Baloch parents must educate their children about two important facts as we mark the first “killed and dumped” anniversary of one of the most charismatic student leaders of our times: Who Qambar Chakar was and why he was killed. Although hundreds of brilliant young Balochs have been engulfed by the government’s ‘kill and dump operations’ in Balochistan, Qambar Chakar merits special tributes for his remarkable role in Baloch reawakening. Many say he was killed by the Pakistani intelligence agencies too young while we think they killed him too late as he had already left a visionary legacy.

For those unfamiliar with the twenty-four year old Baloch activist, let’s summarize his political and educational struggle in these words. Chakar, a member of a middle class Baloch family in Kech district, was a Master’s student at the Department of Economics at the Balochistan University of Information Technology and Management Sciences (BUITMS). He was profoundly perturbed over the colonization of Balochistan’s primer educational institutions, particularly at the BUITMS where a discriminatory admission policy closed doors of education for native Balochs at the cost of outsiders under the pretext of ‘open-merit’.  Chakar, who had himself successfully sought admission at the University on merit, revolted against the admission policy and called for reforms so that more Baloch students from remote and under-privileged areas could  also be admitted there.

With two other student colleagues i.e. Qambar Malik Baloch and Khurshid Baloch, late Qambar Chakar sat on an unto death hunger strike camp in front of the Quetta Press Club in support of his demands. He argued ‘merit’ was a ploy to shut down the doors of higher education for Baloch students. If open merit was the only criterion to admit students at the BUITMS then the beneficiaries would exclusively be the urban rich kids who had attended grammarian schools and colleges. Hence, Baloch children from far-off districts would be outnumbered by the children of non-Baloch and non-Balochistani bureaucrats and army officers who came up with a more sophisticated educational background because of their social and economic strata. Mr. Chakar’s campaign was not opposed to the ‘merit’ per se. What he stood for was actually merit but at district level so that each of Balochistan’s thirty district could get representation at this important educational institution.

The government of Pakistan loathed Baloch student’s this uprising and used various tactics to countervail their movement. One way was to pit Pashtun student organizations against the Baloch by enticing them to issue statements in the newspapers on daily basis in support of the controversial admission policy. The entry policy then served the Pashtun interests because all Pashtun districts, such as Pishin, Lorali, Ziarat and Qila Abdullah are so close to Quetta that children from those districts could easily come to attend school in the morning and return home in the evening.

On the other hand, it took someone like Qambar Chakar three days’ hard journey on broken roads to reach from his native Kech district to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. These harsh ground realities which enormously contributed to the Baloch backwardness primarily caused Qambar’s anguish. Secondly, the government also repeatedly endeavored to push the Baloch students in a state of inferiority complex by telling them they were not compatible with contemporary educational challenges and were shying away from facing the so-called open merit-based policy. The government, on the other hand, totally failed to ever explain why it had failed to provide the same level of education and facilities in schools in remote parts of Balochistan which were available in Quetta.

Qambar Chakar elegantly read a colonizer’s mindset and did not lose his confidence in the wake of the official propaganda unleashed in the local media. He stood for what he truly believed in for the greater interest of Balochistan’s future. As a part of his revolutionary campaign which was joined by hundreds of Baloch students, Qambar surrounded the Governor’s House until Governor Zulfiqar Ali Magsi was forced to come out to negotiate with the Baloch activist leader. The Governor offered him negotiations ‘inside the Governor’s House’, which Qambar utterly rejected saying that he would not hold secret negotiations with a government official.

“If you have to make a decision,” he told implicitly told Governor Magsi, “you have to make it in front of all the student.”

Understandably, the governor, who is also the chancellor of the BUITMS, did not concede to Qambar’s demands, nor did the latter surrender.

When the government failed to break the resolve of the young Baloch student through threats and ostentatious offers, they brazenly kidnapped Qambar on July 10, 2010 from the same educational institution where he was a student reportedly with the support of the institution’s Pashtun vice chancellor. The young activist was tortured, humiliated and implicated in a false case of possessing a hand grande. Charges against him were never substantiated in a court. He was detained so that he would bunk all his important exams and meet his academic demise. Security forces illegally detained Chakar for at least nine months until he was released on April 22, 2010. By then, he had emerged as a mature and popular student leader who once again stood for the educational rights of the Baloch people.

Extrajudicial confinement did not deter Qambar from his commitment to his people and their basic human rights. He immediately returned to the political battleground which eventually turned out to be a fatal gamble for him. Incensed over his steadfastness and defiance, the security establishment eventually decided to permanently get rid of Qambar. Thus, officials kidnapped him for the second time on November 26, 2010. He never returned. When the young firebrand was found on January 5th, 2010 on Pasni Road in Turbat, he had been tortured to martyrdom.

Like hundreds of  other ‘killed and dumped’ Balochs, Qambar Chakar’s family still awaits justice. No investigation was ever conducted in his murder because those who were blamed for kidnapping and murdering him were all disappointingly the very ‘custodians of the law’.

