Pakistan's 'secret' war in Baluchistan

[sparklingway]

Thanks for sharing sir, but would you not say that Sardar Mengal is just as involved in the whole debacle plaguaging his people in Baluchistan.

Mengal, Mari and Bugti they are all in the same boat as far as im concerned. If they care about their people so much, how's about transferring some funds from the off-shore accounts and selling some "channa zameen" and making some schools and hospitals for their "oppressed" people?

Clearly the article is a case of preaching to the converted. It's consumption is for a very specific audience, and we all know, that audience ain't native.

I mean come on... BLA fighting BRA... Do they really expect the educated populace that all is to blame of the evil "federalists sitting in Punjab". Yeah lets blame the centralists, petty fools. They are actually playing into the hands of those who wish nothing more than the segregation of our nation and destruction of our united identity.

Frankly, I'm sick of replying to this near constant urban obsession with feudalism-responsible-for-all-evils. Don't absolve the people and the state of what they have done for 63 years. In response to Ejaz Haider's very misguided and wayward column on Balochistan, a friend of mine wrote a post and I'll post a part of which is related to this nauseating urban upper middle class obsession with feudalism that ignore realities. Read it along the lines of how quickly any debate on social progress turns to feudalism and how that did in your case too.

It took approximately two paragraphs to get to the first mention of oppressive tribal structures. This 12th century hangover are a real pain for our urban population who perceive them to be a vile form of exploitation, less vile in any case than labor exploitation in industrialized Karachi or domestic servant exploitation in suburbia across the country. My point is not to compare two forms of exploitation, both of which, by the way, are equally bad and equally deserving of eradication. My point is to highlight the larger problem with nationalist narratives.

In the 1940's, the political figures involved in the movement for provincial autonomy were in the same situation currently found in Balochistan. You either indulge in elite politics using pre-existing structures of social organization for mobilization, or you remove the layer of intermediaries and engage with the people. With your popular political class emerging from the landed elites of Sindh and Punjab, the choice made back then was the same form of expediency that we see in Balochistan now. Sardars will use notions of tribal loyalty and vertical hierarchy to mobilize support for their 'sub-nationalist' cause. What is even more telling is that successive regimes of our beloved Mumlikat Khudadad e Pakistan have exhibited the same form of expediency, in Punjab, in Sindh and yes that's right, in Balochistan.

I might be completely wrong here, but i find it a bit rich on Ejaz Haider's part to use two different yardsticks of judging the legitimacy of nationalism. At one level he's suggesting that these Baloch leaders have done nothing to remove exploitation from within their own system and at another level he is arguing for the reconciliation of a federation that itself has a miserable track record of cleansing social oppression over the last 63 years. Call me blind but I'd like to know which social structures we've gotten rid of since independence. As far as i see it, Baloch nationalism is in one sense a microcosm of Pakistani nationalism, which itself is symbolic of nationalism almost everywhere in the world. Vertically aligned, largely regressive, and ultimately oppressive.

Rest assured, I am not supporting feudalism, tribalism or any archaic socio-political structures. Skewed understanding of the urbaniites whose short term-ism and lack of intellectual rigor concerning social problems leads to redundant views that are distant from reality are the point I wanted to address. Insofar as the topic of feudalism and its evils today is concerned, please read these two brilliant posts by the very same author since I have run out of steam trying to rationally argue over this topic from a myriad of perspectives and no longer have the energy to argue with people when I feel that their opinion is contrary to the reality.

The topic of that op-ed was specifically state sponsored executions and that is a reality.

The death of Lala Hameed Baloch: a case study of a state sponsored murder


Baloch journalist Lala Hameed Baloch, (whose real name was Abdul Hameed Hayatan) was born in 1985, was involved in Baloch nationalist politics, and was a journalist for Daily Karachi and Tawar and played a role in establishing Gwadar press club. Lala Hameed’s journalistic and political activities put him on the wrong side of the Pakistani intelligence agencies. Here is an excerpt from his biography on a Baloch nationalist website:

Among millions of supporters and writers, he also avidly wrote in favor of Baloch Armed Struggle. Due to his brave stand, he was falsely blamed for many bomb blasts and many cases were filed against him for his violent speeches by the government and his agencies. He faced a trial for one year for taking pictures of police officers. He also gets exonerated in few cases by the court. He could not face his cases when agencies started abduction of Baloch political leaders even in the premises of court of law.

