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03.02.2012
Dr. Marri calls for Baloch unity to counter killings of women, children
Ahmar Mustikhan
Baltimore Foreign Policy Examiner
Moscow-based son of former guerilla leader Mir Hazar Khan Ramkhani has condemned the killing of a sister and niece of Baloch leader Brahumdagh Bugti and called for unity among Baloch ranks.
"I strongly condemn this heinous state crime against our Baloch people especially against women and children and send my condolence to Brahamdagh Bugti, Bakhtiar Khan Domki and the entire Baloch nation," Dr. Jumma Marri said in a Press release that was also posted on the Baloch Unity web site.
Zamu Domki and Janan Domki, wife and daughter of Balochistan assembly member Mir Bakhtiar Domki and their driver Barkat Baloch were gunned down in Ka... details >>
29.01.2012
Baloch Could Divide Administration and Congress on Pakistan Policy
By Eddie Walsh
According to Western diplomats and policy experts, the State Department’s recent remarks on human rights violations in the Baloch region of Pakistan are as far as the U.S. Government and Obama Administration are willing to go in support of Baloch separatism. Absent a complete rupture in U.S.-Pakistan relations, the Baloch’s best option to secure American support now rests with Congress.
If the Baloch can tie their cause to the larger Congressional efforts to undermine U.S. aid to Pakistan, they could force the Administration to re-evaluate its current policy approach. Organized outreach to think tanks, non-governmental organizations, universities, interest groups, and media ... details >>
18.01.2012
ANALYSIS: Balochistan: the Gwadar aspect —Dr Qaisar Rashid
Clearly, the past of Balochistan is haunting the present and swaying the future, as Balochistan’s is a story of broken promises and frustrated expectationsThe known history of Balochistan is laden with persistent insurgency of variable intensity. The latest spike in insurgency is an artefact of the post-2000 events. The counter-insurgency launched by the state has also proved counter-productive, as the strategy has bolstered the resolve of the Baloch insurgents to rely on militancy for protection of the Baloch rights.In fact, violence is an endemic problem Balochistan is faced with. The Balochistan version of violence has two actors: the insurgents and the security forces. The former uses th... details >>
17.01.2012
Time For Solidarity With Balochs – OpEd
Written by: B. Raman
January 16, 2012
The Killing Fields of Balochistan have started shocking the conscience of the international community. Not only non-governmental human rights organisations, but even Governmental spokesmen of other countries—including a spokesperson of the US State Department in response to Tweets on the sufferings of the Balochs— have started getting over their hesitation in expressing their concern over the steady flow of reports from Balochistan about the atrocities committed by the Pakistani security forces on the people of Balochistan.
The atrocities have taken many forms. Brutal killing of the Baloch youth in false encounters for opposing State repression... details >>
16.01.2012
Is Pakistan heading for disaster in Balochistan?
Pakistan must end its policy of killings and kidnappings of Baloch people and recognise the importance of the region.
Washington, DC - The behaviour of the powerful elite of Islamabad reminds me of the captain and crew of the RMS Titanic sailing into the night, heading straight towards an iceberg. The civilian, military and judicial authorities are locked up in a tussle coloured by political positions and personal egos. And there is a dangerous disconnect between Islamabad and the enormous problems that loom on the Pakistani horizon. Law and order appears to have collapsed in many parts of the country. In the north-east, the former Frontier Province, there are daily killings as su... details >>
02.01.2012
ANALYSIS: Fundamental rights violations in Balochistan —Sheikh Asad Rahman
If the recommendations of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission had been implemented and responsible military and civilian officials duly held accountable, tried in courts and punished, citizens in Balochistan would not be facing genocide todayFundamental and human rights violations take place every day in Balochistan. In the past year over 300 mutilated bullet-riddled bodies of Baloch political leaders, workers, activists, students, teachers, lower grade public servants, have been dumped at desolate places or roadsides. Sectarian violence, especially targeting the Hazara Shia community (hitherto unknown in Balochistan and only in the past three years), and ethnic violence has seen an unpre... details >>
21.12.2011
Solve the Pakistan problem by redrawing the map
m. chris mason
M. CHRIS MASON
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011
Relations between the United States and Pakistan have reached an all-time low. The Khyber Pass is closed to NATO cargo, U.S. personnel were evicted from Shamsi airbase and Pakistani observers have been recalled from joint co-operation centres.
Much more importantly, senior officials in Washington now know that Pakistan has been playing them false since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and understand that Pakistan was sheltering Osama bin Laden a few hundred yards from its version of West Point. The recent shelling of Afghan troops inside Afghanistan by the Pakistani army, and the NATO coun... details >>
11.12.2011
Balochistan: The province where human rights are bullet-riddled
QUETTA/KARACHI : Saturday was International Human Rights Day, though in Pakistan the focus remained squarely within its own borders and on one province in particular.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan observed the day in solidarity with the people of Balochistan. Taking a look at recent statistics and hearing the stories from some of those affected, one understands why.