Qambar Chakar was different from so many of his compatriots. He was frail but still a bold strategist and cogent orator. He very impressively communicated and coordinated with the media. He was too clear in what he stood for as he was simply not a blind-follower.  He thought in issues-based rather than personality-based politics. As a senior leader of the Baloch Students Organization (BSO-Azad) Qambar was a very promising young campaigner. When he lived, we predicted he’d one day become Balochistan’s most charismatic leader rising from the middle class. Now that is no more with us, we believe he has the most inspiring and motivational story of a young man who loved  modern education and fought for his people’s rights, until his death. Only those who truly know the value of modern education for their people would go to the extent of sacrificing their lives.  Qambar was indeed our martyr of the technological era. He lived and fought for Baloch rights in a 21st-centuary style.

Qambar Chakar will be truly missed by all of us who dream of a progressive, enlightened and empowered Balochistan. Rest in peace, young comrade!

(MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal

Friday’s suicide bombing outside the residence of Mir Shafiq Mengal, the son of a former interim chief minister, which killed at least fifteen people and injured thirty others, leaves us with absolutely murky prospects of peace in Balochistan in the upcoming year 2012. While for the rest of the country it was a routine bomb blast, historians and experts on Balochistan must bookmark today’s newspaper pages for future references.

For the first time in its history, the secular nationalist outfit Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has carried out a ‘successful’ suicide bombing. Government authorities in Quetta refuse to agree that it was a suicide blast while one sees expression of tremendous jubilation on Twitter and Facebook pages of young supporters of the nationalist movement. Reactions by  young Balochs are similar to what we witnessed in May 1998 when Pakistanis celebrated the successful detonation of  nuclear weapons in Balochistan’s Chagi district. One feels that the elated Baloch activists are marking the day as if they have invented or acquired a new weapon to sustain and advance their separatist resistance movement against Pakistan.

On its part, the government and media outlets supportive of former’s policies have deliberately excluded the ‘suicide’ prefix of the bombing in their news dispatches. The government believes suicide bombings, once they start, do not stop easily and they further collapse the already existing poor security apparatus.Pakistani security forces have been remarkably demoralized in recent years while fruitlessly endeavoring to grapple with the phenomenon of countrywide suicide bombings carried out by Islamic fundamentalist groups.Therefore, confirming the occurrence of a suicide blast planned by nationalists for the police means to officially announce the inception of a new chapter of violence, chaos and lawlessness. The pro-government media has also tried to help the officials in their damage control efforts by not clearly confirming the involvement of Baloch nationalists in a case of suicide bombing.

So, what does it mean to be a Baloch suicide bomber and what does it entail for the future of the province? What is going to happen to the nationalist movement if Islamabad takes a few weeks to investigate the bombing and then comes up with staggering “revelations” that Baloch nationalists are “linked” with Islamic terrorist groups? Will that make it easier and more legitimate for Islamabad to bomb Baloch towns under the pretext of executing the war on terror? While these questions will surely be debated in the coming weeks, we still have to wait for more details from the BLA about its future operations and also from the government about its reaction and response mechanism against the rise of this new phenomenon.

A more important question which merits debate is whether suicide bombing is solely used by Islamic radical groups as a tool to spread terror and pressurize their opponents. A lot of people will respond affirmatively if they have deeply read the post-9/11 counter-terrorism literature. But this does not match the reality as secular nationalist movements in many parts of the world have historically used suicide bombings as a strong weapon against their opponents.

Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has closely observed every terrorist attack in the world from 1980 to early 2004, says more than half of all suicide attacks were carried out by secular groups and individuals.

“In fact, the world’s leader in suicide terrorism was the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist group that is completely secular and that recruits from Hindus. More than a third of all suicide attacks by Muslims were also carried out by secular groups, such as the Kurdish PKK in Turkey and the Communist Party in Lebanon.”

Dr. Pape, who is also the author of the book on suicide bombings Dying to Win, further says, “what more than 95 per cent of all suicide terrorist attacks around the world have in common is not religion, but a specific political goal to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland or prize greatly. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, the central objective of every suicide terrorist campaign since 1980 has been to compel a democratic state with military forces on territory that the terrorists prize to take those forces out.”

BLA’s claim that Friday’s bombing was carried out by a member of its Majeed Brigade takes us back to the history of Baloch nationalist movement when a young Baloch with the same name had made a failed suicide attempt on former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. On August 2, 1974, the young boy from Mastung District [see the editorial picture], Abdul Majeed Baloch, lost his own life while trying to assassinate Mr. Bhutto with a hand grenade. He wanted to avenge the killing of thousands of Balochs in a military operation unleashed by Bhutto after dismissing the first ever elected government of the province. Since then, Majeed has been treated as a national hero and a martyr of the Baloch nationalist movement.

Suicide bombings rise in societies where the supporters of such operations believe injustices against them have reached the peak. When injustice and brutality replaces hope and conflict resolution, suicide bombings find their way as an alternative form of resistance. We knew that Balochs would one day run out of patience after becoming tired of receiving the bullet-riddled dead bodies of their loved ones. What else were we expecting in an unjust society where the country’s army, which is supposed to be the defender of the population, is directly blamed for ‘kill and dump’ operations and the Supreme Court does not show modicum of interest in providing justice to the Baloch?

As far as the BLA is concerned, it should also pause and think for a while before choosing for such a self-destructive option. Similar to its name, “suicide” bombing also leads to the political suicide  of some of the strongest political movements. Such bombings brutally and indiscriminately kill innocent people. They spread terror at public places and claim lives of women, children, elderly and all those unarmed civilians who have no remote connection with the government policies and actions.

