‘Balochistan conflict gaining ground’

* New York Times report says PPP government has done little to address Baloch grievances

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Three local political leaders were seized from a small legal office from Turbat in April, handcuffed, blindfolded and hustled into a waiting pickup truck in front of their lawyer and neighbouring shopkeepers. Their bodies, riddled with bullets and badly decomposed in the scorching heat, were found in a date palm grove five days later.

The New York Times on Sunday quoted local residents as saying that they were convinced the killings were the work of intelligence agencies. The deaths fuelled an existing insurgency in Balochistan, with nationalists taking to the streets across the province.

Although the level of this building insurgency is not the same as that of the Taliban, the conflict is gradually gaining ground.

Politicians and analysts have warned that the conflict could open another front for the government, which is already engaged with the Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in the north.

Baloch nationalists and several politicians believe the Balochistan situation has the potential to disintegrate the country, unless the government deals with the Baloch anger as a priority.

Thousands of Baloch people were believed to have been rounded up by former president Pervez Musharraf’s regime.

Baloch nationalists maintain the abuses continue under President Asif Ali Zardari and promises to heal tensions stand broken.

“It’s pretty volatile,” said Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi, the governor of Balochistan.

Efforts: Much of the Baloch resentment is a result of years of economic and political negligence. President Zardari had promised to remedy it all, but the Baloch people believe his government has done little in reality to address the grievances.

The Baloch people are becoming increasingly sceptical about the government’s sincerity to deal with their issues.

Sayed Hassan Shah, the provincial minister for Industry and Commerce, said his party was determined to attain provincial autonomy. “This is our last option,” he said. “If we fail, then maybe we have to think of liberation or separation.”

Even Governor Magsi expressed his exasperation at the government’s inaction in addressing the needs of the population.

The First Night of Torture Cell

By Malik Siraj Akbar

“Sometimes when my uncles got together, they would go into a corner and talk about a mysterious thing called sex. It sounded wonderful. I prayed that it would not go away before I grew up.”

[The Other Side of Me, Sidney Sheldon]

I was born during Zia-ul-Haq’s military regime. Normally many of us in Pakistan these days take pride in citing such coincidences. It looks like leaving a ‘positive impression’ on one’s readers or listeners that ‘yes, I grew up during the gruesome martial law days. I was born as a Muslim and the State of Pakistan forced me to be a re-born Muslim.”

I was only five when Zia, the ultra-Islamic dictator, perished in an air crash in August 1988.

Yet, Zia’s legacy continued. I was brainwashed and spoon-fed a lot of Islamic stuff at home as well as at school. While children of our age elsewhere in the world delightedly harped about cartoons and music, we spent a considerable amount of time discussing with our compatriots about Life after Death. We coveted Janaat (Paradise). We endlessly speculated about the beauty of the Hoors
(the beautiful women promised to the ‘faithful men’ who would qualify to Paradise).

Among all topics that we kept guessing about the First Night of Grave (Qabar ki Pheli raath) topped the list. We spent hours and hours discussing how the first night inside the grave would possibly feel like. Would we wake up inside the grave once we are buried? Would we converse in Arabic, even if we can’t speak that language, with Munkir Nakeer, the angels, according to the Islamic belief, assigned to inquire the dead man about his life performance? Will we have the same memory and senses while we interact with the angels? These questions increased as I grew up.

Then there was the 1990s when I entered my teens. Pakistan had resumed its journey towards democracy. We were entering an age of ‘liberalization’ and openness of the society. Our VCRs (Video Cassette Recorders) played Indian movies. We mimicked all that we watched. Now, the interest of people of my age slightly diverted from hardcore religion to more intrinsic matters such as girls, beauty, romance and marriage.

The next mysterious thing my peers and I kept on talking about at the college cafeteria at recess time was the first night of wedding which is so beautifully called Sohagrat in Hindi/Urdu. “What actually happens on that particular night,” was the starting question that continued for years with guesses and “strategies.”

The first night of Grave.
The first Night of wedding

The first night of Grave
The first night of wedding

Wedding. Grave. Grave. Wedding. Grave. Wedding. The first night. ? ? ? ?

……………………

I entered my 20s with another martial law in place. Pervez Musharraf, the military ruler, had publicly declared war with the people of my province, Balochistan.
“I will hit you [the Baloch leaders] in a way that you don’t know what hit you,” thundered the General on a TV channel.

