. Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri is the guiding force of the group and resides in Karachi.
The Baloch Liberation Front, with an ever-changing list of offshoots, BLUF, BLNF, Baloch Warna, etc, is largely the militant arm of the Balochistan Students Organisation (Azad).
According to a security official, “overall there are about 1,000 terrorists (sic) of which the high-quality ones are around 250.” The official added: “BLA has maybe 200 hardcore fighters, BLF 300-400 and the Bugti camps around 400.”
The IGFC Maj-Gen Obaidullah Khan also claimed that the insurgents “were not in the thousands, probably less than a thousand”. But there is a caveat, as pointed out by Gen Khan: “There are also sympathisers that need to be taken into account.”
Given tribal linkages, an armed insurgent can often rely on support from fellow tribesmen. Another security official mentioned the case of ‘Pahari Bugti’, an insurgent who recently surrendered along with 15 of his fighters after succumbing to inducements by officials. The official claimed that “around 400 others who support and owe loyalty” to Pahari Bugti had also been sidelined as a result.
Another, indirect, way of gauging the strength of the insurgency is the missing persons issue — Baloch men allegedly linked to the insurgency and illegally held by the security forces without charges.
Abdul Qadir Baloch, vice chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, claimed that there are “12,000 to 14,000” missing persons across the province. But the Balochistan High Court, which has more forcefully taken up the missing persons issue in the last couple of years, has only
34 petitions pending before it. Eighty persons have been recovered so far and 55 cases have been disposed of.
A new phenomenon
While the latest armed insurgency may be relatively small, it has given rise to a new phenomenon: the educated, middle-class, non-tribal insurgent.
Forming the core of the BLF, this new breed of insurgent is epitomised by Dr Allah Nazar. The insurgent from Mashkey in the south of the province has increasingly become the face of the Baloch insurgency, in part, according to Ayub Tarin, a local journalist who interviewed Nazar last year, because of the departure of his rivals.
“Brahmdagh Bugti is in Geneva, Hyarbyar Marri in London, the people see that Allah Nazar is still here, still fighting himself. That has an impact,” Tarin said.
The details of Nazar’s life are murky. He appears to have embraced separatist politics as a member of the BSO during his days as a student at Bolan Medical College before taking up arms alongside the Marris and the Bugtis in the early to mid-2000s.Reportedly detained and released several times by the Pakistani security forces, he was again released some three years ago. Journalists claim that Nazar had been tortured so badly that he was on the verge of death at the time of his release and spent several months in hospital. When he recovered, he ‘left for the hills’ — a term used to describe Baloch insurgents.
A soft-spoken man, Allah Nazar’s views are uncompromising. In the interview with Tarin, Nazar repeatedly justified the killing of Punjabi settlers, describing them variously as “a fifth column”, “a brigade of the state”, “members of the army” and “spies”. He also rejected non-violent, democratic means for attaining Baloch independence, citing the example of East Pakistan.
But those hard-line views appear to have gained traction with a number of degree-holding Baloch men. Tarin, the journalist who interviewed Nazar last summer, claims that of the fighters who were with Nazar, “many were doctors and engineers”.
Siddiq Baloch, incarcerated during much of the last insurgency and now editor of the Balochistan Express, suggested there has always been a streak of resistance among Baloch ‘commoners’: “They tell the sardars to shut up. They all think they are sardars.”
Outwardly, security officials are dismissive of the influence of Allah Nazar and his fighters. One mocked him: “Allah Nazar found the insurgent lifestyle irresistible. He’s a lower-class guy. He thought he’d get money and fame through rejecting Pakistan.”
But local analysts suggest the real reason for the rise of Allah Nazar and his fighters is the policies of the state itself. “They saw the security situation, they saw the oppression, they’ve seen how the Baloch are treated,” said a local journalist.