Finally, on October 25, as this news report describes, he was abducted by plain-clothed security agents from Gwadar. Between October 25 and November 18, he became one of Balochistan’s thousands of missing persons. While, in the abstract sense, many Pakistanis have rallied around the missing persons issue, it seems that individual cases like that of Lala Hameed cause no outrage or even merit any attention in the national press. Most Pakistanis following the mainstream Pakistani media would not have known of the abduction of this journalist for the 24 days before his death because there was simply no mention of it. This must be considered as a failure of the journalistic community to not highlight the abduction of one of their own.

On November 18, the body of this young journalist along with that of another journalist Hameed Ismail was found in the Sami River of Turbat district. He had been shot in the head. Along with the dead bodies, a gruesome note was also found which read: “A Gift of Eid for the Balochs”

It is perhaps disrespectful to the dead to show the following pictures of their bodies, but it should be shown what, exactly, the abductors of these journalists consider to be an “eid gift” for the their own citizens, to show the level of respect that is shown to the people of Balochistan by our state intelligence agencies.

The death of Lala Hameed Baloch: a case study of a state sponsored murder |Let Us Build Pakistan

Dead BodyISTAN

The recovery of the dead bodies of nine Baloch political workers, students and a journalist from different parts of Balochistan, within only 36 hours has sent shock waves across the province. People’s Eid celebrations were ruined after receiving the bullet-riddled dead bodies of Baloch youth, most of whom were in their 20s. While enraged Balochs decided to observe a complete shutter down and wheel jam strike in many districts of Balochistan, the complete silence of the provincial governor and the chief minister is a testament of the two top officials’ utter indifference towards the sufferings of the indigenous people of this province.

In spite of repeated requests, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Ifthakar Chaudhary has also decided to pay a deaf ear to the grave violation of human rights in Balochistan. Similarly, the recovery of at least nine missing persons’ dead bodies was not sufficiently reported in the national media.

The dead body of a twenty-five year old journalist and the president of Baloch National Movement (BNM) Gwadar Chapter, Lala Hameed Hayatan, was thrown away in the Sami River with a note saying ” a gift of Eid for the Balochs”. Hameed was a popular journalist with a background in nationalistic politics. He was popular in Gwadar for his constant involvement in the community services. Another friend of his, Hamid Ismail, who had been kidnapped along with Hameed, has also been killed and thrown in an inhuman manner.

The killing of the two young men has sparked a wave of anger and frustration among the people of Mekran. The Gwadar Press Club has called for three days of mourning while the political parties have gone on a complete wheel jam and shutter down strike. The relatives of the murdered Baloch professionals have once again pointed fingers at the official institutions for kidnapping and killing the Baloch citizens.

The situation in Balochistan is at its lowest ebb. The government has not fulfilled its promise of recovering the missing persons which is no longer the real matter. The biggest problem right now is the recovery of the dead bodies of the missing persons from different parts of the province showing marks of severe torture and thrown away in a very offensive manner. Judicial and legal committees formulated in the past to trace the perpetrators of these murders totally failed for obvious reasons.

Currently, every Baloch district in the province has a long list of the missing persons. In the same way, the phenomenon of killing the missing persons and throwing away their bodies is not confined to one or two districts alone. Besides the recovery of Hameed and Hamid’s dead bodies in Turbat, two bullet-riddled bodies of Bashir Ahmed Lehri and Asamatullah Sarpara have been found from Mastung while in Kalat the bodies of Nasrullah Samalani and Mir Jan and Mohammad Rashim were found in Kalat. In Khuzdar, the dead body of an Engineering University student Samiullah Mengal was found in Khuzdar. An activist of the Baloch Student Organization (BSO-Mohiuddin) was also killed by unknown armed men.

Veteran Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal has said such tactics are meant to make it impossible for the Balochs to live on their own land but predicted that such methods would not eliminate nationalistic movements. The underground Baloch Liberation Army has asked the Balochs to remain patient saying that “more difficult times area still ahead”. The Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party has expressed full solidarity with the Balochs and strongly condemned the killings of the Baloch activists.

