By Eddie Walsh

According to Western diplomats and policy experts, the State Department’s recent remarks on human rights violations in the Baloch region of Pakistan are as far as the U.S. Government and Obama Administration are willing to go in support of Baloch separatism. Absent a complete rupture in U.S.-Pakistan relations, the Baloch’s best option to secure American support now rests with Congress.

If the Baloch can tie their cause to the larger Congressional efforts to undermine U.S. aid to Pakistan, they could force the Administration to re-evaluate its current policy approach. Organized outreach to think tanks, non-governmental organizations, universities, interest groups, and media outlets would support such efforts.

The Baloch are quick to point out that they are making progress on these fronts, such as Congressman Gohmert’s statement in support of Balochistan’s independence following the State of the Union. But, experts point out that a successful lobbying campaign will require the Baloch diaspora to rally around stronger leadership and demonstrate a deeper financial commitment. Until they can take on such responsibility, experts do not believe they can fully capitalize on anti-Pakistani sentiment in Congress and secure stronger American support for their cause.

Assessing State’s Commitment

Since 2004, the Baloch have been engaged in an ongoing insurgency against the Pakistani government. This is the fifth insurgency since the partition of India and many Baloch now appear unwilling to accept anything short of independence. Their cause has gone largely unnoticed in the West; overshadowed by the war in Afghanistan, the conflict in the North-West Frontier Province, the lingering Kashmir situation, the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programs, and the larger War on Terrorism. But, in the last year, the Baloch diaspora have rallied around two actions by the U.S. State Department which they believe demonstrate increasing U.S. support for their cause. The first is the ongoing effort by the U.S. State Department to open a consulate in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan. The second is U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s public remarks on Balochistan on January 13, 2012.

While the opening of the U.S. consulate would enhance U.S. engagement in Balochistan and Ms. Nuland’s remarks are a clear acknowledgement of U.S. concerns over the human rights situation in the region, Western diplomats and policy experts caution the Baloch not to misinterpret the State Department’s commitment to their cause. The State Department has not expressed concerns for genocide in Balochistan, as that would have legal consequences. Furthermore, from the perspective of Andrew Eiva, an experienced Washington lobbyist, there is still no “movement toward supporting Baloch independence at the State Department. Like Sudan, there is instead a strategy of piecemeal negotiations to divide the resistance, maintain the policy of stability, and oppose regime change.” In his view, even the consulate push for Quetta should be interpreted as an attempt “to temper Baloch aspirations” rather than buoy them.

Eiva is not alone in this opinion. When asked to comment, a senior Western diplomat formerly based in Pakistan reinforced these views: “Ultimately, the Baloch are looking to weaken the Pakistani state. I don’t think the United States is looking to weaken the Pakistani state. If anything, they want to make it stronger. The whole Holbrooke effort was to help the Pakistani state become more effective at governing their country.”

While some Baloch might harbor hope that the souring of relations between the U.S. and Pakistan could give impetus to support for Baloch independence, the Western diplomat downplays such notions: “Pakistan is still an ally of the United States. The Americans are going to work with Islamabad on what is going to happen in Balochistan. Go back to Ms. Nuland’s statement. That’s as far as the Americans are going to go with this.”

In fact, the Western diplomat believes that the current low in U.S.-Pakistan relations will further undercut support for the Baloch cause in the Obama Administration: “The Americans have enough on their plate with Pakistan as it is without Balochistan. Especially now that relations are at a low point, the American focus is on getting that relationship back on track not on making things more difficult. President Obama has been clear on what U.S. interests are in Pakistan and number one is getting al-Qaeda. The Americans are not looking to weaken that effort and everything in Pakistan must be viewed through that lens.”

The Baloch diaspora is not without voices who share these concerns. Malik Siraj Akbar, a Baloch journalist in the United States, is one of them. He argues that “the Baloch community is blowing State Department comments out of proportion. They think there has been a U-Turn on U.S. policy but there hasn’t been one. As this point, the U.S. might be concerned about human rights but they do not support independence. I don’t think there has been a policy shift.”