According to an HRCP report, as many as 225 bullet-riddled bodies of missing persons were found between July 2010 and November 2011. The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VFBMP) puts the toll even higher, at 236, and says that all the victims had direct or indirect political affiliation with Baloch nationalist... details >>
11.12.2011
Teacher shot in Khuzdar exam centre
KHUZDAR: Unidentified armed men on Saturday opened fire at a teacher, injuring him, in an examination centre in Khuzdar. Police said that unknown gunmen entered an examination centre in Bajori Kalan and opened fire on a teacher. The assailants managed to escape. The victim identified as Yar Muhammad, a teacher at Government Middle School Bajori, was rushed to nearby hospital. After first-aid, doctors referred him to Karachi due to his serious condition. Levies Force has registered a case and started an investigation into the incident.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20111211story_11-12-2011_pg7_11... details >>
11.12.2011
‘To be a Baloch is to embrace death’
By Rabia Ali
Published: December 10, 2011
KARACHI:
What is happening in the largest province of the country remains behind a veil of secrecy. There are some who dare to speak, but only if their privacy is protected. For “to be a Baloch openly is to embrace death,” says one such woman.
Sarah* is one of thousands of victims of oppression in Balochistan to whom the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has dedicated this year’s Human Rights Day (today).
Speaking to The Express Tribune by telephone from Quetta, Sarah, 35, cannot hold back her tears when narrating the story of her province, which she says has changed colours over the years – from dusty brown... details >>
07.12.2011
Mir Gul Khan Naseer: the pioneer of Balochi revolutionary poetry
By Fazal BalochDecember 6 is marked as the 28th death anniversary of Mir Gul Khan Naseer who enjoys an unparalleled position in the pantheon of Balochi poets. With his inspirational verses, he gave a new dimension to modern Balochi revolutionary poetry in the post-partition period. Born in 1914, at Nushki, Balochistan, Gul Khan made his first appearance in the realm of literature in the early 40s during the hay-days of the Progressive Movement. He was among the few Progressive Balochi writers who stayed committed to the ideology of the said movement till their last breath. Initially, he used Urdu as the medium of his poetic expression, but soon diverted his attention from Urdu and began inki... details >>
30.11.2011
ANALYSIS: The Balochistan crisis —Dr Qaisar Rashid
No package can meet success if mutilated and bullet-riddled dead bodies keep on appearing in Balochistan. Each dead body sabotages the Balochistan packageBalochistan is suffering from a serious crisis of governance. There are two expressions of the Balochistan problem. First, the Baloch are being picked up and tortured, and their bullet-riddled bodies are being dumped. The Baloch believe that the intelligence agencies or the Frontier Corps (FC) is responsible. The second manifestation is that the FC is under attack and basic infrastructure such as gas pipelines and electricity connections are being destroyed. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has taken responsibility for these a... details >>
21.11.2011
EDITORIAL: Baloch blood on our hands
Finally the Federal Ministry of Human Rights has woken up to the woes of the people of Balochistan and taken notice of the rising number of deaths in the province. The human rights ministry has decided to form a task force that will probe human rights violations in Pakistan’s largest province. A report was earlier compiled by the interior ministry’s Crisis Management Cell (CMC). According to this report, Rs 900 million has been spent by deploying 17 regular units and paramilitary troops to put an end to rising violence in Balochistan. This is astonishing considering that the money is being spent on the same forces that the Baloch people hold responsible for their miseries. A military... details >>
18.11.2011
Balochistan mourns its missing
UETTA, 17 November 2011 (IRIN) - A slightly faded black-and-white photograph of a young man hangs above the mantelpiece in Zarina Bibi’s tiny house in the town of Khuzdar in southwestern Balochistan province. Bibi, in her 70s, occasionally places a vase of flowers near the photograph. It is one of the few she possesses of her grandson, Abdul Rehman, who “vanished” some nine months ago. “I don’t know if I will ever see him again,” she told IRIN. Like her other relatives, Bibi, who had raised Rehman since he was four years old, when his father died, believes he was taken away by the security forces. In a July 2011 report, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) blamed s... details >>
16.11.2011
Politicos, journalists flee killing fields of Balochistan; militant fear rising
Ahmar Mustikhan
, Baltimore Foreign Policy Examiner
Balochistan in southwest Asia is losing both its political and intellectual capital in the backdrop of a bloody crackdown by Pakistan's security and intelligence services since early 2005, opening up the France-seized territory to anarchic, civil war-like situation.
In the last two years, at least two top leaders and nearly six highly educated young men have been granted asylum in Western Europe and United States.
These leaders and intellectuals are fleeing what the Amnesty International called kill-and-dump policy of Pakistan's security forces and intelligence services. As many as 5,000 political activists were disappeared by the Pakis... details >>
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