Balochistan at a Crossroads

Balochistan: Portraits Of Life On The Brink

Balochistan, a vast, resource-rich desert region spanning Pakistan and Iran, is a hotbed of separatist conflict. In his new book titled “Balochistan at a Crossroads,” journalist Willem Marx and photographer Marc Watterlot documented the suffering and struggles of Baluch people living in underdeveloped and marginalized communities in both Pakistan and Iran.

Read more » rferl.org
http://www.rferl.org/media/photogallery/balochistan-portraits-of-life-on-the-brink/25324011.html

Balochistan: middle-class rebellion

Dr. Allah Nazar

By: Mahvish Ahmad

QUETTA: The state sees them as unruly men serving power-hungry sardars, but the six 20-something Baloch Student Organisation-Azad (BSO-Azad) members sitting cross-legged on the floor of their dorm room come across as more diligent than unruly, and more revolutionary than submissive.

As active sympathisers of a rebellion calling for outright independence, they embody a new kind of Baloch freedom fighter – or sarmachar.

And a new kind of victim of the kill-and-dump policy practised, they claim, by the Frontier Core (FC) and intelligence agencies.

These six young men are urbanised, middle-class, educated, and typically allied as equals rather than serving as underlings to the separatist Bugti and Marri sardars of Balochistan.

“We are united in our call for an independent Balochistan. And we have sacrificed our lives for our cause. Ninety-five members of BSO-Azad have been picked up, tortured and brutally murdered by the establishment. Many of them were students at educational institutions like Balochistan University,” says Khalid, an office-holder in BSO-Azad.

Malik Siraj Akbar, the editor of the online newspaper, Baloch Hal, which has been banned in Pakistan, agrees. “Today’s Baloch movement is headed not solely by […] tribal chiefs, but [by] educated middle class youth,” says Malik in the introduction to his book, “The Redefined Dimensions of the Baloch Nationalist Movement”.

DAWN NEWS TV – Sindh’s Nationalist leader Bashir Qureshi was poisoned to death – MLO Chandka Safiullah Abbasi

Dawn News Tv confirmed the first post-mortem (Autopsy) report by Dr. Safi… that JSQM leader Bashir Qureshi was poisoned. Further investigation will be done to clarify which chemical (poison)was used. Sources reported that postmortem (Autopsy) report has so far been kept secret by the authorities. The News clip is in urdu (Hindi).

» YouTube

Bashir Qureshi – it is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr

(Desk News/ Analysis) Our dear friend, our guide, and great leader Chairman Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Bashir Qureshi passed away and left the Sindhi nation crying behind. The people of Sindh wish he could have lived many more years to lead the nation towards a prosperous and developed Sindh.

The flooding of tweets and comments at social media and e-mails at Sindhi e-lists suspect that he has been poisoned because only a few days ago on the 23rd of March 2012 through the successful Freedom March/ rally in Karachi, he caused the deep security establishment of the country to lose its sleep forever. Many suspect he was martyred as Shah Nawaz Bhutto was martyred and his death was not his natural death. According to the statement of JSQM General Secretary Asif Baladi, “Bashir Qureshi didn’t have any heart-related disease. We see a conspiracy behind his sudden death.”  But as the regime being involved, chances of a fair investigation are less than slim.

Bashir Qureshi  was a great human being and a leader. He was a true disciple of Saeen GM Syed. He was a down to earth and a very caring and humble person. He was actually the continuation of the struggle of G.M. Syed for the independence of Sindh. Therefore, the deep security establishment could not digest his party’s successful freedom march in the capital of Sindh, Karachi; thus the establishment played its dirty role to remove him from the scene and as a result Sindh had lost her valuable son. On Facebook his party workers express that they will continue resistance against the slavery of the deep state and they will continue to go forward with his path of freedom of Sindh.

Napoleon had said, “It is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr.” Basheer Khan Qureshi fought for a noble cause. He is a martyr. And, martyrs never die.

Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, twitter, social media, April 6, 2012.

