By Ahmar Mustikhan
WASHINGTON D.C.: I am pretty sure as you landed in Afghanistan Saturday and met with U.S. and International Security Assistance Force commanders, and Afghan officials, you gained insight of the deadly game Pakistan is playing in the blood-weary region.
It's very sad Pakistan, which officially says it was founded in the name of Islam, is using the same religion to foment killings and terrorism inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan is bent upon turning Afghanistan into a bloody nightmare for President Hamid Karzai's government and the International Security Assistance Force under the command of General David McKiernan.
For the rest of the world, the success of General McKiernan's mission is crucially important.
I am an international journalist of Baluch ethnic origin and founder of the American Friends of Baluchistan and am distraught at the goings-on as my ethnic Baluch people are also victims of Pakistan army's atrocities.
My heart goes out to the fallen heroes from multiple nations in Afghanistan, which include more than 600 Americans, and their families. Just the other day, two innocent Afghan women killed in Ghazni on the false pretext that they were prostitutes.
Earlier on September 26, 2006, Safia Amajan was gunned down in Kandahar. Amajan's only fault was that she crusaded for women's education in Afghanistan. Killing women goes against the very grain of Afghan culture--even during the worst bloodshed in history women were never touched and felt safe to travel in war zones-- and it is clear these murders were Pakistan inspired.
I do hope you will find the time to visit the shrines of such heroes and heroines of Afghanistan.
It's obvious Pakistan has taken the U.S. for a ride as it has received upwards of $10 billion since 9/11, including $6.5 billion in slush funds called Coalition Support Funds, but at the same time the country's dreaded Inter Services Intelligence or I.S.I. continued to pamper the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
There is evidence that the former Taliban ruler is sheltered at an army complex in the city of Quetta and even Musharraf visited him last fall. This should not surprise anyone as under Mullah Omar's tyrannical rule Punjabi-Mohajir army generals were calling Afghanistan their "fifth province."
After almost seven years of doing nothing, in recent weeks Pakistan said it will take action against militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. But the interesting thing is that the militants in F.A.T.A. were informed in advance where the Pakistan army would conduct operations so they have safe exit. What the world saw was destruction of some vacant buildings. This was simply eyewash.
Pakistan has also lied to the world that it has no control in F.A.T.A. It is widely known that Pakistan operates through the office of what is called its Political Agent in F.A.T.A. and its intelligence agencies. Not a leaf stirs in F.A.T.A. without the wish of the Pakistani government and secret services.
Pakistan is also playing bluff that Osama bin Laden is in the F.A.T.A. I shall not be least surprised if bin Laden is found in an army garrison of Pakistan, or the guest house of an army general. Army generals in Pakistan are above the law and no power on earth can touch them.
It is well-known that Pakistan's former I.S.I. chief Hamid Gul and senior army generals are on the hot-line with bin Laden and other Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Before the start of Operation Enduring Freedom, Gul spent much of his time in Afghanistan.
Gul is a hero in the eyes of Pakistan coup leader General ( R ) Pervez Musharraf.
Under the given circumstances, it's tragic that Musharraf has received a red carpet welcome in Washington D.C. ever-since 9/11. After having to quit his army post under international and domestic pressures, Musharraf is today supported by a terrorist organization called Muttahida Qaumi Movement. On May 12, 2007 under the direct instructions of Musharraf and with the help of the I.S.I., thugs of the M.Q.M. gunned down nearly four dozen innocent civilians and left more than 150 injured. The same secret service that allows its own citizens killed is playing havoc in Afghanistan.
In the Kargil war with India in 1999, Musharraf fought alongside Al Qaeda. Until the very end Pakistan army kept on denying its involvement in the Kargil operations, but later received the dead bodies of its soldiers from the Indians. The same is true today in Afghanistan.
I hope you guys get a chance to read "Who Killed Daniel Pearl" which is a brilliant expose of Pakistan's I.S.I. in the killing of the Wall Street Journal reporter. I beg you guys to have Daniel Pearl case reopened and investigated.
Pakistan also illegally annexed the area-wise largest province named Baluchistan, which forms more than 40 percent of the land mass of Pakistan. Baluchistan was an independent nation for more than seven months after the British left India divided in August 1947--interestingly in the name of religion--, and was taken over by Pakistan at the point of gun through an instrument of accession.
Just as I am angry over what is happening in Afghanistan, my heart bleeds for my Baluch people. Pakistan is practicing state sponsored slavery of the Baluch people since Baluchistan's forced annexation in March 1948. There have been five uprisings in Baluchistan to date that have left thousands killed. Pakistan army atrocities include burning Baluch tribesmen alive. Less than two years ago, one of the most popular Baluch leaders former governor and chief minister of Baluchistan Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, 81, was killed extra-judicially by the Pakistan army, Military Intelligence and I.S.I. Musharraf congratulated his Pakistan soldiers over the killing.
The real story behind Bugti's killings is that his tribe owned the gas fields in Sui. Pakistan owes as much as $15 billion to Baluchistan for the gas it got from Sui gas fields, and instead of returning those monies to Baluchistan they found an easy way out--just kill Nawab Bugti.
Baluchistan also has a 770-km long coastline in Pakistan alone--another 250 kms are in Iranian Baluchistan--, and Punjabi and Mohajir navy officers have set their eyes on those lands and are building naval bases, one after another. (The part in Iran, as you understand is under mullah control, who routinely hangs Baluch dissidents in public.)
The Afghans and Baluch have historic ties. Punjabi-Mohajir generals, who call the shots in Pakistan, have no such ties with either Afghanistan or Baluchistan. History is replete with examples of Afghans and Baluch fighting side by side to defeat common enemies.
One of the worst atrocities against the Baluch people was the testing of nuclear weapons in the Chaghai area in Baluchistan. This has displaced thousands of nomadic tribesmen and left the area contaminated with radiation, with outbreak of disease and premature death of nomad's livestock--their sole mean of survival.
To end the 60 years of blood and tears of the Baluch people, the De Jure Ruler of Baluchistan the Khan of Kalat Suleiman Daud Ahmedzai is knocking at the doors of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Ahmedzai is a big time proponent of peace in Afghanistan and Baluchistan.
His case against the annexation of Baluchistan could lead to a peaceful Balkanization of Pakistan, dismantling of its huge army with an annual $10 billion budget and possible rolling back of its nuclear weapons program. If Pakistan army and the state of Pakistan remain intact as it is today, they will never let peace, democracy and development in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is resolved to send the free world into bunkers in Afghanistan. The killing of twice-premier Benazir Bhutto December 27 last year within hours of her meeting with President Hamid Karzai was a clear message from Pakistan's secret services to the rest of the world. Even the Pakistani media reported her execution was done in a professional style. The terror tactic used in killing Bhutto was repeated in the jailbreak in Kandahar on June 13.
I urge you to immediately stop all military aid and supplies to Pakistan and instead use those monies to develop the Afghan military and help the social development of the brotherly people of Afghanistan and Baluchistan. Most importantly, please direct contact with the Khan of Kalat, who is in self-exile in London, and other Baluchistan leaders.
An independent and secular Baluchistan is in the interest of the free world, including Afghanistan. I assure you General McKiernan will be welcomed with open arms in Baluchistan; just like in 1971 General Jagjit Singh Aurora was welcomed in Bangladesh.
Long Live the U.S.A., Afghanistan and Baluchistan
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