The state intelligence agencies began to whisk away people and put them into torture cells. It was the first time we, as university students, had heard about the agencies. Agencies were a new but fascinating topic for us to discuss inside our hostel rooms. Agencies were a new phenomenon. Discussing about them was just like talking about ghosts. Some of us believed in their existence. The others did not.

“But I don’t believe that the agencies do exist,” said one of my friends as we sipped black tea in my Room No 10 at the 2nd Block of University of Balochistan in Quetta one winter evening.
“Why don’t you believe in agencies,” I slapped.

“What is this you guys keep talking about? Agencies. Agencies. Agencies. I don’t believe in agencies. You guys are simply scared. It is ridiculous when you say some people dressed in plains clothes come like a UFO (unidentified flying object) and take people away. And people suddenly go ‘missing’,” he argued.
As time passed, discussions whether agencies exited or not echoed in Balochistan’s class rooms, hotels, shops, mosques, homes and even kitchens.

While we debated the existence of ‘Faristhas’ (Angels), as we locally called them, the latter rapidly captured the whole of Balochistan. Their influence increased. They began to engineer elections. They approved and disapproved transfer and posting of all officials. They tapped journalists’ phone calls and invited them for ‘friendly advice’ in cantonment area. They followed political leaders’ movements. They whisked away five thousand people. Put them into torture cells. Denied them access to judicial justice. No body knew where they had gone. We called them ‘disappeared’ people. There were so many of them that it was hard to keep a right count on all of them.
………………………………

Now many of us believe in the existence of agencies. But that is not what we keep talking about.

The first night of Grave.
The first Night of wedding

The first night of Grave
The first night of wedding


No. No. These days we do not talk about the first night of grave or wedding. We imagine about the first night of torture cell. We keep talking to ourselves and our friends how the first night of torture cell would feel like. Many Balochs are certain about being taken to a torture cell one day or the other. So all that we keep talking about is what questions the hosting intelligence agencies would ask. How severe the torture would feel like. How much space the small and dark cabin ‘reserved’ for one’s confinement would occupy?

Today, I met a lot of people who talked about Qambar Chakar’s first night at torture cell. “What do you think they could have asked him,” asked a class fellow of Chakar. The other said, “do you think they have beaten him up severely? “ Do you think he has met Zakir Majeed and Chakar Qambarani inside the torture cell?

I don’t know, guys.
I have experienced none:

The First Night of Grave
The First Night of Wedding
The First Night of Torture Cell

Khan of Kalat for international mediation on Balochistan

LONDON: The UK-based self-exiled Khan of Kalat has said that without international mediation he would not become part of any talks to address the security-related and economic problems of Balochistan.

Mir Suleman Daud Baloch, who is awaiting a decision on his asylum application from the House of Lords, plans to move the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the status of Kalat, which became part of Pakistan under an agreement signed on March 27, 1948, between Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the then Khan of Kalat Mir Ahmad Yar Khan.

A news item three days back had termed it a positive sign that the Khan of Kalat had not yet moved the ICJ over the accusation that Pakistan has not fulfilled the promises it had made at the time of signing the treaty, but the real reason behind the delay is the Khan of Kalat’s inability to travel outside of Britain while the British government considers his appeal.

Immigration experts believe that the 35th Khan of Kalat, who has been seeking asylum since July 2007, will ultimately be granted asylum because of his profile and the ongoing unrest in the restive province. It has become almost a standard procedure in the UK to refuse asylum claims in the first phase no matter how serious the case is but appeals with serious grounds of fear of persecution are ultimately allowed and the Khan of Kalat’s case falls in this bracket, an immigration expert told this correspondent.

Speaking to The News, the Khan said he was not interested in the government’s offers and said he was determined to move international forums to seek attention towards the problems of Balochistan.

“I don’t need any offers from the government. I came out of Pakistan on my own free will and will return when I want. My return to Pakistan and becoming part of the so-called dialogue process in not the solution to problems my people are facing. My people have given me a mandate and a duty to take their case to the ICJ and I am determined to stand by them,” the Khan of Kalat said in reference to a September 2006 grand Baloch Jirga, convened after about 126 years, which recommended that a case should be lodged in the ICJ against what it termed violation of agreements signed by the State of Kalat, the Crown of Britain and the Government of Pakistan pertaining to the sovereignty and rights of the Baloch people.

The Khan said that President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan had phoned him several months ago, asking him to return to Pakistan for negotiations but he told the president bluntly that the approaches he was taking to address the Baloch issue were ineffective.

