By Shehmir Gorgej
WASINGTON D.C. July 28: A veteran Baluch journalist and founder of the American Friends of Baluchistan has lashed out at, who he called, a corrupt and sleazy Pakistani official for trying to slander the Baluch national struggle for their birth rights as a terrorist activity.
Ahmar Mustikhan, founder of A.F.B., in a letter to Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. Hussain Haqqani said his contry's Interior Minister Rahman Malik was involved in the infamous Iraqi oil-for-food scam and accused him of being involved in a string of bomb blasts in India that left 50 people dead Saturday.
Mustikhan fumed over Malik's attempt to tarnish the image of Nawab Brahamdagh Bugti, a key Baluch resistance leader, and gave details of Malik's Sharjah-based company Petroline FZC involvement in an infamous scam. The company gave $2m in illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's regime.
Mustikhan also sent copies of his letter "Pakistan is terrorist state, not the Baluch people" to House Majority leader Steny Hoyer and ambassadors Said T. Jawad of Afghanistan, Humayun Kabir of Bangladesh and Ronen Sen of India as he said like the Baluch people, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India were all victims of Pakistan's state terrorism.
He also sent copies of letter to a number of leading U.S. think-tanks and news agencies.
Following is the full text of Mustikhan's letter to Haqqani:
I like to draw your attention to a recent statement of acting interior minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Rahman Malik, that appeared in Pakistan's largest circulation The News International newspaper:
"ISLAMABAD: Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Rahman Malik has said that India was supporting Brahamdagh Bugti in “his terrorist activities”, and that the evidences would soon be surfaced."
In the same statement, Malik said people would soon hear good news.
Rahman Malik's "good news" came true within 48 hours as the world saw a string of bomb blasts in Ahmedabad that left 50 people killed.
Malik, who is in the Pakistani team currently visiting Washington DC, is a son of a barber from the Punjab town of Sialkot but has the temerity to call Baluchistan freedom fighters terrorists. If someone had risen from such a lowly background in the West, he would have commanded my utmost respect but in a society like Pakistan, this case of Malik's meteoric rise shows his sleazy, cunning and cruel character.
I am quoting from Pakistan famous columnist Anjum Niaz's article in Dawn newspaper: "Malik rose to dizzying heights from a lowly grade 13 or 14 [in Pakistan, real officer grade starts at Grade 17] officer. Stories of Malik trying to worm his way through by bribing his seniors are still fresh in our minds. Come promotion time, he’d turn up at their homes with trays laden with designer suits. By golly, it worked!"
What is most dangerous from the U.S. standpoint is that Malik is part owner of a firm, Petroline FZC, based in the United Arab Emirates. The firm was involved in the infamous United Nations oil-for-food scandal.
According to a BBC report, in 2005 the Independent Inquiry Commission led by former US Federal Reserve head Paul Volcker found that more than 2,000 companies breached UN sanctions by making illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq before 2003. Mr. Volcker's inquiry found Petroline FZC traded $144m of Iraqi oil, and made $2m of illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's regime.
Petroline FZC was part of the Bayoil network. Michael J. Garcia, the United
States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, on August 17, 2007 announced the guilty pleas of David B. Chalmers, Jr., 53, of Houston, Texas, and two corporations that he operated -- Bayoil (USA), Inc., a Delaware corporation with principal offices in Houston, TX, and Bayoil Supply & Trading Limited, a Bahamian company with principal offices in Nassau,
Bahamas (collectively, the "Bayoil Companies"). Chalmers and the Bayoil Companies each pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Denny Chin to participating in a scheme to pay illegal surcharges to the former Government of Iraq in connection with the purchase of crude oil in the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program between mid-2000 and 2003. Judge
Chin also accepted the guilty plea of Ludmil Dionissiev, 61, of Houston, Texas, to related smuggling charges. Dionissiev worked with Chalmers and the Bayoil Companies during the course of this scheme to purchase Iraqi oil.
In March this year, Chalmers was sentenced to 2 years, and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of over $9 million. Dionissiev was sentenced principally to a fine of $5000 and a two-year term of probation
On August 26, 2006 Pakistan's terrorist army extra-judicially killed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, who was a popular leader of the Baluch, won elections all his life, was a former governor and chief minister of Baluchistan, and also chief of the Bugti tribe. The tribe has the ownership of the gas fields in Sui and Pakistan owes Baluchistan as much as $15 billion in unpaid dues. Pakistan army is conducting a genocide of people in Dera Bugti. In the last one week alone, more than 70 people mostly women, children and the elderly have been killed in the Dera Bugti.
On top of that, this corrupt barber's son Malik is accusing slain Bugti's grandson Nawab Brahamdagh Bugti of being involved in terrorism.
Pakistan has got a lot of explanation to do.
Can you deny that jihad is the cornerstone of Pakistan army's military philosophy? Can you deny the first thing Pakistani soldiers do in Marri and Bugti areas is to target the minoritites and destroy their places of worship? Can you explain the extrajudicial killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti? Cany you deny Pakistan owes Baluchistan $15 billion in Sui gas alone? Don't you know the Baluch want an international force to replace the jihadist army and Frontier Corps in Baluchistan?
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has no right to talk about Baluchistan as
Baluchistan was never a part of Pakistan but was forcibly annexed in March 1948. Passage of six decades since that annexation does not in any way grant any legitimacy to the illegal annexation as the Baluch are fighting against that annexation to this day.
We demand Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps should leave Baluchistan peacefully, without any further loss of precious lives.
Let alone sheltering world infamous terrorists, who have not been arrested yet, one high profile terrorist Rashid Rauf, who was wanted by U.K.
authorities was freed from jail by Pakistan's secret service. He has vanised into thin air.
It is the state of Pakistan that is involved in terrorism, not the Baluch people.
I am pretty sure the honorable ambassadors of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India would agree with my assertion. |