Every progressive or conservative movement offers some kind of ‘hope’ to its supporters. It is hope that leads to the success of some flawed and conservative movements. Why did the Taliban succeed in coming to power in Afghanistan? Because they promised peace and ‘justice’ to their people. Although their regime was subsequently marked with unprecedented violations of human rights,  they reflect one dimension of public aspirations and expectations when they decide to support a movement.

Many Balochs look at the BLA and other political stakeholders as forces which will one day bring them justice.  A poor and hungry Baloch would continue to support the nationalist movement as long as it offers him/ her promising economic prospects and equality. But if the very people in the streets of Quetta and elsewhere in Balochistan become victims of Baloch operations, they will understandably unsubscribe their moral support. By the end of the day, they will become weary of nationalistic politics and get back to the government for assistance against the very people whom they once looked as a sign of hope.

Baloch nationalist organizations should learn lessons from the mistakes the  Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) made. With an annual revenue of $300 million, the LTTE was the world’s richest resistance force. It also enjoyed remarkable support from some neighboring and a few European nations. Yet, overconfidence and excessive violations of human rights led to the unpopularity of the movement and its eventual defeat.

After the May 2nd raid which killed Osama bin Laden, Balochs had an extraordinary opportunity to reach out for international support. Islamabad has annoyed many civilized countries of the world, including the United States, because of its not-so-covert support to Islamic terrorist groups. If the Baloch leadership and diaspora engages in peaceful advocacy and political dialogue with the world community, they can achieve remarkable success. On the contrary, suicide attacks can turn out to be so destructive that they will provide Islamabad a chance to divert the attention of international community from its own support to Islamic radical groups and misleadingly force the world to designate Baloch resistance groups as terrorist outfits.

(MALIK  SIRAJ AKBAR)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal

In less than two months, at least three prominent Baloch doctors have been target killed, including two in the provincial capital. As expected, the murderers in all three cases are at large. Thursday’s killing of police surgeon Dr. Baqir Shah in Quetta, however, is a classic example of official negligence. Besides Dr. Shah himself and his family, everyone else knew his life was at risk. Having experienced torture in June this year in the hands of at least ten people attired in police uniform, the late physician had told the media as well as the judiciary that his life was under constant threat. Therefore, it was the responsibility of the government of Balochistan to provide security to a high-profile figure like Dr. Shah.

The late police surgeon was somewhat an easy target for terrorists for a host of reasons. His situation could enable any murderer to immediately vanish in thin air because of the circumstances that shrouded the late doctor. He gained enormous national and international media attention after conducting the postmortem of five foreigners who were killed on May 17 in what is now remembered as the infamous and tragic Kharotabad incident.

Dr. Shah impressed everyone with his absolute honesty and professionalism when he contested the unconvincing official description of what had actually happened in Kharotabad. He contradicted the version of the events as narrated by the Frontier Corps (FC) and the police.

Police in Quetta say it is premature to say whether or not Dr. Shah’s murder was a case of targeted killing. Such assertions are simply meant either to delay investigations or exempt the government from its accountability. What have the law enforcement agencies been doing in the past two months regarding the murder cases of two other Baloch doctors? It is not a coincident that all doctors being killed in Balochistan are Balochs. While we do recognize the government’s limitations given its poor and slow investigation apparatus but does it mean that the law enforcement authorities have utterly failed to make an inch of progress in chasing elements who killed Dr. Mazhar Baloch, the provincial president of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on October 15? Whether these killers linked to each other and share a common hit-list of Baloch doctors and professionals remains unknown but still guessable.

In another similar case two weeks ago, on December 16th to be precise, Dr. Naseem Baloch, the chief medical officer of Gwadar’s District Headquarters Hospital, was shot dead by unidentified persons.

These killings have triggered a wave of insecurity among Baloch doctors and also tremendously infuriated the already enraged Baloch population. Besides the common Baloch in the streets even professional doctors and seasoned politicians are holding the government and its certain shadowy wings responsible for this wave of fatal violence. Even some Baloch members of the the provincial cabinet have criticized their own government.

During a session of the Balochistan Assembly on December 17th, one could see the level of legislators’ powerlessness that they walked out the assembly session against the killing of Dr. Naseem Baloch.

“The provincial government allocates Rs11 billion for the maintenance of law and order, but still police and other law enforcing agencies have failed to give an output or a positive result,” said Asadullah Baloch, minister for agriculture who is also the secretary general of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Awami), “The senior police officers must be held accountable for their failure to protect the life and property of the people”

The Pakistan Medical Association and Baloch Doctors’ Forum (BDF) have jointly announced three days of mourning and a strike in Quetta’s Bolan Medical College Complex and the Civil Hospital. Yet, the strike is likely to have a deeper impact in the Bloch-dominated districts where it may prolong for more than three days. The BDF has also highlighted the cases of two disappeared Baloch doctors, Dr. Din Mohammad Marri and Dr. Akbar Marri whose families hold the state intelligence agencies responsible for their disappearance.

Doctors in any society deserve profound respect for their commitment to serving the humanity. In a backward area like Balochistan, where the health indicators are extremely murky, very few young men and women manage to accomplish their medical education. They strive tirelessly for at least seven years to get a degree in medicine. The first thing most of the non-local medical students who study on reserved seats at the province’s lone medical college, Bolan, quit Balochistan as soon as they complete their eduction. Only some  professionally committed doctors, who surely receive a number of better offers and opportunities to go to Europe and USA for a better personal and professional life, turn down these attractions and agree to serve in the conflict-stricken province of Balochistan.