Exploring Congressional Options

While the Administration and the State Department might not be willing to serve as stronger advocates of Boloch interests, the community is not without options. In speaking with prominent members of the Baloch diaspora in the United States, a variety of alternatives appear under consideration. Perhaps the most promising is Congressional outreach.

Dr. Wahid Baloch, President of the Baloch Society of North America, believes that the Baloch have made significant progress on this front in the last two years. In addition to his personal outreach to Vice President Joe Biden, late-Senator Ted Kennedy, Congressmen Gary Ackerman, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Brad Sherman and Russ Feingold, Dr. Baloch cites recent comments by Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) as examples of increasing support for the Baloch cause. According to Dr. Baloch, the community is even “working to create Congressional Caucus on Balochistan within the next year. I believe it will be bi-partisan and help to advance our case even more.”

One of the strongest proponents of the Congressional option is Eiva. Given the growing discontent within Congress over the Pakistani aid, he believes that the Congress could be persuaded to take up the Baloch cause if for no other reason than to undermine the continued flow of aid to Pakistan: “There are 40-50 Congressmen who are sympathetic to such causes. Some have (already) called our South Asian policy an upside down policy. Even though Pakistani aid is now locked in for a five year run, there have been sparks of rebellion. Pakistani aid is vulnerable.” In his view, it is unfortunate that thus far the Baloch have not taken advantage of the improving conditions in Congress to further their cause.

If the Baloch diaspora is serious about effecting a shift in U.S. policy, Eva stresses that they need to raise the funds necessary to introduce legislation in Congress that would tie their cause to larger U.S. foreign policy interests in the region: “The Baloch need to pull together 2-3 times more money than they have already raised. They then need to hire a professional lobbyist and draft a legislative mechanism that ties the Baloch cause to five or six other American interests in South Asia. These interests could include the prevention of genocide, stopping the spread of Islamic extremism, promoting an independent and economically viable Afghanistan, mitigating the threat of the Pakistan nuclear program, and countering Pakistani efforts which undermine counter-terrorism cooperation.”

Once the Baloch diaspora marshal the funds necessary to get individual Congressmen behind such a bill, Eiva believes they could be successful: “Congress might consider legislation that says the U.S. should be on the side of freedom and that Pakistan has not supported American interests in the region. Friends of the Baloch could lead such an effort with the backing of influential members of the diaspora and link it with other efforts aimed at cutting Pakistani aid. The argument that American jets, gunships, and bullets have been used in the genocide against the Baloch would help get us to the tipping point.”

Other Policy Alternatives

Outside of political mechanisms, the Baloch in the United States are promoting a number of other policy and non-policy initiatives in support of their cause. While the Baloch diaspora does not appear united and mobilized around these initiatives right now, prominent Baloch in the American diaspora claim that there are efforts underway to do so. Ultimately, their success almost certainly will hinge on whether the Baloch can organize around these issues and garner the requisite funding and support to advance them with external stakeholders.

Ahmar Mustikhan, a vocal Baloch activist, is an advocate of a number of the most prominent policy alternatives: “Despite the budgetary crunch, the minimum the U.S. can do in its own long-term interests is to launch the Voice of America Balochi Service, re-start the USAID program, open its consulate in Quetta, talk with Baloch leaders when it comes to Balochistan, and help the Baloch escaping persecution in both Western (Iranian) and Eastern (Pakistani) Balochistan.”

Unfortunately for Baloch activists, experts point out that the majority of these alternatives still require active support from the U.S. Government. While there is the possibility that some of these efforts will eventually succeed, the Western diplomat that I spoke with does not think that the Baloch should expect U.S. government backing anytime soon: “I don’t see why the Americans would support those ideas. There has to be a motivation. The exile groups might think that these should be done by the Americans and Europeans should do these things to support their cause. But, I am at a loss as to why they think the Americans and others would be motivated to do them. Just look at Ms. Nuland’s statement.” Furthermore, experts suggest that even the initiatives that can be achieved will have to be implemented in a way to minimize blowback from the Pakistani government.

Even U.S. Government participation in conferences supporting the Baloch cause appears off limits at this time. According to a former senior American defense official with direct knowledge of the U.S. State Department’s current policy approach on Baloch affairs, the Department of State is unlikely to allow U.S. government officials to participate in an upcoming Baloch conference in the United States this summer without a complete reconfiguring of the conference agenda to eliminate any ties to the Baloch separatist movement and internal-Pakistani politics.