And with the state’s response to separatist sentiment still mired in lethality, the potential for more educated, middle-class, non-tribal Baloch men to embrace violence would appear to be high.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
^ I wouldn't worry about people like Allah Nazar who are just low-life thugs in it for money. I think the more serious threat comes from people like asim kurd etc who are in the govt and are protecting and providing support to baloch insurgents. This includes getting them released if caught.
Bye the way, even if Islamabad does succeed in controlling the baloch insurgency, a lot of damage has already been done since the govt had simply turned a blind eye from these terrorists and let them kill thousands before any action was taken. For exmaple, in august last year, about 8 people from siraiki belt who were painting a house ni quetta were tortured and shot at point blank range in Quetta. There are at least hundreds of such citable incidents. Go to balochistan today and it seems like a haunted place, no skilled doctros, engineers, professors left. The condition of govt colleges, universities and hospitals has become so pathetic that it is unimaginable.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
^
So what do you propose..Kill all the Baluch people? Exile them away from Baluchistan?
Whether it is acceptable or not, the Baluchis have suffered as a people under successive Pakistani governments. I am not here to justify any terror nor the extrajudicial killings, however "crushing" a people has never worked. In the case of Baluchistan, we need to build trust and confidence with the MAJORITY of the Baluch people..it may take decades but I think that is an investment worth making.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
^ agreed we cannot exterminate all of them so what's the solution
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/29/rights-violations-worsen-in-balochistan-hrcp.html
Rights violations worsen in Balochistan: HRCP
Reuters
ISLAMABAD: Human rights violations in Pakistan’s southwest province of Balochistan are getting worse as militants and security forces target civilians, while authorities seem unwilling to rein in lawlessness, according to a report released on Wednesday.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an independent non-governmental organisation, said in its report that lawlessness in the province had proliferated at an alarming rate with a growing numbers of targeted killings, kidnappings, enforced disappearances and attacks on religious minorities.
For decades, Balochistan has been facing a low-level insurgency by nationalists who want more control over the province’s natural resources, which they say are unfairly exploited by the federal government.
**Zohra Yusuf, HRCP chairwoman, said at least 140 mutilated bodies of people gone missing had been found in the past year.
“A very dangerous trend has emerged that those who disappeared were now found dead on roadsides. The bodies have torture marks,” she told a news conference at an Islamabad hotel.**
HRCP report says 143 people have gone missing since 2009 but Yusuf said the number could be much higher because the commission reported only those cases which it could verify.
There was evidence to substantiate families’ claims that victims were kidnapped by security forces or had been killed while in custody, she added.
Yusuf said insurgents and religious extremists were also involved in killings of ethnic and religious minorities.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest and poorest province, borders Afghanistan and Iran, and has large mineral reserves, including oil, gas, copper and gold.
Due to the continued violence and insecurity, most foreign and local investors avoid investing money in Balochistan, which hinders its development.
Yusuf warned that the insurgency could flare up if the government continued to fail to implement a political solution to the Baluchistan situation.
“The Baluchistan government seems non-existent,” she said.