Turkish forces kill 15 female Kurdish rebels

Turkish security forces have killed 15 female rebel Kurds in the southeast of the country on Saturday, AFP cites the country’s interior ministry as saying. One member of a local group fighting alongside Turkish security forces was killed in the clashes, while three more were wounded. The female rebels belonged to a women-only unit of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The operation follows a large-scale offensive against PKK militants near the Iraqi border that left seven police officers and six rebels dead.

Courtesy: http://www.rt.com/news/line/2012-03-24/#id28470

Sindhi middle class politics

By Javed Ahmed Qazi

Sindhi politics are a paradox. When there is democracy, the political pendulum swings towards the PPP, and when there is dictatorship, people support ethnic politic parties.

The ethnic parties that represent the middle class hardly ever win legislative assembly seats. But when they called strikes recently, the entire province came to a standstill. And that is a sign the middle class is starting to matter.

Although separatist movements are more popular in Balochistan, their flags are not displayed openly. SindhuDesh flags are seen all over the Sindh.

In his book Idea of Pakistan, Stephan Cohen says: “An independent Sindh would block the access of the rest of Pakistan to the sea. Separatist movements there were intolerable to the central government and a mixture of inducement and punishment was applied to keep the nationalist sentiments in check.” But “Sindhi separatist feeling still exists today, and political unrest runs deep”.

Sindhi nationalists are generally anti-establishment, and are not ready to stop supporting the PPP for either ZulfiqarMirza or MarviMemon.

The hub of middle-class Sindi politics is the Qasimabad town of Hyderabad. For a long time, Sindh University in Jamsharo supplied its cadres. Dr QadirMagsi, Bashir Qureshi, and Gul Muhammad Jakhrani began politics when they were students. But partly because of the ban on student unions and partly because of two streams of education, that has changed.

Hyderabad is also the hub of Sindhi press, and editorial pages specifically address issues of ethnic orientation – governance, economy, taxes, and long standing water related debates.

The middle class has grown substantially all over the province in the last few decades, but the economy is not entrepreneurial. Most middle-class professionals are teachers, journalists, retailers, clerics, government employees, or skilled workers.

The birth of the middle in Sindh began in the 1970s when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave out government jobs, set up universities and built roads in the province. But eventually, he also sternly suppressed middle class political voices.

The ethnic Sindhi middle class has traditionally been wary of the Punjabis as well as the Mohajirs. While President AsifZardari has helped pacify the Mohajir-Sindhi differences in the recent past, issues between the two groups remain unresolved.

Ethnic Sindhis also have concerns about distribution of river water with Punjab and are especially concerned about the proposed Kalabagh Dam.

Sindhi politics have been secular and Sufi-leaning so far, but Taliban-friendly seminaries have recently made inroads in northern Sindh. The development has specifically concerned Sindh’s Hindu community, but Shias are comparatively safe.

A vast majority of Sindhis is Sunni, but they have immense respect of Shias. Many Sindhi feudals are also Shia. A large number of Sufi shrines are taken care of by Shias, and even Hindus have a say in the affairs of those shrines.

Hindus and Muslims lived peacefully in Sindh before Partition, and the Sindhi middle class accuses the feudals of having instigated Hindu-Muslim riots for political gains. Middle-class Sindhi politicians were popular in Sindh before the riots, it is said, and Shiekh Abdul Majeed Sindhi defeated Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto, father of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in the 1937 elections.

Sindhi ethnic parties had also supported Sheikh MujiburRehman, because there was a perception in Sindh that the Bengali nationalist movement and Sindhi nationalist movement had common goals and a common rival – the middle class of Punjab.

The demand for an independent SindhuDesh was first made in 1973, but it has never been as popular as the separatist movement of Bangladesh, or even the recent separatist movement in Balochistan.

Courtesy: Friday Times

Former federal law minister and prominent human rights activist Iqbal Haider endorsed Zulfiqar Mirza

– Iqbal Haider endorses Mirza

BY: IMDAD SOOMRO

SINDH – KARACHI – Former federal law minister and prominent human rights activist Iqbal Haider endorsed Zulfiqar Mirza’s statements about the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) that he made at Karachi Press Club on Sunday, and said that Mirza had confirmed his point of view that he had been expounding for a long time.