Hence, it is total senselessness to subject doctors to enforced disappearance for several months and deny him the primary human right of free trial. International human rights groups and Doctors Without Borders should quickly take up the issue with the provincial and federal authorities to ensure the recovery of the missing Baloch doctors.

Doctors like Mr. Shah are role models for our society because they selflessly cure the ailing humanity and also firmly and professionally stand against all pressures intended to urge them to compromise on their professional integrity.

Chief Minister Raisani’s intervention and approval of an inquiry into the murder is a welcome decision although dozens of such investigation committees formed in the past have culminated into stark failure. Yet, we wonder what apologies to Balochistan from leaders like President Zardari or Imran Khan mean when elements responsible for Baloch genocide are not exposed and brought to justice.

(MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal

In scathing criticism directed at the federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, a senior minister in the Balochistan government asked during a session of the Balochistan Assembly if the former was an agent of the foreign governments. Maulana Abdul Wasey, the senior minister from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, while commenting on Mr. Malik’s consistent hostile and offensive statements in flagrant support of the military operation and violation of human rights in Balochistan, said the minister’s attitude had generated speculations that he was not Pakistan’s minister but an agent of the United States, India or Israel tasked to alienate his own people.

A short and direct answer to the Maulana’s question, whether or not Mr. Malik is a foreign agent, is an emphatic no. Rehman Malik is a patriotic Pakistan whose commitment with the Pakistani army and links with its intelligence agencies are beyond any doubt.

Rehman Malik’s derogatory attitude to the Baloch people was also highlighted by former chief minister Sardar Attaullah Mengal during his recent meeting with ex-prime minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif in Karachi. The veteran Baloch leader pointed out how Malik added salt to the injuries of the victims of the conflict. In another interview with Dawn News, the elderly Baloch leader said negotiations between Balochistan and the federal government were out of question in the midst of confrontational and humiliating remarks by the interior minister in response to the Baloch demands.

Rehman Malik continuously discredits the Baloch nationalist movement by blaming India, Afghanistan and ‘other foreign forces’ for fomenting tensions in the province. He also categorically denies the involvement of the country’s intelligence agencies in the enforced disappearance, torture and killing of the Baloch youths. The minister says Islamabad will continue its operations in Balochistan to establish the ‘writ of the government’ until armed Baloch nationalists totally abandon their struggle.

The minister, on his part, has totally failed, despite repeated requests by the media, to produce any evidence of foreign assistance to the Baloch nationalist movement. He even does not know the accurate number of the people who have disappeared from Balochistan since 2004 because he still insists that no one is missing. According to his version, the government has safely resurfaced all the missing persons. So, there is no issue of disappeared people at all, he says.

Calling Mr. Malik a foreign agent is in fact absolute insult to all foreign “agents” of positive change. We remember how the Inspector General of the Frontier Corps (FC) Major General Ubaidullah Khan, had  once termed the Human Rights Watch an agent of foreign governments. The non-local-non-Baloch FC chief had actually reacted to a strong-worded report of the global human rights watchdog which held the FC responsible for many violations of human rights in the province.

Hence, ‘foreign agents’ are in fact the only remaining friends of Baloch and Rehman Malik does not surely qualify to hold this humane title. Today, the people of Balochistan look at foreign organizations, such as the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the Guardian and BBC (Urdu Service), New York Times Washington Post  and the Committee to Protect Journalists as their ultimate sources of hope to attract the international community toward the injustices being committed to the people of Balochistan.

Rehman Malik simply can’t be a foreign agent because he is devoid of respect for humanity. As a matter of fact, the world outside Pakistan is largely a civilized and respectful one where citizens’ basic human rights are recognized and protected.  The minister is no one in a country where the army runs a state within the state.  If Mr. Malik has managed to simultaneously secure his life as well as the portfolio he holds then he should be considered as an extra-achiever. After all, his words and actions do not come from him. They are the words and deeds of the army which the poor minister is dependently compelled to deliver.

The actions of the Pakistan army inside Balochistan contradict with whatever ideology and core principles it believes in. If the custodians of the borders affirm allegiance to Islam, then there is no endorsement in 114 chapters of the Quran for killing and dumping innocent teenagers.

Besides losing the political ground in Balochistan, Islamabad has miserably lost a moral battle against secular Baloch. It is insignificant what answers General Musharraf, General Kayani or Rehman Malik will have twenty years down the line when orphaned Baloch children and widowed women will meet them. What should worry them are future confessions by their own grandchildren admitting how ashamed they are of their grandparents’ brutalities in Balochistan even in the 21^st century.

Governor Balochistan Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi and Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani must exhibit leadership and protest with the government of Sindh over the killing of Faisal Mengal, a renowned Baloch writer and civil rights activist, in Karachi last week. It is the top most responsibility of our elected government to make sure that the people of this province remain safe and sound when they travel outside Balochistan to seek employment with a government or a non-governmental organization.