For these reasons, experts suggest that non-government initiatives are far more viable for promoting the Baloch cause. Such efforts could include setting up new Baloch programs at Western and Indian think tanks, adding Baloch courses offered by South Asian Studies departments, starting private Balochi language media outlets, reaching out to U.S. and foreign media, and promoting Baloch cultural programs and exchanges. Some of these efforts may be in the planning stage but few have been implemented.

That said, the Baloch diaspora point out that their cause already is garnering increased recognition by international non-governmental organizations and think tanks. Dr. Baloch points out that the former U.S. diplomat Chris Mason on the Center for Advanced Defense Studies recently called for an independent Balochistan. The human rights violations in Balochistan also have been raised by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Asia Society. All of these efforts are helping to generate increased awareness for the Baloch cause, which the Baloch diaspora hopes will eventually put external pressure on the State Department and Obama Administration to take stronger action in support of Baloch interests.

Uncertain Outlook

Ultimately, experts assert that the success of the Baloch diaspora to garner U.S. support for their cause will depend upon whether the movement can unify, mobilize, and act in a coordinated manner to achieve a prioritized set of high-impact policy objectives and non-government initiatives. According to many observers, including Malik, this will require stronger leadership and organization within the diaspora: “The Baloch in the West do not have people who are willing to take responsibility for the movement. The problem is that the self-proclaimed ‘leaders’ in the United States have very few followers and the Baloch abroad do not accept them as leaders.”

Baloch journalist Muatasim Qazi argues that the diaspora’s success may also hinge on the Baloch leadership in Pakistan, Europe, and the Gulf recognizing that their cause ultimately depends on Western support: “The Baloch leadership should concentrate their efforts in lobbying for their cause in Washington if they want to succeed in their movement. They need to convince US lawmakers how an independent Balochistan would defend U.S. interests in the region.” He was not alone in voicing this concern.

When asked to share his outlook on whether the Baloch will overcome these challenges and gain U.S. backing for their cause, Eiva puts the odds at 40%. But, he stresses that number would have been just 20% before the United States and European Union were successful in their intervention in Libya last year. He also points out that the odds would rise to over 50% if there stronger leadership emerged within the U.S.-based diaspora.

But, others do not share Eiva’s optimism. In the words of the Western diplomat, “There seems to be a tremendous effort by the expatriates to bring in outside forces. But, if you look at Ms. Nuland’s statement, this is an internal issue for the Pakistanis to resolve. The U.S. is going to deal with Islamabad on this. There is no reason for the U.S. to go off that path given the current direction of that relationship. … The Americans are not looking to be the world’s policeman. It is not a priority like the bilateral relationship with Pakistan or all of the issues with Iran. The exile groups are looking for a place in there but I am not sure that they are going to get it. They are trying to draw the West into issues that the West is not looking to get into.”

This raises an interesting question: Has the current U.S. policy approach in effect given Pakistan the green light to violently suppress the Baloch without fear of reprisal? The Western diplomat says no; arguing instead that the State Department appears to be signaling that the U.S. views the Baloch issue is simply an internal issue for Pakistan to resolve. However, when pressed on the issue and asked what level of violence would force U.S. Government intervention, the response is far less reassuring: “I don’t know what that line would be because there are such bigger issues for the United States in Pakistan.”

In the face of such odds, it is not surprising that Baloch diaspora are resigned to a long, drawn-out campaign. In my conversations with the Baloch diaspora in the United States, Miran Gichki probably articulated this best when he said, “One must understand that the Baloch cause cannot be achieved in the next ten years – it will take a lifetime.” His comments reflect the depth of the Baloch nationalist commitment, which was not lost on the British over a century ago and should not be lost on the Americans and Pakistanis today. (Courtesy: The Huffington Post)

Eddie Walsh is a senior foreign correspondent who covers Africa and Asia-Pacific. He also serves as a non-resident fellow at CSIS and as vice chair of the International Correspondents Committee at the National Press Club.

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.