The senior lawyer, human activist and former senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) told Pakistan Today that it was high time for all patriotic Pakistanis, politicians and media to expose the mysterious aims and designs against the integrity and interests of the country and its people without any fear of terrorists or political victimisation.

“We have suffered already from, and we should get rid of, the politics of dead bodies,” said Haider. “Dr Zulifqar Mirza has confirmed my point of view, which I have been expressing since long,” he added.

“The MQM from day one is an ethnic organisation and created by military dictator General Zia in his era. It is clearly a separatist organisation and wants to break up Pakistan,” he said. “Altaf Hussain said in 1996 at the birthday of GM Syed at Sindh University Jamshoro… that he would fulfill the programme of GM Syed of breaking up Pakistan and creating Sindhudesh,” he added.

“In 1986 at Nishtar Park, Altaf Hussain, in a public gathering under the shadow of sophisticated weapons, gave a message to the people to sell their assets. In 1993, when the operation cleanup had started in 1992, the slogan of the MQM was ‘Sindh mai hoga kaisay guzara, adha tumhara adha hamara’ (how will we survive in Sindh, half is yours and half is ours) and at that same time there was also the ‘rule’ that anyone who betrays Altaf Hussain needs nothing less than the punishment of death. Under the same slogan, several people including Azeem Tariq were assassinated and the last target was Imran Farooq, the founding general secretary of the MQM. Several ministers and hardcore activists went underground for fear of getting killed,” said Haider.

He said there was no example in the world that any leader whose party was in the federal government, provincial government and city government lived outside the country and claimed he would be killed if returned.

Haider also said the MQM should clarify why the US issues hundreds of visas to its activists.

Courtesy: PakistanToday

Clashes Rage In Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province

by Julie McCarthy

While Pakistan battles an Islamist militancy that seeks to overthrow the state, another lesser-known conflict rages on its soil. In the southwest province of Baluchistan, separatist fighters are clashing with security forces and killing anyone they see as the enemy.

… We have been tracking Pakistan’s battles with an Islamist militancy that seeks to overthrow the state. In the next few minutes, we’ll hear about a different sort of fight: militants in the remote province of Baluchistan want to break away from Pakistan all together. It’s a fight where both the separatists and government forces are being accused of using viscous tactics. NPR’s Julie McCarthy has more. ….

Read more: →  NPR.ORG

Shouting about Indian repression in Kashmir is hypocrisy

– A weaker insurgency, but with new contours

By Cyril Almeida, dawn.com

QUETTA: The decline in insurgent violence over the past year, at the cost of savage violence by the state, has produced a fragile recovery in Quetta and other insurgency-hit parts of Balochistan.

Canada’s National Post columnist, Lawrence Solomon advocates the breakup of Pakistan

– Lawrence Solomon: Pakistan would work better in pieces

by: Lawrence Solomon

Pakistan would be a more stable and peaceful place if its four component nations were unstitched from one another

Since Osama bin Laden was found living unmolested in a Pakistani military town, debate has raged over how to deal with this duplicitous, faction-ridden country. Should the United States and others in the West continue to provide Pakistan with billions in foreign aid, in the hopes of currying at least some influence among elements of the Pakistani leadership? Or should we get tough, and declare it to be the state sponsor of terrorism that it is, knowing this course of action could cripple our efforts to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and drive Pakistan further into the Chinese sphere of influence?

Neither course would be satisfactory and neither should be adopted. Instead, the West should recognize that the muddle it faces stems from Pakistan’s internal contradictions. This is not one cohesive country but four entirely distinct nations, having little in common save their animosity toward one another, a predominantly Muslim faith and Britain’s decision to confine them within the same borders in partitioning the Indian subcontinent more than a half century ago. The West’s only sensible course of action today is to unstitch the British patchwork, let the major nations within Pakistan choose their future, and negotiate coherently with new national administrations that don’t have impossibly conflicted mandates.