Baloch people also have every right to protest with their Sindhi brothers, particularly nationalist and progressive forces there,  over the killing of an educated and liberal Baloch activist on their land. Sindhis and Balochs have had a long historic relationship of combined struggle to respect and guard mutual interests. Thus, the killing of a Baloch activist on Sindhi soil raises valid expectations and grievances toward the people of Sindh. What Sindhis can do at best is to pressurize their provincial government to trace and punish Faisal’s killing and refuse to allow their land for future attacks on Baloch people.

The slain Baloch social activist had a glorious career. He had worked with a number of non-profit organizations to assist people in remote areas of Balochistan. Once he improved his credentials and impressed bosses with his excellent performance, Mengal joined international organizations. He worked for the US Consulate in Karachi for around one year and then moved to Islamabad to work with Germany-based Hanns Seidel Foundation. He held the HSF position until his brutal killing.

Although educated Balochs have become a regular victim of targeted killing, Faisal’s shooting indicates some murkier signs. It is the first time that a Baloch writer and activist from Balochistan was chased and killed outside his home province. Faisal was in fact one of the most prominent Baloch writers and activists whose excellent field work had left valuable impressions across Balochistan. He was widely respected as a committed and sincere professional who reached out to hungry and poor people of Balochistan for assistance. He had extensively worked with the victims of the drought, floods in Turbat and earthquake in Ziarat. Mr. Mengal provided moral assistance and advocacy to the families of the disappeared Baloch activists. His newspaper articles created civic sense among his readers. Faisal’s all people-friendly activities appear to be the biggest source of attraction for his senseless murderers.

At this point, we have no evidence to suggest who killed Faisal Mengal but we are also sure that his killing is not a coincident. For more than one year now, the best of Baloch doctors, lawyers, journalists, students and professionals are being target killed. It is no longer a secret that the history of Bangladesh is being repeated in Balochistan where outfits similar to Al-Badar and Al-Shams are engaged in killing the best and most progressive Balochs to quell the Baloch reawakening against excesses of the federal government. Official silence on these systematic killings and lack of action against the murderers gives currency to  government’s complicity in the anti-Baloch operations. Yet, we would prefer to avoid jumping into conclusions and once again propose an independent investigation into the killings of the Baloch youths.

Faisal’s killing shows how underground groups linked with the government and the intelligence agencies are forcefully dragging defenders of democracy into the conflict. At least, these forces have been blamed in the past for the killings and some also hold them responsible for masterminding Faisal’s shocking assassination. We have vociferously condemned the attacks on intellectuals and defenders of democracy. After the lapse of almost a week, the governments of Sindh and Balochistan have not given any indications that they would jointly work to debunk Faisal’s murderers.

Therefore, we want international human rights groups such as the Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch to be either taken on board in a future bi-government investigation commission or  they should be allowed to independently investigate Mr. Mengal’s killing. In spite of hardships, the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have done a remarkable job to track and highlight human rights violations in Balochistan. We hope they will uphold their engagement with the people of Balochistan in the future as well.

Balochistan’s civil society groups and media should also mount pressure on the Balochistan government to work with the Sindh government to probe Mengal’s killing because the people of Balochistan have almost given a totally free hand to their own elected government. When people do not call up their elected representatives and do not raise tough questions, they in fact provide the member of the parliament an opportunity to escape from their responsibilities. Such lack of communication breeds more corruption in whatever democratic system we have in place. Balochistan’s corrupt and inept government is not accountable to anyone. It is the time intellectuals and civil society activists in the province challenged the status quo and reached out to Chief Minister Raisani and asked who killed Faisal Mengal.

MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR (Twitter: @MalikSirajAkbar)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal

The recent killing of a kidnapped twenty-four year old Hindu trader Ravi Kumar is extremely outrageous. Mr. Kumar had been abducted on October 22 in broad daylight from Quetta’s Satellite  Town  by armed men. His kidnappers sought an exorbitant amount from Kumar’s family in return of his release. While the kidnappers had initially asked for Rs. 20 million in return of Mr. Kumar’s release, they eventually reduced the amount to Rs. 10 million.

Even Kumar’s family found the lowered demand of  Rs. 10 million beyond ‘justifiable limits’. As a result the captors killed Kumar after keeping him in their custody for around two months. His dead body was found near Western Bypass.

It is further depressing how the kidnapped trader became a victim of lack of coordination between his family and the police. While Dr. Mehar Chand, Kumar’s uncle who also serves as the minority secretary of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party’s Balochistan chapter, blames the deputy inspector general (DIG) for not showing ample interest in the case, the police, on its part, say they were asked by the victim’s family to stay away from the case so that they could resolve the kidnapping saga with the help of tribal notables.

One truly understands the insecurities of the families of those who are kidnapped for ransom. They avoid going to the police either because they doubt the efficiency of the police force or fear the backlash from the kidnapers. Hence, in most such cases, members of the minority groups contact local tribal notables and influential political figures begging them to play their role to secure the release of a kidnapped person. Sometimes, intervention by influential people pays off but such approaches also subvert the significance of the law enforcement institutions.

We are deeply alarmed over the increasing violence directed at Balochistan’s Hindu community. Hindus, just like rest of the religious minorities, have played a proactive role in the development of Balochistan’s economy. Their involvement in local trade and business is highly commendable. They have lived as the true sons of the soil and asserted their loyalty to this land by offering all their services for the progress and welfare of Balochistan. In recent times, the Hindu community has also stepped outside the stereotypes of business-related occupations and established a hallmark of excellent performance in medical and law professions.