“I told President Zardari that Balochistan’s issue cannot be solved through all partiesí conferences, increasing the budgets and making more hollow promises. I told him that he may be well-meaning but he was powerless to do anything on the ground. The real power, he knows, lies elsewhere. If Zardari was powerful and independent in taking decisions, why would he go to the United Nations to seek justice for his wife Benazir Bhutto’s murder?”

Refusing to be part of any efforts to settle the Baloch issue, the Khan of Kalat, who lives with his family in Cardiff, lay down only one condition to become part of the talks. “The talks have to be mediated by the United States of America, Russia, the United Kingdom or other European countries. The Pakistani government should choose anyone of them. Accept that and you will find me ready to sit down for meaningful talks. There is no point for us any more in getting engaged with powerless people. That option is off the table now. Sixty years of broken promises have broken my faith completely in the sincerity of Islamabad.”

Answering a question, His Highness, as it states on his passport, said that Governor Zulfikar Magsi and many others in the provincial government had said it on record that they are powerless and cannot promise any change to the status quo. “Invitations to talks and big promises were a hoax being played to divert the attention from the real issues.”

By Murtaza Ali Shah

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=23205

Balochistan: Another member of BSO (azaad) Shaal zone abducted

Quetta: BSO (azaad) website sagaar.org has reported that the leader of BSO (A) Shaal zone has been abducted by the Pakistan's secret agencies. He has been taken to an undisclosed location and his whereabouts remain unknown.

We request to all International Human Rights Organisations to help us raise voice against forced-disappearances in Balochistan. We also request the Baloch diaspora to raise their voices against the atrocities of Pakistani and Iranian regimes against innocent and unarmed Baloch civilians.

Thanks to Sagaar and BSO (azaad) for updating us with situation in Balochistan

Another BSO leader whisked away in Quetta

QUETTA: Another key leader of the Baloch Students’ Organisation (BSO-Azad), a student at the Balochistan University of Information Technology and Management Sciences (BUITMS), was whisked away, allegedly by intelligence agencies, on Friday.

“Qambar Chakar, the deputy organiser of BSO-Azad Quetta zone, was picked up by a group of intelligence agencies’ personnel who had rushed to the university in around eight vehicles,” Salam Sabir, the BSO central information secretary, told Daily Times. The BSO spokesman threatened of strikes across the province. Qambar is the third prominent BSO-Azad leader to be picked up, the spokesman said. He said BSO Quetta Zone President Shahzaib Baloch had been ‘disappeared’ in April and remained missing for two months. BSO Central Vice Chairman Zakir Majeed was also taken away last month, allegedly by the intelligence agencies, and is still missing, he added. BSO supporters on Friday surrounded the BUITMS campus in protest against Chakar’s arrest and threatened to shut all educational institutions in the city if he was not released immediately.

By Malik Siraj Akbar

Balochistan: A Twelve year minor student of ninth class abducted allegedly by Pakistani agencies

Quetta: Students strongly protested against the abduction of a ninth grade student by unknown armed kidnappers, in Balochistan’s provincial capital, Quetta. The protectors alleged that the Pakistani secret agencies were behind this heinous crime of abducting a minor student.

Abdul Nabi, a twelve year ninth grade student of Kalli Sheikh Khan High School, was kidnapped on Tuesday’s morning while his driver was taking him to school.

According to the details told by Abdur Rahim, his driver, a Prado blocked their road on railway track, in Moosa Colony, armed people came out of the car, blind folded Adbur Rahim and the time Abdur Rahim untied his eyes, the Kidnappers had already taken the boy away and had disappeared.

Soon the news of the abduction of the minor Baloch boy reached to every ear in the city. Upon hearing the disturbing news Baloch Students and family members of Abdul Nabi protested in front of Quetta press club, and strongly criticized the provincial government and demanded immediate release of Abdul Nabi.

Meanwhile Abdul Nabi’s elder brother Dur Muhammed demanded the Chief Minister and Governor of Balochistan to make every effort to make sure the immediate release young Abdul Nabi.

Students from different schools in Quetta boycotted the classes and a student of Sendemen School warned of burning his course books if Abudl Nabi was not released within 24 hours. Students said that provincial government has failed to control the illegal abductions of Baloch students and teachers by the secret agencies and the people are kidnapped for the core crime of being Baloch.

Police has registered a case against unknown abductors but no arrests have been made so far. Also the police have failed to recover the abducted minor Baloch student. Though D.I.G. Quetta Shahid Nizam Durrani shurged off questioning that “why would secret agencies of Pakistan kidnap a child”. There must be any other reasons behind this incident as Abdul Nabi’s father is a contractor as well as a member of Muslim League, he added. The D.I.G. however said that the Police was looking into the incident and very soon they will apprehend the real culprits.