“They have surrendered their authority to security forces and they (forces) are calling the shots,” she said.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
’فوج نے عملاً بلوچستان کا انتظام سنبھال رکھا ہے
](BBC Urdu - پاکستان - ’فوج نے عملاً بلوچستان کا انتظام سنبھال رکھا ہے‘)
پاکستان میں حقوق انسانی کے کمیشن نے مطالبہ کہا ہے کہ بلوچستان میں فوج نے عملاً صوبے کا انتظام سنھبال رکھا ہے اور سیاسی قوتیں اپنی ذمہ داریوں سے پیچھے ہٹ گئی ہیں۔
اسلام آباد میں بلوچستان کی صورتحال پر انسانی حقوق کے کمیشن کی رپورٹ کے اجراء کے موقع پر کمیشن کے اراکین نے کہا کہ بلوچستان میں اس وقت سب سے زیادہ نوجوانوں کو نشانہ بنایا جا رہا ہے۔’صوبے کی فیصلہ سازی اب فوج یا اس کے ذیلی ادارے کر رہے ہیں۔ ’سیاسی مسئلہ ہو یا ترقیاتی یا سیکیورٹی کا ہر بات میں فوجی اسٹیبلشمنٹ مداخلت کر رہی ہے۔‘
حقوقِ انسانی کمیشن نے اپنی رپورٹ کی تفصیلات اسلام آباد میں ایک پریس کانفرنس کے دوران بتائیں جس میں سپریم کورٹ بار ایسوسی ایشن کی صدر عاصمہ جہانگیر، کمیشن کی سربراہ زہرہ یوسف، رکن حنا جیلانی اور سیکریٹری جنرل آئی اے رحمان بھی شریک تھے۔
اسلام آباد میں ہماری نامہ نگار نخبت ملک نے بتایا کہ ’بلنکرڈ سلائیڈ ان ٹو کیاس‘ نامی اس رپورٹ میں ان تمام پہلوؤں کا ذکر کیا گیا ہے جو ادارے کی تحقیقاتی ٹیم کے بلوچستان کے حالیہ دورے میں سامنے آئے۔
کمیشن کا کہنا تھا کہ کہ سیاسی قوتیں اپنی ذمہ داریوں سے پیچھے ہٹ گئے ہیں ۔’لہذا ہماری نظر میں وہ بھی اس عمل میں قصوروار ہیں۔‘ کمیشن کی سربراہ زہرہ یوسف نے کہا ’ہم سے جو لاپتہ افراد کے رشتہ دار ملنے آئے ان کے فراہم کردہ شواہد کے مطابق ہمارا مطالبہ ہے کہ فوری طور پر مستقل کمیشن آف انکوائری بن جائے جو گواہوں کو مکمل تحفظ اور رسائی فراہم کرے‘۔
حنا جیلانی نے کہا کہ ایف سی کے اہلکار وہاں اس طرح بیٹھے ہیں جیسے فوج کسی علاقے پر قبضہ کر کے بیٹھ جاتی ہے اور پھر وہ علاقے کے مکینوں سے کسی قسم کی بات نہیں کرتیں۔ انھوں نے بتایا کہ صوبے میں خوف و ہراس کی صورتحال اس قدر بڑھ گئی ہے کہ لوگ بات نہیں کر سکتے کیونکہ ہر وہ شخص جس نے انسانی حقوق کی خلاف ورزی کے کسی معاملے میں سیکورٹی اداروں کے ملوث ہونے کی نشاندہی کی ہے اسے مار دیا گیا ہے۔
کمیشن کے سیکرٹری جنرل آئی اے رحمان کا کہنا ہے کہ بلوچستان میں لوگوں کو اپنے حقوق کے لیے آواز اٹھانی ہو تو وہ رات کے اندھیرے کا سہارا لیتے ہیں ۔
انھوں نے کہا کہ بلوچستان میں صورتحال مکمل طور پر خراب ہو چکی ہے اور اب یہ نہ سمجھا جائے کے یہ امن و امان کا مسئلہ ہے۔ ’یہ ایک سیاسی مسئلہ ہے اور اگر اس کا سیاسی حل نہ نکلا تو ہم سب ذمہ دار ہوں گے۔‘
عاصمہ جہانگیر کا کہنا تھا کہ جب کسی واقعہ کی ایف آئی آر درج ہوتی ہے تو اس میں ایف سی کے اہلکاروں کا نام لیا جاتا ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا اگر یہ نام بار بار سامنے آ رہے ہیں تو حکومت ان سے پوچھ گچھ کیوں نہیں کرتی۔
رپورٹ میں اعداد و شمار کے حوالے سے ایچ آر سی پی کی چیئر پرسن زہرہ یوسف کا کہنا تھا کہ بلوچستان کے دورے کے دوران بلوچ قوم پرست جماعتوں اور مختلف وکیلوں سے ملنے پر معلوم ہوا ہے کہ متاثرہ افراد کی تعداد ہزاروں میں ہے۔