The reason why the Hindu community  in Balochistan flourished steadily is largely because of Balcohistan’s secular culture. The Baloch majority population does not discriminate Hindus based on their religion. Most Hindus in Balochistan live in Baloch dominated districts of Mastung, Kalat, Noshki, Khuzdar, Lasbela, Sibi, Jaffarabad and Naseerabad where they are treated with respect and equality.

The fresh attacks on the Hindus are masterminded by criminal elements who do not subscribe to any political or religious group. They are simply criminals who deserve no sympathy or immunity from the law. The government of Balochistan should take solid measures to bust these gangs which are responsible for troubling the Hindu community and other residents in the province. It is the government’s responsibility to protect religious minorities and do whatever it takes to offer them a complete safe atmosphere. Every religious minority in Balochistan should be assured equal rights and opportunities.

If Kumar’s killing was intended to force the Hindu community to confine its activities and force them to live in ghettos then it is going to be a setback for our society because we can’t afford to move forward in any sphere of life without the full participation of our religious minorities in daily life. We sincerely hope that the Balochistan government will act swiftly before the criminal read Kumar’s killing as a symbol of Hindu community’s weakness and vulnerability.

MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR (Twitter: @MalikSirajAkbar)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal

For almost a decade, Pakistan has killed its own people in Balochistan and subjected them to enforced disappearance, brutal torture by terming them ‘Indian agents’. Former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf said his operation against unarmed Baloch people was ’500% justified” because Indian secret service Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) allegedly supported nationalist leader Bramdagh Bugti.

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani reportedly provided his Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh the unpublicized ‘evidence’ of Indian involvement in Balochistan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik claimed to have ‘solid proof’ of the ‘Indian hand’ behind the unrest in the resource-rich province. On July 16, 2009, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan mentioned Balochistan for the first time in a jointly issued bilateral statement in Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The past two weeks have witnessed dramatic normalization in India-Pakistan relations. The whole of South Asia, except Balochistan, is hoping to see some historic changes. While on November 2nd Pakistan announced to grant India the Most Favored Nation (MFN) status, both the countries have vowed in Maldives, on the sidelines of the 17th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, to write a ‘new chapter’ in Indo-Pak relations. Despite these remarkable developments, the state of affairs in Balochistan remains unchanged as the families of the ‘missing Baloch persons’ marked their Eid with a public protest in Quetta.

We have been regularly insisting that the Baloch movement is purely indigenous and homegrown which has emerged because of Islamabad’s flawed policies and undemocratic approach to address a wholly political conflict. Blaming India for the unrest in Balochistan has always been used as a ploy to divert attention from the actual problem of Balochistan. This pretext was used to brazenly justify the military’s violation of human rights and federal government’s exploitation of the province’s natural resources. As a matter of fact, the recent breakthrough isn’t totally staggering.

The conflict between India and Pakistan is nothing but rivalry between the dominant Punjabi ethnic groups on both sides of the border. Now that the cousins dwelling in the two states have decided to come closer to each other, let’s remain assured that the mullah and the military are not going to declare anyone a ‘traitor’ by calling for peaceful ties with India. Pakistan’s history shows one does not have to produce a certificate of loyalty and patriotism if one belongs to the Punjab province and still advocates peace with India. All the so-called traitors, according to the official (read military) narrative, live outside the Punjab.

In other words, no one in Pakistan, except for the province of Punjab, has any grudge against India. In an op-ed in the Times of India, this writer had argued, “Indian assistance [to the Baloch movement] sounds ridiculous given that the Baloch do not share a border, common language, religion or history with India. Hardly has 1 per cent of Balochs have visited India…The Baloch insist their struggle was not interrupted even at times when India and Pakistan enjoyed cordial relations.”

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently recounted similarities between Indians who ate his favorite dish  Alo Goshth and the Pakistanis who also loved Indian food. Yet, many Indians surely do not know much about the taste of Balochi cuisine such as Sajji, Thabaheg, Sheelaunch, Mahiash and Koraakaap because of historic disconnection between Balochistan and India.

The India-Pakistan rapprochement clearly indicates Pakistan’s lack of seriousness toward the Balochistan issue. The Balochs have not only been betrayed by Islamabad but they have also bled immeasurably because of the federal government’s unwillingness to end atrocities in the province. Fresh contacts between the two countries simply give legitimacy to the genuine Baloch secular movement. It exposes Islamabad’s inconsistent stance on Balochistan.

The only concern we have about the India-Pakistan peace initiative is regarding its durability. A country such as Pakistan which terrorizes its own people and denies them constitutional rights is less likely to establish long-term peaceful relations with its neighbors. It is absolutely heartbreaking that the Pakistani military has begun to negotiate with Taliban and now India, widely perceived in the military circles as the ‘perpetual enemy’, but it is still reluctant to pursue a policy of relief and reconciliation in Balochistan where the bullet-riddled bodies of  disappeared Baloch youths are regularly being dumped on roadside.

MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR (Follow on Twitter: @MalikSirajAkbar)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal

The gory list of Baloch journalists being brutally killed presumably by the Pakistani intelligence agencies continues to increase with the latest brutal murder of Javed Naseer Rind. A former deputy editor of Urdu-language newspaper, Daily Tawar, and an articulate columnist, Rind was indeed a smart and professional journalist whose services and bold columns will be missed by his readers.