The gruesome state of affairs in Balochistan once again calls for unity among the Baloch political stakeholders. While they surely have the democratic right to adopt different forms of struggle, they should understand the seriousness of the matter and end all kinds of differences.

The matter in Balochistan is no longer restricted to the issue of autonomy. It has transformed into a great humanitarian issue which needs urgent attention from the international human rights watchdogs.

We would urge the President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the deteriorating state of human rights in Balochistan. These violent tactics will further flare-up the conflict in the province.

Editorial: Dead BodyISTAN | The Baloch Hal

 

[Areesh]

Among millions of supporters and writers, he also avidly wrote in favor of Baloch Armed Struggle. Due to his brave stand, he was falsely blamed for many bomb blasts and many cases were filed against him for his violent speeches by the government and his agencies.

The paragraph defines it all. I wasn't expecting anything better for him in any country in this world. Wonder when these guys will learn that che guevara is resting in peace along with his ideology.

 

[GentlemanObserver]

Frankly, I'm sick of replying to this near constant urban obsession with feudalism-responsible-for-all-evils. Don't absolve the people and the state of what they have done for 63 years. In response to Ejaz Haider's very misguided and wayward column on Balochistan, a friend of mine wrote a post and I'll post a part of which is related to this nauseating urban upper middle class obsession with feudalism that ignore realities. Read it along the lines of how quickly any debate on social progress turns to feudalism and how that did in your case too.



Rest assured, I am not supporting feudalism, tribalism or any archaic socio-political structures. Skewed understanding of the urbaniites whose short term-ism and lack of intellectual rigor concerning social problems leads to redundant views that are distant from reality are the point I wanted to address. Insofar as the topic of feudalism and its evils today is concerned, please read these two brilliant posts by the very same author since I have run out of steam trying to rationally argue over this topic from a myriad of perspectives and no longer have the energy to argue with people when I feel that their opinion is contrary to the reality.

The topic of that op-ed was specifically state sponsored executions and that is a reality.

The death of Lala Hameed Baloch: a case study of a state sponsored murder


Baloch journalist Lala Hameed Baloch, (whose real name was Abdul Hameed Hayatan) was born in 1985, was involved in Baloch nationalist politics, and was a journalist for Daily Karachi and Tawar and played a role in establishing Gwadar press club. Lala Hameed’s journalistic and political activities put him on the wrong side of the Pakistani intelligence agencies. Here is an excerpt from his biography on a Baloch nationalist website:

Among millions of supporters and writers, he also avidly wrote in favor of Baloch Armed Struggle. Due to his brave stand, he was falsely blamed for many bomb blasts and many cases were filed against him for his violent speeches by the government and his agencies. He faced a trial for one year for taking pictures of police officers. He also gets exonerated in few cases by the court. He could not face his cases when agencies started abduction of Baloch political leaders even in the premises of court of law.

Finally, on October 25, as this news report describes, he was abducted by plain-clothed security agents from Gwadar. Between October 25 and November 18, he became one of Balochistan’s thousands of missing persons. While, in the abstract sense, many Pakistanis have rallied around the missing persons issue, it seems that individual cases like that of Lala Hameed cause no outrage or even merit any attention in the national press. Most Pakistanis following the mainstream Pakistani media would not have known of the abduction of this journalist for the 24 days before his death because there was simply no mention of it. This must be considered as a failure of the journalistic community to not highlight the abduction of one of their own.

On November 18, the body of this young journalist along with that of another journalist Hameed Ismail was found in the Sami River of Turbat district. He had been shot in the head. Along with the dead bodies, a gruesome note was also found which read: “A Gift of Eid for the Balochs”

It is perhaps disrespectful to the dead to show the following pictures of their bodies, but it should be shown what, exactly, the abductors of these journalists consider to be an “eid gift” for the their own citizens, to show the level of respect that is shown to the people of Balochistan by our state intelligence agencies.

The death of Lala Hameed Baloch: a case study of a state sponsored murder |Let Us Build Pakistan

Dead BodyISTAN

The recovery of the dead bodies of nine Baloch political workers, students and a journalist from different parts of Balochistan, within only 36 hours has sent shock waves across the province. People’s Eid celebrations were ruined after receiving the bullet-riddled dead bodies of Baloch youth, most of whom were in their 20s. While enraged Balochs decided to observe a complete shutter down and wheel jam strike in many districts of Balochistan, the complete silence of the provincial governor and the chief minister is a testament of the two top officials’ utter indifference towards the sufferings of the indigenous people of this province.