By Malik Siraj Akbar

Mark Twain once said “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.” Pakistan’s former high commissioner to United Kingdom and the current Ibn Khaldun Chair at the Washington DC-based American University, Professor Akbar S. Ahmed, truly fits in the category of people who believe in seeing and experiencing things to challenge the prejudices of the ignorant.

Described by the BBC as “world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam”, Dr Ahmed today travels across the globe to promote inter-faith dialogue and mutual understanding. As a civil servant, career diplomat and one of the world’s foremost anthropologists, he regularly discovers and interacts with many known and often unknown communities of the world.

Ahmed has not forgotten home, Pakistan, all these years. He worries for Pakistan but the separatist groundswell in Balochistan, where he served in 1980s consecutively as the commissioner of Quetta, Sibi and Mekran divisions, makes him anxious. As a civil officer, he had an opportunity to closely interact with and learn from some of the most prominent Baloch nationalist and tribal leaders such as Mir Jaffar Khan Jamali (father of Dr Ahmed’s batch-mate Sikandar Jamali and the uncle of the former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali), Nawab Akbar Bugti, former governor Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizenjo and ex-chief minister Jam Ghulam Qadir.

He attributes the current turmoil in Balochistan to policymakers’ lack of understanding of the local society and culture. The first rule of good governance, he says, is to know and respect the people of the area where a civil or military officer serves. Former president and army chief General Pervez Musharraf ignored this basic principle of governance while dealing with Balochistan which caused confrontation with Baloch tribes and eventually led to the killing of the powerful tribal chief Nawab Bugti.

“Bugti’s killing was a tragedy for Pakistan,” he tells Dawn.com, “it was humiliating how President Musharraf threatened to “hit him” like a common criminal. Bugti was a man who is a part of our history and you don’t treat a man of history like this.”

In mid 1980s, Dr Ahmed was posted in Balochistan. Soon after his appointment as the commissioner of Mekran Division, he was caught in the midst of an attempt by some non-local religious fanatics who wanted to harm the followers of minority Zikri community. In order to prevent a possible bloodbath, the young administrator boldly reached out to Baloch opposition leader Bizenjo for assistance. For Ahmed, contacts with Bizenjo, a left-wing opposition leader, amounted to alienating President General Zia-ul-Haq while meeting such a senior government official would garner criticism for Bizenjo from his comrades.

“He had a wonderful sense of humour,” Ahmed recalls. They had a one-to-one dinner at the commissioner’s house, which they later joked, would get both men in trouble.

“It was Bizenjo who helped me behind the scene to calm down the people of Mekran and enabled me to take swift measures to protect the Zikris.”

Bizenjo did not forget Ahmed’s good service and praised him openly during an anti-Zia political rally in Sibi where he told the local people how lucky they were to have a committed commissioner like Ahmed. As expected, intelligence officials approached Ahmed and asked why an anti-Zia nationalist leader had publicly praised him.

Ahmed hurriedly sent a message to the Baloch demagogue urging him not to be so generous in public praise.

Holding a Master’s degree from Cambridge University and a PhD from London University, Ahmed was impressed by what he recalls as the “charisma and wisdom” of Baloch tribal leaders as he newly arrived in Balochistan.

“These leaders had many critics but they were men of honour,” he said. “There was a rhythm of life in Balochistan at that time and the Baloch leaders were the jewels of that remarkable society,” he remembers.

He met Nawab Akbar Bugti as the Commissioner of Sibi Division of which Bugti’s stronghold Sui was still an administrative unit. The Nawab invited him for dinner at his traditional home.

“The Nawab had so much charisma and authority that even his son, Saleem, who was a minister himself did not eat with us and instead served dinner to me as their honoured guest,” he recalls. However, what inspired Ahmed about Bugti was his knowledge of history and different cultures. They spoke about politics, history, tribes and traditions late into the night.

“We talked about Ibn Khaldun and I asked myself which Pakistani politician would know about Ibn Khaldun and here was a Baloch tribal chief discussing Ibn Khaldun and his sophisticated theories on society with me in Balochistan’s tribal region.”