It took the young reporter’s captors less than a month to torture and murder him after his abduction on September 10th from Lasbela district. His bullet-riddled body was found in Khuzdar district. Daily Tawar and its reporters have paid an extraordinary price for accurately reporting the military operation in Balochistan and the violation of human rights for so many years.

Most journalists from Balochistan, mainly those affiliated with Daily Tawar, have demonstrated remarkable courage to report nothing but the truth from the restive province.  Just like most of the professionally committed journalists, Mr. Rind surely knew he had chosen a very hard and risky profession in Balochistan. He will be remembered by his friends, family and professional colleagues as a champion of press freedom and a hardcore believer of Baloch national rights.

Journalism in Balochistan has become an extremely difficult job because of the wave of attacks on reporters from groups loyal or opposed to the government. This state of constant fear has not undermined the resolve of many journalists and media outlets  in terms of reporting the truth. However, this has deprived the profession of the very basic role and responsibility it could have played had it been provided more democratic and tolerant space. When the state functionaries are blamed for such brutal killings of reporters then we are reminded of the State’s frustration and complete loss of confidence in its own system. As societies head toward anarchy, they invite more unrest and chaos by denying journalists their required work and breathing space.

It is heartening that Rind’s murder has at least drawn considerable international attention. The Baloch online activists, bloggers, Tweeters, Facebookers can surely take credit for this against Pakistan’s pro-military and highly submissive media. The private news channels and most of the so-called mainstream national newspapers snubbed the killing because they do not attach as much value to the tragedy as they would have done if the same thing had happened in Lahore, Karachi or Islamabad. So, the only positive news at the moment is, the Baloch media, by the virtue of social media, has totally isolated the the pro-military local ‘national media’ and succeeded in conveying the real situation in Balochistan to the international organizations.

We highly appreciate the immediate reactions of the New York-based the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and its local partner, the Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) also reacted on the right time.

In a statement, CPJ’s Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz said Rind’s “brutal death” is another indicator of the extreme danger journalists face from all parties in the province’s unrest… “CPJ joins with the Baluchistan Union of Journalists in condemning the kidnapping and murder of Javed Naseer Rind and calls for his journalism to be investigated as a motive for his murder.”

In a strongly-worded statement, Jacqueline Park,  the Asia-Pacific Director of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), counted Balochistan as “statistically one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist” and urged the Pakistani authorities to “act swiftly to end this cycle of violence and impunity.”

We fully back the demand made by Essa Tareen, president of the BUJ, that the government should investigate the murder of Mr. Rind and all those correspondents in Balochistan have been slain on the line of duty. Besides this, the government should also provide compensation to killed reporters’ families.

This is a very tough time for the media in Balochistan. The local journalists had already been facing financial issues and inadequate job opportunities. The fresh tragic events have taken the challenge to a deadlier stage, further linking the noble profession of journalism to a point where the price of objective reporting is nothing but brutal death.

Besides the journalistic aspect,  the provincial authorities have a responsibility to ensure the safety of reporters because they are, first of all, also citizens of the land who deserve legal protection. We hope someone in the government will stand up and stop the uncivilized cycle of violence against Balochistan’s media men.

MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR (Follow on Twitter: @MalikSirajAkbar)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal

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In a fiercely independent judgement, the Balochistan High Court (BHC) has ordered the federal government to seek the extradition of former military chief and the president, General (R) Pervez Musharraf, in the murder case of ex-governor and chief minister Nawab Mohammad Akbar Bugti. Coming from an assertive and relatively independent judiciary, the decision has also been officially welcomed by the government of Balcohistan and the federal government in Islamabad.

The government in Quetta had been arduously striving to ascertain the facts related to the killing of the elderly Baloch leader in a military operation sanctioned by Musharraf in 2006. Bugti’s killing dramatically changed the dynamics of the Baloch nationalist movement  in Balochistan and significantly alienated the province from the federation. As a result, demands for provincial autonomy and control over resources transformed into a clear and loud quest for independence and secession.

The Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court, Mr. Justice Faiz Essa, truly deserves admiration for sticking to the principles of justice and independence of judiciary. This is, however, not the end of the whole process. Here is what still needs to be done.

First, the federal and the provincial governments should make a formal request to the Interpol to extradite Musharraf either from the United States or United Kingdom, as he keeps traveling between both the countries. There is always a formal and legal procedure of following such cases. The people of Balochistan must not be fooled merely with the judgement of the high court without further legal action. Now, Chief Minister Raisani and his cabinet should waste no time in pressing the federal government to contact the Interpol to bring Musharraf back to Pakistan.

Second, like every citizen of the land, Musharraf should be offered a free and independent trial. The case against him should have no political motivations and biases. As a former president of the country, Musharraf should fully respect and abide by the law of the country. By refusing to appear before the courts, he does not set an impressive precedence in front of his own political followers. Although Musharraf is a man who violated the country’s constitution and destroyed state institutions during his dictatorial stint, we sincerely hope he does realize that the judgement against him has not been passed by his political opponents but by a lawful, judicial state institution. Therefore, he should make democracy and his fledgling political party proud by appearing before the courts to face whatever charges are leveled against him. Forming a political party does not necessarily lead to democratic attitude. It takes courage and sacrifices to be a genuine democratic leader.