Who can check them? Unfortunately no body !

Who can check them? — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Excerpt:

…. The ‘establishment’ with its ‘solution by force policy’ has created irresolvable resentment among a majority of Baloch. ‘Balochistan: Waiting for justice’ editorial in Daily Times on February 28 has put the matter in proper perspective, “Pakistan’s security establishment has dealt with Balochistan in a very heavy-handed manner. The largest province of Pakistan has seen little development over the last six decades. Lack of education, infrastructure and political power has alienated the Baloch from the rest of the country, particularly Punjab, which they see as their ‘enemy’. The recent policy of eliminating moderate nationalists, who are in open national politics, is a dangerous trend. Thousands of Baloch have disappeared under mysterious circumstances or have been picked up by unknown elements. They are not only tortured but many of them are killed brutally and their bodies are later found from different parts of Balochistan. This policy adopted by our security establishment is leading to an increase in separatist sentiment among the Baloch.

“It is no secret that neither the federal government nor the provincial government has any real say when it comes to Balochistan. The real power lies with our security establishment, which has a narrow and non-political repressive policy. It is time that they understand that force, repression and killing cannot resolve this issue. A political solution is needed and for that the democratic government needs to run the show. The Baloch have been waiting for justice for decades now. It is time to address their grievances.”

Significantly even Balochistan’s Advocate General (AG) Salahuddin Mengal stated in Supreme Court that, “We are recovering dead bodies day in and day out as the Frontier Corps (FC) and police are lifting people in broad daylight at will, but we are helpless. Who can check the FC?” Who would know better than him about perpetrators of brutal killings of which my old student Faiz Mohammad Marri is the latest victim. Only the iron-will and determination of the people can check the oppressors because history moves relentlessly however brutal the repression. …

Read more : Daily Times

KASHMIR BURNS AS VIOLENCE CONTINUES

Kashmir burns again as India responds to dissent with violence

The hospitals are filling up with gunshot victims but angry protesters say the world is blind to their plight. Andrew Buncombe reports from Srinagar

A dozen men appeared, gathered around a blood-smeared trolley, rushing its occupant towards the emergency surgery room. Abdul Rashid, said his friends, had been shot in the head by police who had opened fire on a peaceful gathering. “There was no stone-pelting, nothing,” yelled one of the 25-year-old’s friends, as medics pulled shut the doors to the surgery room. “There was no curfew … They fired indiscriminately.”

Once again, Kashmir is burning. Buildings and barricades have been set alight and its people are enraged. The largest towns are packed with heavily-armed police and the hospital wards are full of young men with gunshot wounds. Around 50 people have been killed since June, more than 31 in the last week alone, and dozens more have been wounded. The dead include young men, teenagers and even a nine-year-old boy, reportedly beaten to death by the security forces after he tried to walk to the local shop.

And yet for all their pain, the people of Kashmir believe they are suffering alone. They say that unlike places such as Kosovo or East Timor, which both secured independence in recent years, the world is deaf to Kashmir’s demands for autonomy. They blame the US and UN for not doing more and criticise Britain’s David Cameron for refusing to raise the issue of Kashmir when he visited India last month, declining to upset his hosts, with whom he was seeking to boost trade and investment deals, even as he bluntly criticised Pakistan for exporting terror. “We were disappointed and so were the people,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a moderate separatist leader who has been placed under house arrest. “Of all the foreign countries, Britain has more moral responsibility for this mess.”

Read more >> THE INDEPENDENT

Regi’s Death and Misperception About Jundallah A Nationalist or a Separatist Movement?

Raza Khan

The Iranian execution of Abdul Malik Regi on June 21 may have eliminated one of the most dangerous militant-terrorists of modern Iranian history. In this analysis PoliTact examines the consequences of the hanging of Regi. He was arrested on a plane from Dubai to Bishkek, which was forced to land in Bandar Abbas. Most importantly, the analysis also examines if Jundallah is a nationalist or a separatist movement in character.

Read more >>- PoliTact