Oppression in Balochistan and its struggle for freedom

So, Paks are perpetrating targeted ethnic cleansing of Baloch leaders. We need to protect these guys, otherwise, Baloch freedom fight will be without leadership and will be in disarray

Nice watch. You can see in this video how the Baloch students resent Pakistan and its rule on Balochistan. I recommend to each one of you to watch it.

Watch Policy Matters – 8th July 2009

awsome DD grate find

Really eye opening video, DD.

Not sure why this issue gets so little media coverage. Pakistan is occupying a whole people at the force of arms donated by others!

May the force be with the Baloch. We should extend the political, diplomatic and material assistance to these people that they need to get free.

truly an eye opener video, DD, thanks for bring it to us.

the best part of the whole thing was that the moment the lady interviewer was taken on the back foot she forced the interviewees to not speak out and then tried to deliver a lecture which was based on loose facts. come to think of it in the initial stages she was not even ready to listen to the historical facts dating to 1947-48, and kept insisting to the accord of 1973 and in a country where constitution has no validity where coup after coup is a norm, where the state is run to the whims and fancies of a dictator they have the guts of talking about 1973 constitutional amendment, where each time a dictator comes he plays around with constitution as if it is a tool to further his agenda.

the best part of the discussion was when the young lady talked about target killings of their men, women, disappearance of their relatives and activists of Baluchistan freedom, rape of their women at the hand of pakistan army and the beauty came when she made an instant reference to the of the reaction of the lady interviewer when claims to such incidents happening in kashmir are made when in reality the facts are that all those are local issues with reference to local disputes that people have and they just look the other side when the same is done by pakistan army in Baluchistan. some bunch of hypocrites.

there has to be a some sort of a foreign policy initiative on this issue on india's part for sure and india does need to test the waters with some low rug official of external affairs ministry to make some passing reference to the electronic media where things go on record and some blunt points are raised about the sufferings of the people of Baluchistan and tell pakistan to keep off kashmir and highlight PoK. if india can pull this off then pakistan will be completely on the back foot with a bleeding nose and henceforth each time they talk about kashmir they need to be given this dose.

the sooner the GoI takes a tough stand on the issue the better from both Baluchistan's freedom point of view and also for india. the only hindrance i can see is the sensitivities of iran on this whole issue but still i feel india does need to pull up its socks on the issue and give a taste of its own medicine to islamabad, the sooner the better.

i loved the way the girl at the very beganing said that i am not a pakistani but a baluchi an i dont want to t alk any thing connected to pakistan

Actually, that was a tight slap on the face of Pakistan by the girl.

All of them wanted nothing to do with Pakistan. I never knew that this is how the small educated community of Balochistan thinks.

It is obvious that Pakistan has conspired to keep Balochis backward and in the grip of the few Sardars who could be bribed and killed if required. A student also mentioned about their 9000 year history compared to the 60 years history of Pakistan.

and notice how the Host gets aggitated when a man told about the similarity between Kashmir and Baluchistan and he said

Another Insurgency Gains in Pakistan



Demonstrators in Karachi, Pakistan, marched in April to denounce the killings of three local politicians from Baluchistan Province, deaths that some attribute to Pakistani intelligence agencies.

By CARLOTTA GALL
TURBAT, Pakistan — Three local political leaders were seized from a small legal office here in April, handcuffed, blindfolded and hustled into a waiting pickup truck in front of their lawyer and neighboring shopkeepers. Their bodies, riddled with bullets and badly decomposed in the scorching heat, were found in a date palm grove five days later.

Local residents are convinced that the killings were the work of the Pakistani intelligence agencies, and the deaths have provided a new spark for revolt across Baluchistan, a vast and restless province in Pakistan’s southwest where the government faces yet another insurgency.

Although not on the same scale as the Taliban insurgency in the northwest, the conflict in Baluchistan is steadily gaining ground. Politicians and analysts warn that it presents a distracting second front for the authorities, drawing off resources, like helicopters, that the United States provided Pakistan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Baluch nationalists and some Pakistani politicians say the Baluch conflict holds the potential to break the country apart — Baluchistan makes up a third of Pakistan’s territory — unless the government urgently deals with years of pent up grievances and stays the hand of the military and security services.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Baluch were rounded up in a harsh regime of secret detentions and torture under President Pervez Musharraf, who left office last year. Human rights groups and Baluch activists say those abuses have continued under President Asif Ali Zardari, despite promises to heal tensions.