In Ahmed’s view, it is critical that the federal government should understand how to deal with the Baloch. As an officer in the area, he used to tell his junior officers that it did not matter if they had been educated at Oxford or Cambridge universities. What mattered was the respect they showed to the locals.

“I’d tell my officers that you have come to their (Baloch), we are privileged to serve them. Don’t take their material poverty as spiritual poverty.” However, he regrets that several officials mistreated the locals.

The veteran scholar, who is also the first Distinguished Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, says that news of kidnappings, torture and murders by security forces in Balochistan shock him.

Contemplating the repercussion of mistreating different ethnic groups, Ahmed warns that a country like Pakistan, which experienced dismemberment in 1971 must pay attention to the demands of people living in the periphery.

“Right now we are in a state of civil war in Pakistan,” he says, “People in the periphery think they have been neglected, humiliated and culturally looked down upon by the Centre. This is absolutely the same thing we did with the Bengalis. Pakistan is in a very fragile condition. Both civil and military leadership must urgently show wisdom and vision to come out of this situation.”

Increasing tensions in Balochistan between civilians and the security forces is another area which Ambassador Ahmed thinks urgently needs policy review. He describes assaults by security forces and cases of torture as ‘sadism’ and ‘foolishness.’

Ahmed blames Musharraf’s “rash actions” for subverting the very foundations of an already shaky structure in Pakistan. The ordinary Pakistani soldier is frustrated and struggling to survive in that chaotic system.

He says Pakistan cannot survive without Balochistan.

“We can’t afford to make the Baloch feel like second class citizens. Their demands are valid and some of these demands have been overlooked for several. Islamabad should make urgent accommodation with the Baloch. You can’t fool around with them. One day you offer them talks and the next day you kill their leaders. They should be treated as equal partners in the federation.”

While talking about the distance between the Center and the largest province, he appeals to the powers that be “to stop the torture and the killing because we don’t have much time left.” (Courtesy: Dawn.com)

By Mehmal Sarfraz

There are some people in this world who are just so brave, brutally honest and awe-inspiring that one cannot help but respect them. Many names come to mind when one thinks of Pakistanis who inspire these feelings. One such name is senior Baloch nationalist leader, Sardar Ataullah Mengal. A man of integrity, Mengal sahib is known to be a progressive, secular, liberal Baloch nationalist. When he was chief minister of Balochistan in 1972, he focused on education and industrial development for the neglected people of his province.

Unfortunately, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto dismissed the Balochistan government and Sardar Ataullah Mengal and other Baloch nationalist leaders were arrested. He spent many years in jail due to trumped-up charges in the Hyderabad Conspiracy Case. His 23-year-old son, Asad, was killed by intelligence agencies in Karachi, while his other son, Akhtar, who also served as chief minister of Balochistan, was arrested during the Musharraf regime. Despite his personal loss and suffering, the powers-that-be have not been able to break Mengal sahib’s spirit. He remains steadfast in his commitment to the Baloch cause.

In an interview with a private news channel on December 25, Sardar Ataullah Mengal refused to use the word ‘establishment’ for the army and the ISI because he thought it was a very polite term used to hide their names. He also made some statements that should give all Pakistanis some food for thought. “If you think there is any government [hakoomat] other than the army, you are mistaken. There was army’s rule, there is army’s rule and there will be army’s rule because they are the real rulers of Pakistan,” said Mengal sahib. This is an uncomfortable truth.

Pakistan is at a critical juncture. After nine years of military rule, democracy was finally restored in 2008 after an election. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) formed a coalition government but from day one moves have been afoot to undermine its credibility. Palace intrigues are a norm in our country. After more than three years of being in power, the democratically elected government is now under attack from all sides, be it the military ‘establishment’, the judiciary, the opposition or the general public. This government tried to appease the military in every way possible. Even after the May 2 raid that led to Osama bin Laden being killed by the Americans, the PPP stood by the military high command, much to the chagrin of those who have been asking for civilian supremacy for decades. The Memogate scandal changed everything. The military seems to be upset with the PPP but the government has finally stood up to it and made it quite clear that it will not go down without a fight. Some say tensions between them were somewhat defused after Prime Minister Gilani took direct digs at the army and the ISI that led General Kayani to issue a rather defensive statement that the army is “fully cognizant of its constitutional obligations and responsibilities”; others believe that the military has not backed down since it issued a veiled threat to the PPP when General Kayani said that “there can be no compromise on national security” in the same statement. This cat and mouse game will not end until and unless the issue of civil-military imbalance is addressed.