In spite of repeated requests, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Ifthakar Chaudhary has also decided to pay a deaf ear to the grave violation of human rights in Balochistan. Similarly, the recovery of at least nine missing persons’ dead bodies was not sufficiently reported in the national media.

The dead body of a twenty-five year old journalist and the president of Baloch National Movement (BNM) Gwadar Chapter, Lala Hameed Hayatan, was thrown away in the Sami River with a note saying ” a gift of Eid for the Balochs”. Hameed was a popular journalist with a background in nationalistic politics. He was popular in Gwadar for his constant involvement in the community services. Another friend of his, Hamid Ismail, who had been kidnapped along with Hameed, has also been killed and thrown in an inhuman manner.

The killing of the two young men has sparked a wave of anger and frustration among the people of Mekran. The Gwadar Press Club has called for three days of mourning while the political parties have gone on a complete wheel jam and shutter down strike. The relatives of the murdered Baloch professionals have once again pointed fingers at the official institutions for kidnapping and killing the Baloch citizens.

The situation in Balochistan is at its lowest ebb. The government has not fulfilled its promise of recovering the missing persons which is no longer the real matter. The biggest problem right now is the recovery of the dead bodies of the missing persons from different parts of the province showing marks of severe torture and thrown away in a very offensive manner. Judicial and legal committees formulated in the past to trace the perpetrators of these murders totally failed for obvious reasons.

Currently, every Baloch district in the province has a long list of the missing persons. In the same way, the phenomenon of killing the missing persons and throwing away their bodies is not confined to one or two districts alone. Besides the recovery of Hameed and Hamid’s dead bodies in Turbat, two bullet-riddled bodies of Bashir Ahmed Lehri and Asamatullah Sarpara have been found from Mastung while in Kalat the bodies of Nasrullah Samalani and Mir Jan and Mohammad Rashim were found in Kalat. In Khuzdar, the dead body of an Engineering University student Samiullah Mengal was found in Khuzdar. An activist of the Baloch Student Organization (BSO-Mohiuddin) was also killed by unknown armed men.

Veteran Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal has said such tactics are meant to make it impossible for the Balochs to live on their own land but predicted that such methods would not eliminate nationalistic movements. The underground Baloch Liberation Army has asked the Balochs to remain patient saying that “more difficult times area still ahead”. The Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party has expressed full solidarity with the Balochs and strongly condemned the killings of the Baloch activists.

The gruesome state of affairs in Balochistan once again calls for unity among the Baloch political stakeholders. While they surely have the democratic right to adopt different forms of struggle, they should understand the seriousness of the matter and end all kinds of differences.

The matter in Balochistan is no longer restricted to the issue of autonomy. It has transformed into a great humanitarian issue which needs urgent attention from the international human rights watchdogs.

We would urge the President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the deteriorating state of human rights in Balochistan. These violent tactics will further flare-up the conflict in the province.

Editorial: Dead BodyISTAN | The Baloch Hal

Right... So it's all the fault of federal government, or do you not agree that the tribal "leaders" have some part to play in this aswell?

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

come on we sit here and talk no one knows about bso(asad) is terrorist which has been involved in terrorist acts especially terrorising students from different provinces.. mostly they also die in clashes with eachother and onus is being put on government ....
i would like u people to make research about past of balach marri and mangal group they are anti paksitan from very 1st day and use youth for their evil purposes .... find out about education carrier of balach marri

 

[GentlemanObserver]

come on we sit here and talk no one knows about bso(asad) is terrorist which has been involved in terrorist acts especially terrorising students from different provinces.. mostly they also die in clashes with eachother and onus is being put on government ....
i would like u people to make research about past of balach marri and mangal group they are anti paksitan from very 1st day and use youth for their evil purposes .... find out about education carrier of balach marri

Thank you Niazi. This is exactly what i said in my above! Please people don't fall into the trap they have laid for you. Seriously they have some respected members of this forum "eating from their hands". It's a very sad state of affairs.