“It’s pretty volatile,” said Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, the governor of Baluchistan. “When you try to forcibly pacify people, you will get a reaction.”

The discovery of the men’s bodies on April 8 set off days of rioting and weeks of strikes, demonstrations and civil resistance. In schools and colleges, students pulled down the Pakistani flag and put up the pale blue, red and green Baluch nationalist flag.

Schoolchildren still refuse to sing the national anthem at assemblies, instead breaking into a nationalist Baluch song championing the armed struggle for independence, teachers and parents said.

For the first time, women, traditionally secluded in Baluch society, have joined street protests against the continuing detentions of nationalist figures. Graffiti daubed on walls around this town call for independence and guerrilla war, which persists in large parts of the province.

The nationalist opposition stems from what it sees as the forcible annexation of Baluchistan by Pakistan 62 years ago at Pakistan’s creation. But much of the popular resentment stems from years of economic and political marginalization, something President Zardari promised to remedy but has done little to actually address.

In interviews, people in and around Turbat said the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies were still doggedly pursuing nationalist sympathizers.

A case in point, they say, is that of the three political figures who were killed: Gul Muhammad, Lala Munir and Sher Muhammad, all prominent in the nationalist movement.

Government officials say the men were being prosecuted for activities against the state but deny any involvement in their deaths. People are not convinced and say that while the men supported independence, they were not involved in the armed struggle.

Mir Kachkol Ali, the men’s lawyer, who witnessed their abduction, said the killings represented a deepening of the campaign by the Pakistani military to crush the Baluch nationalist movement. “Their tactics are not only to torture and detain, but to eliminate,” he said.

The insurgents, who say they are led by the Baluchistan Liberation Army, have escalated their tactics, too. A prominent example was the kidnapping in February of an American citizen, John Solecki, the head of the United Nations refugee organization in the provincial capital, Quetta.

The abduction was carried out by a breakaway group of young radicals who wanted to draw international attention to their cause and to exchange their captive for Baluch being held by the security services.

Mr. Solecki was released in April after the intervention of Baluch leaders, including Gul Muhammad. Baluch leaders speculate that the intelligence agencies may have killed Mr. Muhammad and his colleagues to provoke the kidnappers into murdering the American, which would have branded the Baluch nationalists as terrorists.

Instead, “the killing of these three has centralized the national movement of Baluchistan,” Mr. Ali, the lawyer, said.

He and others said they had no doubt that the intelligence services were responsible.

The three men were in his office on April 3 when a half-dozen armed men seized them, he said.

“They were persons of the agencies,” Mr. Ali said. “They were in plain clothes, but from their hairstyles, their language, we know them.” Mr. Ali has lodged a case with the police against the intelligence agencies for the abduction and murder of the three.

Nisar Ahmed, a shopkeeper and friend of the political leaders, said he saw them pushed into a pickup truck. He also said that the armed men appeared to be intelligence agents and that they were escorted by a second vehicle with 10 more armed men, also in plain clothes, who looked to be from the Frontier Corps paramilitary force.

While the insurgency remains strong in other parts of Baluchistan, the military has largely crushed the resistance around Turbat since March 2007, yet armed men are still in the hills and continue to be rounded up, residents here said.

Yousuf Muhammad, the brother of Gul Muhammad, one of the slain political leaders, said that in February he was hung by his hands from the ceiling for 48 hours in a Pakistani military camp.

“They came to arrest Gul Muhammad but they found me,” he said. Another brother, Obeidullah, said Gul Muhammad had received threats from people in the intelligence agencies warning him to stop his work. The latest came 10 days before his death, he said.

A group of students in the nearby town of Tump said they were rounded up and held in various army camps without charge for seven months in 2007. Some said they were suspended by their hands or their feet until they passed out, were beaten and were held in solitary confinement. Each showed a blackened mark where a toenail had been pulled out.