Those who are disillusioned with the current political setup need to realise that ours is a nascent democracy. The crises plaguing our country cannot be dealt with overnight. When a weak government is not allowed to function and conspiracies are hatched to destabilise it at every opportune moment, it can hardly deliver much. Despite all the problems this government faced, it did some amazing work in the shape of the 18th Amendment, the NFC Award, partial reforms in FATA, pro-women legislation, building a consensus on the war on terror, etc. This is not to say that the criticism levelled against the incumbents is completely unfair either. It could have performed better.

In this ‘land of the pure’, it is easy to blame the political class for all ills. What is more difficult is facing reality. The bitter truth is that since there is no civilian supremacy, the military top brass, both in the past and the present, has treated our country like its personal fiefdom. Let’s not forget that a large chunk of our budget goes to the military — the same military that has sent civilian governments packing many a time in the past, the same military that is killing its own people in Balochistan, the same military that has given overt and covert support to militant outfits, the same military that has a big hand in strengthening religious extremists, the same military that is involved in exporting terrorism across the border.

Sardar Ataullah Mengal pointed out the elephant in the room: “Until the politicians send the army back to the barracks, politics is nothing but a lie.” These words should serve as an eye-opener for not just our politicians but the entire Pakistani nation. Each democratically elected government should be allowed to complete its tenure. If the people are not happy with the ruling party, they should vote them out in the next election. The military will go back to the barracks and politics will be left to the civilians only when democracy is strengthened. Let’s work on achieving this goal.

The writer is Op-Ed Editor Daily Times. She can be reached at mehmal.s@gmail.com

By Malik Siraj Akbar

So, the “PTI revolution” is heading toward Balochistan. What is the pitch in Quetta going to look like on March 23? At this point, one hears mixed opinions. One thing is common in people’s responses: They represent two extremes. The pro-PTI section, backed by Imran’s recent apology to Balochistan during the Karachi rally, argues that someone as uncontroversial as Imran can at least mediate in, if not entirely resolve, the Balochistan puzzle. The pessimists frown, “Balochistan is just like medicine,” they warn, “Keep it away from children’s reach.”

Both opinions are valid but not absolutely uncontestable. We oftentimes tend to forget that Balochistan, besides its gradually subsiding secessionist movement, also has a considerable segment of permanent members of the establishment who have historically wasted no opportunity to become a part of the revolution-in-making.

The opportunist politicians’ club in Balochistan is divided into two groups. The first one abruptly smells political change and jumps on the victory truck much before others can even see it. This is primarily a self-proclaimed “pragmatic” group which joins the ‘future ruling party’ ahead of time so that it gets ample time in advance to develop necessary connections inside the party prior to the formation of the future government.
Classic examples of politicians belonging to the above mentioned segment are Retd. General Abdul Qadir Baloch, former Corps Commander and the governor of Balochistan and Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, a leading tribal chief and an ex-interior minister. Both of them joined the PML-Nawaz almost a year ago hoping that a little hard work and well done homework will land them on key positions in the future dispensation.

The second school of opportunist politicians comprises of enraged leaders who have either been ignored in their own parties or who grumble about not receiving sufficient ‘benefits’ from their incumbent parties. You may wonder why these leaders are not respected and patronised in their own parties. Very simple: They have switched so many political parties in the past that their faces are now barely familiar to the senior or junior cadre of their new/current parties.

Thus, the first group, which is shrewdly mindful of the significance of benefits an early bird receives, will suffice with joining the PTI if it gets live coverage on news channels and makes front page headlines. Former president of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Awami) Moheem Khan, ex-Jamori Watan Party senators Khuda-e-Noor and (who had later on defected to the PML-N), Amanullah Kanrani, a former information secretary of the JWP and Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar, a former PML-Q electoral candidate with little popularity among Quetta’s educated urban class, are some of the likely candidates who may join the PTI to resuscitate their political careers.