تاہم اس رپورٹ میں محض ان لوگوں کا ذکر کیا گیا ہے جن کے معاملات کی تصدیق ایچ آر سی پی کر سکی ہے۔ کمیشن کا کہنا ہے کہ تصدیق شدہ معلومات کے مطابق محض خضدار ڈسٹرکٹ میں ایک سال سے کم عرصے کے دوران تینتیس ایسی لاشیں ملی ہیں جن کی شناخت نہیں ہو سکی۔ اس کے علاوہ گزشتہ ایک سال میں اب تک ایک سو چالیس مزید لوگ لاپتہ ہو چکے ہیں زہرہ یوسف نے مزید کہا کہ بلوچستان میں انسانی حقوق کی خلاف ورزی اتنے بڑے پیمانے پر ہو رہی ہے کہ** ’ہمارے کہے بغیر ہی ایمنسٹی اور پیرس میں موجود سٹیٹ نیشنل فیڈریشن فار ہیومن رائٹس جیسی بین الاقوامی تنظیمیں بھی اس معاملے پر نظر رکھے ہوئے ہیں‘**۔
رپورٹ میں جو تجاویز دی گئی ہیں ان کے حوالے سے زہرہ یوسف نے بتایا کہ کچھ توگزشتہ رپورٹس میں سے ہی دوبارہ شامل کی گئی ہیں کیونکہ ان کی شنوائی نہیں ہوئی لیکن ٹارگٹ کلنگ اور اقلیتوں کی ابتر حالت کے بارے میں کچھ نئی تجاویز پیش کی گئی ہیں۔
کمیشن نے بلوچستان میں ٹارگٹ کلنگ اور لوگوں کے لاپتہ ہونے کے ساتھ ساتھ جس اہم پہلو کی نشاندہی کی ہے اس میں بلوچستان میں مذہبی اور لسانی اقلیتوں کو درپیش خطرات بھی شامل ہیں۔ آئی اے رحمان کا کہنا ہے کہ یہ تمام اقلیتیں نشانے پر ہیں۔
زہرہ یوسف کا کہنا تھا کہ ہندو کمیونٹی سے تعلق رکھنے والے افراد کا کہنا ہے کہ جب تک نواب اکبر بگٹی زندہ تھے اس وقت تک ان کے لیے کبھی بھی غیر محفوظ حالات پیدا نہیں ہوئے۔
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
Another one by Cyril: http://www.cyrilalmeida.com/2011/07/01/dawn-a-security-prism-not-a-human-one-by-cyril-almeida/
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
[http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/04/reluctant-pakistanis.html
Reluctant PakistanisBy Zofeen T. Ebrahim | [URL=“http://www.dawn.com/author/dawn-com”]DAWN.COM](http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/04/reluctant-pakistanis.html)
**Qadeer Baloch misses a thousand heartbeats each time he lifts the sheet of a corpse, afraid it is going to be his son this time. For three years he has seen over a hundred mutilated bodies brought from across Balochistan, all tortured – singed, sliced, eyeballs pulled out, limbs drilled, some unrecognisable due to the acid burns.
“I don’t wish that of even my worst enemy,” says the 62-year father who started the Voice for the Baloch Missing Persons, a support group of families of the abducted. **They assemble outside the Quetta Press Club, every day, holding a sit-in as a way of protest.
His son, Jaleel Reki was picked up while he was on his way home from Friday prayers on Feb 13, 2009, and has been missing since.
Reki was politically inclined and was fighting for the rights of the Baloch people, acknowledges his father, who has himself been receiving threats to stop this campaign.
Most family members will tell you openly that those ‘missing’ had nationalist leanings and were raising their voices against years of injustice meted out to the Baloch people.
“I’d be the happiest person on earth if tomorrow my son surfaces, is tried in the court and then sentenced for his crime. I won’t flinch even if he’s sent to the gallows; but to silence all dissenting voices like this is downright cruel,” says Qadeer Baloch.