The arrests and disappearances have hardened attitudes, townspeople said, particularly among the young.

Even the governor, who is the president’s representative in the province, expressed exasperation at the Zardari government’s inaction in addressing the needs of the population. Many Baluch are increasingly cynical about the government’s ability to change things.

Sayed Hassan Shah, the minister for industry and commerce in Baluchistan, said his party was now demanding provincial autonomy.

“This is our last option,” he said. “If we fail, then maybe we have to think of liberation or separation.”

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who know binary and those who don't.. "

Great Words bro,:113:

So you know binary. :wink:

August 11 ‘Independence Day’ of Balochistan: BNP
Sunday, 9 Aug, 2009 10:41 pm

NASIRABAD : August 11 is Independence Day of Balochistan. And it would be celebrated with great enthusiasm.

This was stated by Secretary General Balochistan National Party (BNP) Habib Jalib Baloch while speaking with journalists in Dera Murad Jamali from Quetta by telephone Sunday.

He said Chattar incident is result of ongoing military operation in Balochistan, excesses and cruelty and exploitation.

Balochistan has been completely handed over to army and FC who have unleashed excesses against Baloch people.

Answering a question he said murder of provincial minister Rustam Jamali is work of agencies.

He was a Baloch Sardar and Baloch nation has suffered a loss.

Prior to his murder, Abdullah Baloch, Asif Baloch and Zahid Baloch were also killed in Karachi and their killers were not arrested yet.

Answering another question BNP leader said that present government is product of dictatorship. And policies of dictator like Musharraf were continuing.

He said era for depriving Baloch nation of its resources and right to rule is over now. Now destination is near.

Answering another question he said August 11 is day of Independent Balochistan.

A public meeting would be held in Sarab. It is because once Sarab was the headquarter of Balochistan.

He strongly criticised provincial government and said it has arrested our important leaders and it has revealed government's frustration clearly.

A Home-grown Conflict

Malik Siraj Akbar11 August 2009, 12:00am IST

When the first Baloch insurgency broke out in 1948 to resist the illegal and forceful annexation of the Baloch-populated autonomous Kalat state

with Pakistan, Manmohan Singh - today Indian prime minister - was barely a teenager while his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani had not even been born to witness the rebellion's magnitude. Yet, last month, both leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh discussed for the first time the indefatigable Baloch insurgency.

Pakistan has been blaming India for causing trouble in its resource-rich province. Gilani broached the issue with India at a time disgruntled Baloch youth have removed the Pakistani flag from schools and colleges and stopped playing the national anthem. Punjabi officers refuse to serve in Balochistan, fearing they would be target-killed. Islamabad attributes the unrest to 'foreign involvement'. India is not the first to be blamed. Similar allegations were levelled in the past against the now defunct Soviet Union, Afghanistan and Iraq to discredit the indigenous movement for retaining a distinct Baloch identity. Indian assistance sounds ridiculous given that the Baloch do not share a border, common language, religion or history with India. Hardly has 1 per cent of Balochs have visited India.

The idea of Pakistan never attracted the secular Baloch. Ghose Baksh Bizanjo, a Baloch leader, said in 1947: "It is not necessary that by virtue of our being Muslims we should lose our freedom... If the mere fact that we are Muslims requires us to join Pakistan, then Afghanistan and Iran... should also amalgamate with Pakistan."

Over the years, Islamabad has applied a multi-pronged approach to deal with Balochista Apart from military operations launched in 1948, 1958, 1962, 1973 and 2002 to quash the rebellion, Islamabad adopted other tactics. First, it kept the province economically backward by denying it good infrastructure, mainly in education and health. Natural gas was discovered in Balochistan in 1951 and supplied to Punjab's industrial units. The Balochs hardly benefit from their own gas.

Second, Balochs, whom the state views as traitors, were denied representation in the army, foreign services, federal departments, profitable corporations, Pakistan International Airlines, customs, railways and other key institutions. Third, Balochistan has historically been remote-controlled from Islamabad. A Pakistan army corps commander, often a Punjabi or a Pathan, and the inspector general of the Frontier Corps, a federal paramilitary force with less than 2 per cent Baloch representation, exert more power than the province's elected chief minister. The intelligence agencies devise election plans and decide who has to come to the provincial parliament and who should be ousted.

