Exclusive : The War against Baloch

No other state in the world so openly assassinates or defends state murders and mass repression as legitimate instruments of rule. Islamabad is using the most brute and inhuman methods to track down and kill leading Baloch political activists.

By Sanaullah Baloch

The cold-blooded murder of Nawab Akbar KhanBugti, Mir Balach Marri and recent brutal daylight abductions and killing  of three senior Baloch leaders in Turbat are a part of systematic and slow-motion “genocide” in Balochistan, a process that has been taking place since since 1948.

Islamabad first launched a full-fledged military operation to suppress Baloch demand for national right of self-determination and now it is carrying out a policy of abduction and assassinations, which aims to terrorize and destroy moderate political fabric and infrastructure of Baloch national struggle.

Recent escalating attacks and target killings of Baloch intellectuals, leaders and activists is, no doubt, the continuity of the Musharraf’s war against Baloch when he openly intimidated the Baloch people that “this time you won’t even know what hit you.” He brazenly applauded the military’s role in the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and indiscriminate use of air and ground forces against unarmed Baloch civilians.

This time, state is employing the very brute means and methods to decapitate the leadership and terrorize the entire Baloch population. The broader aim of recent daylight coldblooded murder of senior Baloch leaders is to prevent at all costs the political consciousness among Baloch people and emergence of irreversible and united Baloch struggle.

No other state in the world so openly assassinates or defends state murders and mass repression as legitimate instruments of rule. Islamabad is using the most brute and inhuman methods to track down and kill leading Baloch political activists.

By such means Islamabad seeks to render impossible any organized and politically directed struggle against its occupation and exploitation of Baloch land and resources. In this manner establishment seeks to disperse and ultimately wipe out the moderate, nationalist political leaders of Baloch movement.  The message from the Islamabad authorities is clear that anyone, who does not collaborate with Islamabad and its colonial policies, will not survive.

Establishment’s continued policy of state murders has illuminated the real motives behind the series of assassinations. On August 26, 2006 Pakistani troops cold-bloodedly killed veteran Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in November 2007 Balach Marri, in late 2008 Zahid Baloch, in February 2009 prominent Baloch intellectual Jan Mohammad Dashti survived in serious target killing attempt and now three prominent and well respected Baloch leaders lost their life.

Mr. Ghulam Mohammad, 45, Chairman of the Baloch National Movement, Mr. Sher Mohammad Baloch, 35, Vice President of Balochistan Republican Party and Mr. Lala Munir Baloch, 50, General Secretary of Baloch National Front, abducted on April 3, 2009, from the office of a senior Baloch lawyer, after attending the Session Court in Turbat district.

According to the Kachkol Ali Baloch, a former minister and the opposition leader of Balochistan Assembly, more than a dozen persons in civilian dress entered in to his office and abducted the Baloch leaders, The attackers and abductors refused to identify themselves, or to tell Mr. Kachkol Ali that where his clients were being taken.

Soon after their illegal abduction Balochistan’s Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani condemned the act and said that “we disapproved the disappearance of political workers from Turbat and stress that these political workers must be produced before the court within 24 hours”.

The Islamabad justification for the policy of political assassination is the ultimate “Catch 22” argument. They claim they only kill those who are involved in “terrorism”. What is the proof that the targeted individuals are guilty as charged? The fact is that the state has decided to eliminate all politically conscious Baloch leaders and activists.

No independently verifiable evidence is ever presented to substantiate the charges against those marked for assassination. Pakistani authorities do not seek to arrest the accused, put them on trial and present the factual case for their imprisonment or elimination. Instead, Islamabad’s death squads act as judge, jury and executioner.

Such methods have been part and parcel of colonial powers to eliminate potential political leaders to delay substantial political change in colonial and occupied territories. But such brute methods against innocent civilians and Baloch leaders in Pakistan are alarming.

New phase of state sponsored bloodshed in province will further justify the Baloch struggle against repression and boost Baloch people support for the Baloch movement. Killings, disappearances, intimidation, torture and economic blockage never had been a useful means to suppress legitimate political struggle. They serve as fuel for the national cause and source of sympathy and unity for the oppressed people.

Islamabad is mistaken-the ill conceived policies and pattern of repression may have human cost for Baloch people but at large Pakistan will face the political and economic consequences. Continued suppression and war against f Baloch, those control the strategic land, routes and resources in between Middle East and South Asia, is going to be very costly battle.

Islamabad has to give a serious thought to its inhuman and unbearable actions. Pakistan is going through multifaceted crises and does not have life-size stomach to masticate Baloch bones.

(The writer is a former senator balochbnp@gmail.com)