**While all attention remains focused on the US-led war on terror, the atrocities committed on the Balochs, in this mineral-rich province, since 2000, is of little interest to the rest of Pakistan.
Even the media, otherwise robust and active, are unusually silently about the brewing discontent.
Over the last many months, there has been a sudden surfacing of mutilated corpses bearing torture marks of students, teachers, political workers, rights activists, singers, poets, shopkeepers, all who had earlier gone missing.
Rights groups say it is indisputable who is behind this. “The abuses in Balochistan have been perpetrated by the Frontier Corps, Military Intelligence and the Inter Services Intelligence in that order with the FC and MI being the principal abusing agencies,” Human Rights Watch tells Dawn.com.
The same is corroborated by Zohra Yusuf, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “In almost all cases, the perpetrators of enforced disappearances are believed to be intelligence agency personnel. There are eyewitnesses who have testified as such. The Supreme Court has summoned them many times, but they fail to appear,” she says.**
Observing the situation in Balochistan to be “extremely precarious”, the HRCP sharing its recent findings in a report titled ‘Blinkered Slide into Chaos’ stated, “All authority in the province seems to vest with the security forces which enjoy complete impunity”.
**Denying these charges, the military has alleged that people wearing FC personnel uniforms were behind the abductions and killings.
In an interview to BBC in November 2010, however, Balochistan’s chief minister, Aslam Raisani, insisted that security agencies were “definitely” behind the abductions and killings.**
Balochistan, the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan making up 43 percent of the land mass, is on the edge. **State oppression combined with youth resentment is gnawing at the province. Many Baloch have taken up arms and turned militant in their bid to seek freedom, yet they lack leadership and a vision to steer them out of the chaos that persists there. In the commotion, the criminal element is taking full advantage.
When forty-something school teacher, Safir Baloch’s mutilated corpse was found (nine months after he was picked up from Civil Hospital, in Panjgur; it was half singed with acid burns. “He had been dead for a month and his body and body parts of his two friends, Abid Shah and Sattar Baloch had been buried at a construction site and accidentally discovered while the place was being dug up,” narrates Sheema Baloch, his sister.
“Even animals are not tortured the way my brother was,” crackles Sheema’s angry voice over phone from Quetta. She is angry with the world and the media in particular.
“We have been protesting for years at the injustice meted out to the Baloch people but it is as if you can’t hear or feel our pain; I’m afraid you’re too late in showing your concern,” she adds and quietly puts the phone down, bringing an end to the conversation.
**
Sheema’s is not a lone voice of scorn.
**
Rukhsana Langho, a 25-year old student “hates” Pakistan and wants “freedom”.
Strong words indeed coming from a Pakistani, but the pain and anger in her voice cannotbe assuaged, not until her ‘disappeared’ brother, Mir Ghaffar Langho, 35, comes back, alive. (The writer spoke to Rukhsana Langho last week and the day after filing this story found out that her brother’s tortured body was found at Gadani).
Mehr Jan, 28, a young Baloch woman has not had the misfortune of experiencing a loved one being picked up but having seen between 60-70 mutilated bodies she can empathise and feel a real pain “of the mothers, wives and children who have sacrificed their dear ones in the name of freedom”.**
In 2005, she, along with other like-minded educated women formed the Baloch Women Panel to show their solidarity for the families of the missing and raise awareness among the women that it was time to “stand shoulder to shoulder with our men in the struggle for independence”.
By 2007 the forum had enough members to help collect data of the ‘missing’ from all over Balochistan.
“Unlike men, we could go house-to-house and talk to women,” said Jan. She recalls the historic rally the Balochi women took out in Quetta on August 14, that year. “It was a huge success attended by almost 5,000 women from across Balochistan,” she narrated.