Fourth, Islamabad has created a state of terror inside Balochistan. Hundreds of check posts have been established to harass people and restrict their movement. Forces and tanks are stationed even on campuses of universities. Fifth, national and international media are denied access to conflict zones in Balochistan. Several foreign journalists were beaten up supposedly by intelligence agencies personnel or deported when they endeavoured to report the actual situation. Sixth, international human rights organisations are denied access to trace the whereabouts of some 5,000 'missing persons'. Pakistan is also in a state of denial about the existence of around 2,00,000 internally displaced persons in Balochistan.

Seventh, Islamabad has been engaged in systematic target killing of key Baloch democratic leaders. Ex-governor and chief minister of Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Bugti, 79, became a victim once he demanded Baloch rights. Balach Marri, a Balochistan Assembly member, was killed to undermine the movement. In April this year, three other prominent leaders were whisked away by security forces and subsequently killed.

Eighth, Pakistan has pitted radical Taliban against secular and democratic Baloch forces. The state is brazenly funding thousands of religious schools across the province with the help of Arab countries to promote religious radicalisation. Elements supportive of Taliban were covertly helped by state institutions to contest and win general elections. They now enjoy sizeable representation in the Balochistan Assembly to legislate against the nationalists and secular forces.

Ninth, Islamabad has been using sophisticated American weapons, provided to crush Taliban, against the Baloch people. This has provided breathing space to Taliban hidden in Quetta and weeded out progressive elements. Finally, Afghan refugees are being patronised to create a demographic imbalance in the Baloch-dominated province.

Baloch leaders are critical of many democratic countries for not doing 'enough' to safeguard a democratic, secular Baloch people. I asked Bramdagh Bugti, a Baloch commander, about the India link. He laughed and said, "Would our people live amid such miserable conditions if we enjoyed support from India? We are an oppressed people... seeking help from India, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union to come for our rescue."

The Baloch movement is rapidly trickling down from tribal chiefs to educated middle-class youth aggressively propagating their cause on Facebook and YouTube. This generation would understandably welcome foreign assistance but will not give up even if denied help from countries like India. The Baloch insist their struggle was not interrupted even at times when India and Pakistan enjoyed cordial relations.

The writer is Balochistan bureau chief of Daily Times .

Baloch Activist Ehsan Arjemandi kidnapped from coastal highway



By: Shafi Baloch Published: August 10, 2009

KARACHI - A Norway national went missing when he was on way to Karachi from Balochistan on August 7. Norway Foreign Ministry said that it had taken strict notice of the matter and it will soon contact the Government of Pakistan, The Nation has learnt on Sunday.

Ehsan Arjmandi (38) having dual nationality of Pakistan and Norway is a political activist in Norway. He reached Pakistan a couple of weeks back to visit his family members settled in Turbat and Mand district of Balochistan.

After meeting with his family members in Mand, he left for Karachi on August 7 by an intercity bus titled ‘Aslam Dandahi Coach’. When the bus reached Zero point Coastal Highway near Uttal check post, about 12km away from the Uttal city, some unidentified vehicles intercepted the bus, armed men people got into the bus and took out Ehsan from the bus and covered his head with a black blanket and took him away.

Some of his relatives, while quoting the eyewitness, told The Nation that more than twenty vehicles having resemblance with intelligence agencies vehicles took Ehsan with them. His family members have claimed that Ehsan was taken away by the intelligence agencies.

Ehsan had come in Pakistan after a long time. He is said to be a heart patient and also suffering from asthma and several other diseases, while he was under regular medical treatment on daily basis. His life is in danger as he was taking regular dozes of medicines. If medication is not provided to him, he could not survive during detention, his relatives said.

IntelliBriefs

India should consider further balkanisation of pakistan into sindh, balokistan, pasthunistan and lahore federation (punjab). Its cold start strategy should be aimed at such an approach. Iran should be effectively roped in as well as afghanistan for this. The soviet union failed to free baloks from pak and ended up disintegrated, as those very grounds were used to breed jihadism. And it should be a mistake india would be unwilling to make.