Rift in leadership of Balochistan nationalist movement. Bothers Mehran & Hyrbyar Marri split over Freedom Charter

By: Murtaza Ali Shah

LONDON: A year after Baloch leader Hyrbyair Marri presented the ‘Freedom Charter’ for consultations to unite the Baloch nationalists on a single platform, key Baloch stakeholders have either opposed the document or expressed reservations about it.

Exiled leaders Mehran Baloch, Hyrbyar’s younger brother and Balochistan’s representative in the United Nations, Brahumdagh Bugti, self-exiled leader of the Balochistan Republican Party, Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Dawood and Balochistan National Party (BNP) leader Akhtar Mengal have publicly distanced themselves from the ‘Freedom Charter’ and have alleged that the points in the charter are unrealistic and don’t correspond to the ground realities of the Baloch struggle.

Balochistan will not remain with Pakistan: Top Baloch leader

ISLAMABAD: A senior Baloch nationalist leader warned that Balochistan would not “remain with” Pakistan if extra-judicial killings and excesses by security forces in the restive province were not stopped immediately.

If steps were not taken immediately to halt the extra-judicial killing of Baloch nationalists and to engage them in a dialogue, then “Balochistan will not remain with you” (Pakistan), said Sardar Ataullah Mengal, a senior leader of the Balochistan National Party.

He made the remarks while addressing a televised news conference with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif in Karachi. Sharif said he met Mengal to discuss ways to address the grievances of the Baloch people and to strengthen democracy in the province.

In unusually blunt remarks, Mengal said the violence and killings by security forces had taken “Balochistan to the point of no return” and steps have to be taken to engage youths “who have been driven into the mountains by the army“.

Criticising the powerful Pakistan Army, Mengal question why the security forces only acted in response to killings and political violence in Balochistan and not in places like Karachi and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

“I don’t understand why our beloved army doesn’t react to killings in those places as it does in Balochistan,” he said. “This army only takes up the issues of Punjabis. This is Punjab’s army and not Pakistan’s army,” he said. ….

Read more » TOI

Balochistan: A student leader abducted and four bodies of disappeared persons are found

PAKISTAN: A student leader abducted and four bodies of disappeared persons are found

Case: AHRC-UAC-032-2011 – The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a student leader from Balochistan was abducted from the check post of the Frontier Corps in Quetta while he was returning from an interview for internship at Pakistan Telecommunications, a public sector company. In the campaign of killings of disappeared persons four more bodies of disappeared were found with bullet and torture marks. No a day goes by in Balochistan province without agitation and ‘shutter-down’ strikes in protest of killings and abductions allegedly by the law enforcement agencies. …

Read more : AHRC

Judiciary, parliament silent on Baloch

by Malik Siraj Akbar

Former Senator Sanaullah Baloch is among several top Balcoh nationalist leaders who have fled Balochistan because of increasing targeted killings of Baloch leaders and political activists. A former secretary information of Balochistan National Party (BNP), Mr. Baloch is widely respected as an argumentative champion of Baloch national rights through newspaper articles, interviews and presentations at national and international conferences. In an exclusive interview with the Sanaullah Baloch, Viewpoint spoke about the Balochistan imbroglio …

Read more : ViewPoint

A sad note on the brutal assassination of Habib Jalib Baloch

Knight, not pawn: Habib Jalib Baloch —Dr Mohammad Taqi

More striking than Habib Jalib’s flowing long hair was his political maturity that was certainly beyond his years. This transition from a student politician to a statesman is rather rare in our part of the world

“Aiy haak ki may nagrin qawm e jis o gor int,

Aiy haak a pa maa taah e jatag shaklein zinday” — Mir Gul Khan Nasir.

“This soil has been our home, after death it has been our grave,

So, for evermore, I am this soil’s slave.”

In the parlance of nationalist movements in Pakistan, the motherland (watan) has often been described as the place where one’s home and grave are (kor and gor, respectively in Pashto, for example). The Baloch revolutionary poet Gul Khan Nasir’s above verse, however, took the concept to a new height. And in his death, on July 15, 2010, Comrade Habib Jalib Baloch immortalised the verse, the concept and the struggle that is befitting of this ideal.

Read more >> Daily Times

One more Balouch Leader Liaqat Mengal Shot Dead in Qalat

BNP leader Liaquat Mengal shot dead

QUETTA: Liaquat Mengal, a senior leader of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), was shot dead in Kalat District on Tuesday. Three unknown assailants riding a motorbike attacked Mengal when he was on his way to Kalat city, police sources said. Mengal died on the spot.

Read more >>- DAWN

BNP-M leader Habib Jalib Baloch Assassinated

BNP-M leader Habib Jalib Baloch shot dead

Moscow-educated Jalib was a prominent Baloch intellectual and a former chairman of the Baloch Students Organisation.

QUETTA: Central Secretary-General of the Balochistan National Party – Mengal (BNP – M) and former senator Habib Jalib Baloch was shot dead in Quetta on Wednesday.

Jalib, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, was on his way to the court when he was killed by three unknown assailants riding a motorbike in Quetta’s Musa Colony area.

Read more >> DAWN

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Read more >> BBC urdu