**
“It’s a struggle that is not going to be quelled, Jan says, because mothers, sisters and wives are in it all the way. She narrates what Faiz Bibi said when she saw the mutilated body of her 28-year old son Kareem Baloch. A law student in Sibi, he was kidnapped by security forces on February 14, 2011 and his dead body found on April 17, 2011 with a chit saying ‘Pakistan Zindabad, Balochistan Murdabad (Long live Pakistan, Death to Balochistan)’.
On seeing her son’s body, says Jan, Bibi thanked God and said she would not hesitate to sacrifice her other two sons and that Kareem had made her proud. “She did not weep at her loss and there was no lamentation,” said Jan.
“Under such circumstances, how can I not feel for these mothers and wives who are left to fend for themselves?” counters Jan saying: “There are countless homes where the only bread-earner is no more, where children have stopped going to school and where they do not even have two square meals,” Jan explains.
Jan remembers her childhood when they would sing the nation al anthem and hoist the Pakistan flag every morning at assembly in school. “My younger cousins tell me that does not happen anymore. That stopped in 2009 when state violence reached its zenith.”**
In so much heartburn, 27-year old Malik Siraj Akbar’s voice seems saner than ever. The young editor of the online newspaper, Baloch Hal (which has been blocked by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority since last November) supports reconciliation.
**The only way out, according to Akbar is for the state to make overtures towards the people of Balochistan and address their grievances. But the problem is, he says: “The establishment is diversity blind and does not recognise ethnic or political diversity.” According to him all parameters of patriotism are set in Islamabad. Those who do not fit into the mould of the “centralised Pakistani Muslim” or do “not believe in a certain political discourse”, are labelled anti-state and their voices quashed”.
And warns Qadeer Baloch – if the state does not handle the perilous situation, it will soon be too late with “an East-Pakistan like situation”. There is urgency in his voice.**
Zofeen T. Ebrahim is a freelance journalist.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
During the past week Alone three mutilated dead bodies have surfaced. Will the state ever learn?
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
I wonder where was the humanity of these people when innocent punjabis and urdu speaking people were being butchered by ugly baloch terrorists. I mean, day and night, they killed hundreds of teachers, engineers, doctors, professors, molested their female family members and took hold of the properties of non-balochs. The media was silent over all this and a significant majority of balochs were actually enjoying the situation. 90% of the people abducted are BLA killers.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
Why did the killings of punjabi settlers start in the beginning? Now has the state solved the problem? What is the difference in the oppression meted out by the Indians in Kashmir and what our army is conducting in balochistan? Are we an occupying army there? Is Pakistan Army a professional army or a bunch of assasins?
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
Spinning half-truths on Balochistan
By Ayesha Siddiqa
Published: July 9, 2011
Balochistan is quite fashionable these days, especially amongst the establishment wallahs, some of whom have been visiting the place, writing about it or even getting research grants to figure out ways to make the Baloch patriotic. There are two state-friendly narratives available. The first is, that all violence in Balochistan is a foreign conspiracy. Therefore, what is required is greater show of force. The second, and one that is extremely unkind to the Baloch, says that people have died in the conflict and that this must end, and reconciliation be made possible by providing a few thousand jobs. Both these approaches denote the state’s stick and carrot approach.
It is believed that carrots will work because tribal leaders who have no support amongst common people primarily drive the insurgency. Interestingly, recent newspaper reports on the issue heavily cite sources that are Rawalpindi’s agents in Balochistan. Mostly, these are non-Baloch who fail to highlight the fact that the presence of the Frontier Corps (FC), which is pre-dominantly manned by the Pashtun, is nibbling at communal harmony in the province. Instead, these agents are engaged in fanning fear amongst ordinary Pakistanis of Baloch people and nationalists who seem to be killing Punjabis. These nationalists, thus, have to be dealt with a heavy hand just as the state treated the pro-autonomy politicians of former East Pakistan. Even then, the ordinary soldier was taught to brutalise the Bengalis under the false assumption that all were Hindus. Why be overly critical of the reactive violence of non-state actors when this is the only lesson that the state gives them?** People are not told that there is angry reaction from the other side too, especially when violence is the main lesson given by the state. From the perspective of the state’s responsibility in encouraging reactive violence, there is little difference between Kashmir and Balochistan. In any case, there is no hard evidence to prove that all killings of non-Baloch are the work of Baloch nationalists.**
The media has failed to highlight the fact that the latest round of the Baloch insurgency is not really a child of tribal leaders living outside the country, or is led by the clients of these leaders. Instead, the insurgency is now located in areas such as Makran that have not experienced a tribal system in a hundred years. Moreover, the insurgency is increasingly dominated by the Baloch middle class which has not only reacted to the state’s brutality but humiliation pulled upon ordinary folk by the FC stationed in Balochistan. The origins of the present insurgency date back to 2005 when the agencies arrested and tortured a few doctors and engineers.