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

Thank you Niazi. This is exactly what i said in my above! Please people don't fall into the trap they have laid for you. Seriously they have some respected members of this forum "eating from their hands". It's a very sad state of affairs.

actually problem is most of them are uneducated and reach university only because of political back and with job to support anti paksitan wing of students that is bso(azad) , my friend was student there and he told me all the affairs. i met one of his friend who was in bso(azad) according to him he was member of that group by force and cann,t practice will of his own. he just opened my eyes and i was feeling really pity about state of affairs present there.

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

according to him strike that is observed in balochistan is mostly by force and any one who don,t obey their order have to bear the brunt and according to him alot no of innocent persons are killed by these baloch insurgents and another astonishing fact they mostly live luxury houses in quetta that are provided to them by these anti paksitan feuds. they have got weapons in hostel with them and have got licence to kill who ever oppose them. and one can be sure that they have their hands in target killings in balochistan cos this is best way for antipak feudes to get their job done. most of them are not in university for education rather for the hegemony of baloch group and that was the factor that made Pathans to organisze themselves into PSF inorder to counter bso. and bso has two divisions one bso(haqiqi) thst is real bso and is not so extreme in views rather calls for right within paksitan and bso(azad) under berhamad bughti that has the job to spread anti pakistan venum every where and for your kind information all these mangel, marri and bughti groups supply them with money and drugs that they need. so for them they are innocent cos they work for them

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

they know nothing about their subjects and their sole purpose is to terrorise universities and creat environment of tension. this is the reason why most of the teachers and universities professors are killed. who spy for target killer cos they don,t know about university dean or professors movement. real face of bso is group of brainwashed and illeterate youth who are playing in hands of these feudal lords who raise emotions of racism in them and they are so much imbewed in racism that they place it before every thing even in some cases before Islam cos there is no true islam in most parts of balochistan ...

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

Thanks for sharing sir, but would you not say that Sardar Mengal is just as involved in the whole debacle plaguaging his people in Baluchistan.

Mengal, Mari and Bugti they are all in the same boat as far as im concerned. If they care about their people so much, how's about transferring some funds from the off-shore accounts and selling some "channa zameen" and making some schools and hospitals for their "oppressed" people?

Clearly the article is a case of preaching to the converted. It's consumption is for a very specific audience, and we all know, that audience ain't native.
I mean come on... BLA fighting BRA... Do they really expect the educated populace that all is to blame of the evil "federalists sitting in Punjab". Yeah lets blame the centralists, petty fools. They are actually playing into the hands of those who wish nothing more than the segregation of our nation and destruction of our united identity.

they have nothing to do with education cos education mean devaluation of their sardari culture ....
read about culture being adopted by akbar bughti, he was there like living god and no one should disagree with this reality..

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

look writer is some one who is totally anti pakistan and is infatuated with racism and himself a feud so come on, how he will write against himself....

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

look fc takes action only when their is no other option. and same is about intelligence agencies because they have no pleasure in creating an anti paksitan environment or to kill or prosecute some innocent person.

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

actually mother of all problems is racism, that has been strictly banned by islam but it is quite unfortunate we don,t act upon the teachings of HOLY QURAN AND PROPHET MUHAMMAD (SAWW), even in his last cermon at hajj HE preached about brotherhood of muslims but we are are so much proud of pur races that we don,t bother about taching and wishes of HOLY PROPHET(SAWW).

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

ISLAM teaches and preaches about Islamic brotherhood but these bloody feuds and racists teaches and preaches about racism and division on linguestic and racial basis. i really when some one prays may ALLAH bless balochs , may Allah bless pushtoons or Sindhies or punjabies..... why not all MUSLIMS ......
are balochs superior than others or they will get some special dicount for being baloch on day of judgement same is for sindhies , pushtoons or punjabies.
are we worhty to call of ourselves muslims ....
i hate those who talk about division of MUSLIM countries......

 

[LaBong]

You know what's funny.. Indians in another thread are accusing (almost) ajtr of being a false flag Indians and Pakistani here are calling her (right?) an Indian troll.. Somewhere a few days back, Asim or Agno called this (getting bashed by both sides) a sign of balanced credibility.. LOL

Only in this case, she is taking everyone for a ride!

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]