News source: B.B.C. Urdu & Daily Tawar

FACTS: Whether this minor student has been abducted by the intelligences or not but some facts in this regard should be considered; Pakistani intelligence agencies have been involved in abducting not only children but also elderly men and women, whose whereabouts are still unknown. Only, last month two – four years old sons of Mr Malook Marri were abducted by the personal of Intelligence agencies and were release after 48 hours only after intense pressure from Baloch community and local elders. An eighteen year old member of BSO – azaad Afzal sher Baloch has also been abducted by the intelligence agencies of Pakistan. Afzal Sher baloch is still missing.

Mine kills five FC soldiers, hurts four in Balochistan

QUETTA: A landmine killed five paramilitary soldiers and wounded four others in the Marwar area of Balochistan province on Thursday, security officials said.

The blast happened in a hilly area home to dozens of coalfields, about 30 kilometers east of Quetta, the provincial capital. ‘Our vehicle hit a mine, killing five soldiers and injuring four others,’ a Frontier Corps (FC) official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

‘The vehicle was returning to Quetta after delivering food supplies to soldiers stationed in the area,’ he said. One of the injured is in a serious condition, he added.

The injured security officials have been shifted to Quetta for medical treatment.

However, soon after the incident senior security officers reached the area to probe into the incident. They also cordoned off the area to investigate the incident.

So far no group has claimed responsibility but officials believe that Baloch militant groups could be behind the planting of the landmines.

Mine explosions are fairly frequent in Balochistan, which has faced ongoing separatist violence since 2004. — DawnNews/AFP

Taliban; helplessness, the punishment of the bad deeds or golden egg laying chicken for Pakistan?

Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari after coming in power took the beggar's pot and started begging in the name of funds. The United States and other friend countries refused politely saying 'Pardon us old beggar!' As Pakistan is suffering from very poor financial conditions, its rulers tried different dialects to earn money i.e. in the name of Islam and neighborhood hoping to get any capital from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and China. It had a clear attitude towards Europe and US i.e. begging along blackmailing (which still exists) that if the West doesn’t help Pakistan, Islamic extremists might spread worse disaster in their countries. We (Pakistan) are fighting West's war etc etc. But this is very untrue. The following war and the Taliban both have become very important to Pakistan. Pakistan cannot save the world from the ongoing war or from Taliban and neither it wants to do so because from the beginning of Afghan war till today, Pakistan has been wasting money (like a rich man's careless son) without caring about where it is coming from. It seems Pakistan is suffering from the burden of millions of Afghan refugees but Pakistani rulers know very well how to cash this burden and what the real price of it is. If billions of dollars from the US and the West wouldn’t fly to Pakistan its economical condition would have never let it become a nuclear power.
Afghanistan is on war from last 31 years whereas regardless peace in Pakistan nothing was achieved. There was no difference between the so-called democracy and the martial law. No difference was felt in citizen's life nor did the economy of the country get a bit stronger. To get funds on behalf of Afghan war and country's own debts, political statements and false console were used. Every day is not Sunday, the world at last became fed up of helping Pakistan whereas the result was opposite of expectations being nightmares and worse. Pakistani state is toward its decline and Taliban who were fighting in different forms(under Pakistan's supervision) against the Soviet Union has strengthened its roots in Pakistan along with Al-Qaeda. Mega corruption, political destabilization, anarchy, economical crisis and religious extremism are the main promoters of Terrorism in Pakistan.
Pakistan's dual definition about Taliban;
In Pakistan there is a concept of Pakistani Taliban and other Taliban which the US, West and India had repeatedly told the world about. Perhaps this was the reason media started to report (in the beginning of Swat operation) that on one hand military operation is going on in Swat whereas on the other hand clear and safe places are left for Taliban to run away. Innocent people are going to be used to show the effects of operation as positive. US and West are going to cheers on this situation, while on the other hand the real people (Pakistan provided leadership of Taliban) are going to succeed in running away. Some of these (Pakistani) Taliban are given the duty of violating the situation in the state of Baluchistan in order to get the ongoing genocide certificate to kill Pro-liberation Baloch in the name of Taliban and deceive the civilized world making them spectators.
It is necessary for Pakistani rulers to make sure that a part of Taliban remains safe which can be used to provoke hatred against India. Peace, stabilization and Indian influence in Afghanistan is never tolerated in Pakistan. It can be said satisfactorily that having peace in Afghanistan democratic wise India is imagined to be its best partner rather than Pakistan.
It is much easy for the economically stabilized and the secular India to strengthen its roots in Afghanistan. There has been never found any animosity against India in Afghanistan nor its leadership or people had any hatred against it. Whereas, Pakistan's popularity among Afghanis remained negative. A large number of Afghanis still blame Pakistan for all the annihilations occurred in their country. Therefore, Pakistan still needs Taliban activities and strict motives in Afghanistan, Kashmir and India itself. Promoting the debate of Talibanisation is necessary for Pakistani establishment's own security as well as to let Pashtoon divided. In today's modern age, religious extremism is the only slogan which has diverted the Pashtoons from national freedom struggle and stuck them in religious war. Hence today Pashtoons are unaware of their national freedom from Pakistan; they are fighting a war worth freedom and demanding religious law implementation (sharia). Pakistan is very aware and never wants Pashtoons to be liberated from the craze of religion (which is a butter giving cow for Pakistan). This is the slogan which has made Pashtoons from both side of the border busy in its own genocide due to which Pakistan in between is enjoying reliefs and funds.
Regular interference of Pakistan in Afghanistan easily concludes that Pakistan is never in favor of a well-developed and peaceful Afghanistan which is a threat to its own geographical security. In case of a developed and peaceful Afghanistan, Pashtoons in Pakistan being a well developed nation (among neighbors) having a large number of educated and skilled people who are going to be the first preference in Afghanistan's development, can at any point realize that partition of Pashtoons was under the conspiracy of the British and rather than living with the Punjabis and other nations it should join its own historical country where along with Islam its own history, own language and own culture is still present. In the present situation, Pashtoons can be compared with a horse who reveals its energy on the judgment day and after realizing it bewails on its simplicity that in spite being so energetic it had been misused even by infants. Pakistani leadership is well aware of this energy and knows that if Pashtoons decide their separation from Pakistan and will to join their historical country, it will be impossible for Pakistan to keep Pashtoon with it anymore. Well developed Afghanistan will remain a threat to Pakistan's geography until a solution is found for the above mentioned chance.
These are the basic reasons preventing Pakistan to eliminate Taliban and the world is not ready to trust Pakistan's intensions. But, let us analyze this question (regardless to our thoughts and analysis); Military operation in Swat and Tribal areas will succeed or not?
In this regard we see Pakistani military operation failed in all means because they lack the support of locals and overall Pashtoon nation. This fact can be realized that when a nation's almost 3 million people have been displaced from their happy homes and the particular nation is still in the favor of the military operation. Regardless restrictions on media, the reports reaching from the affected areas are both against Pakistan and Taliban but if locals are asked to appoint one single enemy they will surely select Pakistani forces rather than Taliban (Pashtoon) to be much responsible for all disaster because the sin of Drone attacks is also counted in Pakistani forces and Taliban sins which has the willingness of Islamabad that can be a reason of incensement in Pakistani state sins. (Punjab's bombardment of Carpet Bombs over Pakistani Pashtoon and locals is not included in the debate)
Punjab and Sind's expression of hatredness against the Pashtoon refugees has been the fuel in the fire. Both Punjab and Sind had expressed straight to the point that they are unhappy with the arrivals of the Pashtoon refugees in fact they are protesting against it which is not a big deal but this act might force the Pashtoons to think that if Punjab and Sind can settle their own displaced people anywhere they want saying we all are Pakistanis and anyone can settle anywhere it doesn’t matters but the real fact of this Pakistanism appears when refugees of any other province turn toward them and they start screaming in fear of turning into minority but when this situation comes on other nations specially Baloch, they are named narrow minded and foreign agents.
Government or non-governmental related Pashtoon nationalists and religious forces will stand against the hatredness of Punjab and Sind against the Pashtoon which will strengthen the acute of the voices raised against the military operation increasing the public pressure causing suspension of military operation or reducing its intensity. This will allow Taliban to transfer its war from its homeland to the bigger cities of Punjab and Sind and emerge with new intensity, new experience and new tactics of disaster. Time will decide their then slogan. These are the punishments of the bad deeds of Pakistani leaders which will counter their selves first. These are the biggest threat to Pakistan establishment and the world today is finding a solution for this. These include the Islamic Nuclear Weapons, drugs, and religious extremists. This is the reason world's biggest assassins IMF and the World Bank hold the sword on the hanging head of the Pakistani state in order to permanently get rid of the begging slogans 'In the name of poor's', 'in the name of terrorism'.

By Hafeez H.A.,
Source: Daily Tawar,
Translated by Zrombesht