An excessively powerful and brutal establishment often forgets that victims of violence also have honour and self-respect. Moreover, an angry victim will return to avenge the death of his loved ones or damage to his/her own pride. Just because the Baloch have lived in unbearable conditions of underdevelopment for the last 64 years does not justify their humiliation and killing at the hands of state forces. The abundance of FC check posts, picking up of people by security and intelligence agencies and their disappearance and killing are wounds which will not disappear with a few jobs.
Not that the state did not have an option to befriend the Baloch middle class, especially when Gwadar was being developed, through distributing land amongst the educated, professional, working class Baloch. However, the state adopted the age-old formula of going through the tribal stakeholders and putting some of the land at the disposal of its handpicked chief minister for further distribution amongst his clients.
Sadly, the state is still engaged in building a counterproductive narrative the same way it did in East Pakistan. Surely, the situation of the 1970s is not comparable with that of Balochistan where the Baloch do not have the same control of the territory as the Bengalis had then. But then we can continue to live in a condition of terrible suspicion of each other.
Though the time is fast running out for peace, any forward movement must begin with removing the FC, finding the missing people and taking responsibility for those that are dead. Spinning half-truths will not take us far in solving the Balochistan problem. The security apparatus must realise how its agents are misguiding it.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2011.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
http://www.thebalochhal.com/2011/07/fear-overshadows-daily-life-in-balochistan/
Fear Overshadows Daily Life in Balochistan
By Muatasim Qazi
Life is a treacherous partner, as the adage goes in Balochi, but in today’s Balochistan its treachery seems to be in the superlative given the volatile situation the insurgency-struck region faces with almost daily kidnappings, bomb blasts, surfacing of bullet-riddled and mutilated corpses of missing persons found alongside roads or hanging on trees.** And worst still, an unending target-killing spree of teachers, political activists, journalists and rights activists by government-backed death squads is on the rise. You name it, they have it on their who-to-kill-when list.
**
In a situation where people’s right to life is compromised by the state, it is natural to develop an acute sense of fear and trepidation. That’s exactly many people in Balochistan already feel. A friend of mine from Quetta, currently working in a non-governmental organization as a social worker and rights activist, tells me how dejected the whole civil society in Balochistan feels at recent killings in the region.
**
“They kill almost every Baloch who is doing some good work for the community,” he said, citing the recent killing of Mir Rustam Marri, a political activist and social worker who was shot dead in Jaffarabad district on June 23. Rustam Marri was working on the cases of Baloch internally displaced persons, or IDPs, who were driven out of their homes from Dera Bugti and Kohlu after the Musharraf regime started a full-fledged military operation in the area to control the region, rich in oil and gas, and also to wipe out prominent Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.
**
With death almost imminent, my friend asks me in the most hapless and helpless of voices to write a good obituary of him in case he gets killed, like Rustam Marri. **“I know because of the kind of work I am doing for the betterment of my community, they won’t spare me,” he tells me as if the angel of death is about to knock the last knock. I don’t bother to ask who for everybody already knows.