Third, it is bizarre how the Bugit family and the Balochistan government are consistently seeking justice only for Nawab Bugti. It is true that Bugti’s was the most high profile murder in Balochistan but the issue does not begin or end with the Bugti family. Many other families and individuals have enormously suffered because of the policies initiated by Musharraf. In fact, the charge sheet against Musharraf would look too weak if he is only implicated in the murder case of Nawab Bugti. Justice must not be selectively applied in Balochistan. Everyone who has suffered because of the conflict should be provided justice.

Regardless of its legitimacy and popularity, the Balochistan government has a responsibility to represent the people of the province. Thus, it should broaden the charge-sheet against Musharraf by also mentioning the phenomenon of enforced disappearance approved and exercised by the Musharraf regime.  Hundreds of disappeared Balcohs have been killed and thousands are still missing. The practice enforced disappearances is simply against the Constitution of Pakistan which grants every citizen the right to defend himself in a court . The Constitution also says every citizen is innocent until proven guilty. There is no constitutional approval of extrajudicial killings which were widespread during the Musharraf junta.

Fourth, the champions of democracy in the West, particularly the United States, should show respect for the judiciary in Pakistan and stop patronizing Musharraf. The friends of democracy and supremacy of law were totally appalled when two leading American think-tanks based in Washington DC, Woodrow Wilson for International Scholars and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted Musharraf in recent times.  Inviting a former dictator who is wanted in his native country by the courts in murder charges amounts to disrespecting the Pakistani judicial system. Public speeches of an alleged criminal at think-tanks named after world’s iconic supporters of democracy and human rights clearly raise questions to these prestigious organizations’ commitment to the very idea of democracy and justice.

At this point, think-tanks in the United States, the federal and provincial governments in Balochistan and the judiciary should pave the way for an unprecedented yet absolutely free and independent trial of a former military dictator in Pakistan. This is not an ordinary case but one which can determine the future of democracy and justice in Pakistan for the coming generations.

MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR (Follow on Twitter: @MalikSirajAkbar)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal

The government of Balochistan has decided to make the port city of Gwadar as the winter capital of the resource-rich province. Gwadar has remained a controversial as well as a promising city since China assisted the government of Pakistan with the construction of a port there during the previous government of General Pervez Musharraf.

The port in Gwadar has not been operational years after its completion because of lack of other necessary infrastructure which is extremely important to connect the city with the rest of the country.

The Chief Minister of Balochistan, Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani, has been paying special attention to the project of shifting the capital to Gwadar during the winter season. Although the decision had been made last year, the process is being expedited this year under the supervision of the Chief Minister. At a news conference in Quetta on Tuesday, provincial Chief Secretary Ahmed Baksh Lehri also dispelled the impression that the plan was being implemented on the advice of a foreign country. He said the provincial government had taken the decision while considering the interests of the people of Balochistan.

The shifting of the capital, at least during the winter, will give impetus to the Gwadar Port and the government will be required to rapidly develop whatever infrastructure is needed for a capital city. For a long time, Gwadar required a big push to jump-start its economic activities and rise as a modern city. Gwadar is the hub of future economic development and  has the potential of serving as a modern capital city. It is peaceful and less congested as compared to the summer capital i.e. Quetta.

A change in the capital city does not necessarily improve the quality of governance. While the government of Balochistan is currently caught up with an embarrassing  and appalling situation of bad governance, it should still be encouraged to proceed with the shifting of capital city in Gwadar. An ideal capital should be easily accessible for the people of the area. We sincerely hope that the government prioritizes the transportation sector and makes Gwadar accessible to rest of the country.

The objective of the winter capital must, at least at the beginning, remain confined to providing Balochistan an alternative, stable administrative city. The move should not be hastily converted into an opportunity to pave the way for non-Balochs to rush to the area to convert the Baloch majority into a minority by acquiring fake identity cards.  Any mega city is likely to attract a lot of outsiders but the rules of the game should be very clearly defined as long as the issue of identification and documentation of non-locals is concerned. If the government wants to hastily convert Gwadar into an administrative capital and economic hub, it is likely to make some mistakes against the interests of the local people. The future of Gwadar should be decided step by step.

Gwadar will remain controversial as long as the reservations of Baloch nationalists are not fully addressed. The government should make sure that the people of Balochistan receive due share from the economic benefits of the port in Gwadar.We fully agree with the Chief Minister that the issue of the winter capital should not be politicized. Some sections of the Pashtun population in Balochistan are suspiciously viewing this plan without having any solid reasons to back their fears. They should welcome the move and consider it as a positive step toward a better future of Balochistan. A  new capital city should not harm the centuries-old Baloch-Pashutn brotherly relations as this decision is not intended to deprive Quetta, a Pashtun-majority city, of its glory and importance.

Chief Minister Raisani deserves appreciation for taking a bold decision about the future of Gwadar and he should make sure that the shifting of the capital is not delayed due to bureaucratic hurdles. This process should be completed quickly.  We urge all stakeholders in the province to back the Chief Minister’s decision which will hopefully have long-term positive implications.

MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR (Follow on Twitter: @MalikSirajAkbar)

Editor-in-Chief

The Baloch Hal