**
**My friend’s fears hold credence given Rustam Marri’s killing and earlier of two other prominent rights activist, Naeem Sabirand Siddique Eidho. Sabir, 35, was the coordinator of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Core Group in Khuzadar. He was gunned down in the same town in March 2011. Sabir had been documenting cases of enforced disappearances and the number of bullet-riddled bodies of Baloch missing persons that surfaced in his town. Eidho, 31, was also a coordinator for HRCP in Pasni town in district Gwadar and also a journalist. He first became a victim of enforced disappearance in December last year and then his body wasfound in Ormara on April 28, 2011.
**
**These killings, including that of more than 170 political activists, journalists, lawyers, doctors, teachers and other human rights defenders, not only have further aggravated people’s fears but also have led to some other serious psychological problems among many quarters of the population.
Hani Safeer Baloch, daughter of Master Safeer Baloch, a political activist and a teacher who was kidnapped in my hometown – Panjgur – on August 15 last year and his bullet-ridden body was found this May in a seasonal river along with two other activists,told America’s largest public radio network, NPR, last week that all members of her family have migraine attacks.** “We are going to psychiatrists,” young Hani Safeer told NPR. **“I failed in my test because I couldn’t read. I was so tortured,” she said.
But her sufferings don’t end here as mutilated, bullet-ridden bodies of Baloch missing persons surface almost every day.** **“And when I see this coming on the news that a body has been thrown, I’ve become so restless.”
**
What further adds to the fears of people in Balochistan is that all these killings have gone uninvestigated. Perpetrates of these murders whether committed extra-judicially in a torture cell of covert intelligence agencies of the country or when the victim went for an evening walk when he found the bullet of a government-backed target-killer, enjoy absolute immunity. However, one thing is for sure: When people overpower their fear, they tend to achieve what history remembers as milestones. Is it going to happen in Balochistan as well? Only time can tell.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
Reminds of the mukti bahini days and propaganda we had from our military.
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
Sadly their mentality has not changed even after 40 years of partition
Re: Insurgents suffer bloody reprisals
My appeal to the government, and army please wake up solve this issue through dialogue so that we can have peace in Balochistan and then concentrate on ridding FATA from the anti state elements. Please solve these issues asap as the time is running out, and there are many many more insurmountable challenges that need to be tackled after this like economy and energy crisis.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/11/bnp-m-calls-for-talks-to-solve-contentious-issues.html
BNP-M calls for talks to solve contentious issuesBy Amanullah Kasi | From the Newspaper
[
QUETTA: Balochistan National Party (Mengal) acting president Jehanzeb Jamaldani has said that throwing of bullet-riddled bodies, the alleged illegal arrests and military operation in Balochistan are aimed to push the Baloch to the wall but they will not abandon their struggle against the ‘oppressors’.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday at the end of a two-day meeting of the BNP-M’s office-bearers of 16 districts, **he regretted that the Supreme Court had not taken suo motu notice of frequent abduction and killing of Baloch people in the province.
The party during its meeting discussed the political situation in Balochistan and the BNP-M’s organisational matters and decided to mobilise the Baloch against the “anti-people actions of the government”.
**
Dr Jamaldani said that people of Balochistan were facing a painful situation owing to the alleged military actions, extra-judicial killings and unlawful arrests.
About the armed activities by some organisations, he said that morally the BNP-M supported them for their struggle against the injustices and exploitation of the resources of the Baloch land.
However, **Dr Jamaldani said his party believed that contentious issues should be resolved through negotiations, adding that political dialogue was the only way to settle political and constitutional matters.
He said Baloch people had been denied their rights since long and that’s why they had been struggling against those who had been usurping their resources.**
He urged the government to immediately stop work on the Reko-Diq and other ‘anti-Baloch’ projects launched without the consent of Baloch people.
Condemning corruption in the provincial departments, Dr Jamaldani alleged that ministers and government functionaries were looting people’s money instead of utilising it for the welfare of the common man.](“http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/11/bnp-m-calls-for-talks-to-solve-contentious-issues.html”)