As far as the second section of leaders is concerned, it, besides the enraged leaders of ruling parties, also includes those who lead one-man shows locally known as political parties. Don’t get surprised if PTI floods Talal Bugti’s shabby Jamori Watan Party and Zarak Zheri’s PML- Zehri Group (Has anyone ever heard of it?). Senator Lashkari Raisani and Sadiq Umrani, the former and current chiefs of the PPP respectively, are both either discontented with their own parties or with the chief minister. Who knows if Imran is looking to get one of these two precious wickets!

Regarding the JWP, what is still undecided who, between the PTI and the PML-N, will make the first and solid move to influence Talal Bugti to either incorporate the JWP with one of these future ruling parties or at least form an ‘alliance plus’. Although the JWP is unlikely to win a sizeable number of seats in the provincial and the national assemblies, Talal Bugti isn’t as insignificant as his detractors smugly consider him. Let’s not forget, he resides in Quetta’s symbolic Bugti House where most government and opposition leaders go to pay respects to late Nawab Akbar Bugti, Talal’s father, or simply to express solidarity with the disenchanted Balochs.

Imran may not be able to fully win the hearts of the Marri, Mengal and (the pro-Brahamdagh section of) Bugti tribes who stand in the forefront of the Baloch nationalist movement at this juncture. It, nonetheless, does not minimize PTI’s chances of bringing on its side Balochistan’s Pashtun voters who are weary of America’s drone policies in spite of not being fond of the Talibanized version of Sharia which is staunchly championed by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).
The PTI may upset the JUI if it uses “my name is Khan” card to woo the Pashtun voters. Thus, this move will possibly bring the PTI some Pashtun leaders from the PML-Q, such as Jaffar Khan Mandokhel and Raheela Hameed Durrani, without alerting the ANP (Awami National Party) and the PKmP (Pashtunkhwai Milli Awami Party).

In some Baloch districts, old loyalists of General Musharraf such as former ministers Zubaida Jalal, Shoaib Nosherwani, Balochistan Assembly’s current Speaker Aslam Bhootani and Rubina Irfan are all shaky wickets. Let’s wait and see what transpires after one hundred days of net practice ahead of the Quetta rally. Critics who consider Balochistan a tough pitch will probably have to watch another major upset from the visitors’ gallery. (Courtesy: Dawn.com)

By M. Chris Mason

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have reached an all-time low. The Khyber Pass is closed to NATO cargo, U.S. personnel were evicted from Shamsi airbase and Pakistani observers have been recalled from joint co-operation centres.

Much more importantly, senior officials in Washington now know that Pakistan has been playing them false since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and understand that Pakistan was sheltering Osama bin Laden a few hundred yards from its version of West Point. The recent shelling of Afghan troops inside Afghanistan by the Pakistani army, and the NATO counterstrike, cleared in error by Pakistan, has further embarrassed the Pakistani military.
It should be obvious by now that Pakistan has no intention of doing what the United States has wanted for the past decade. The combination of wishful thinking, admiration for the emperor’s new clothes and $10-billion in payments to the Pakistani military have accomplished nothing. Admiral Michael Mullen was not wrong when he testified recently that the terrorist Haqqani network is operating as an arm of the Pakistani army. He might have added that the Taliban is the Pakistani army’s expeditionary force in Afghanistan. Pakistan shelters, funds, trains, supplies and advises the Taliban. The simple fact is that Pakistan is the world’s No. 1 state supporter of terrorism.

In Afghanistan, Pakistan will never be happy unless it has a puppet regime in Kabul and can run the country like a colony. Islamabad does not intend to allow the current Afghan constitution to remain in effect, and as soon as NATO pulls out, it will push the Taliban into an all-out civil war in Afghanistan designed to return it to power. All of which has led to a lot of hand-wringing in Washington, accompanied by a revolving-door procession of senior U.S. officials going to Islamabad to read a toothless riot act the Pakistanis can now recite by heart.

The permanent solution to the Pakistan problem is not more of this chest-beating appeasement. The answer lies in 20th-century history. In 1947, when India gained independence, a British Empire in full retreat left behind an unworkable mess on both sides of India – called Pakistan – whose elements had nothing in common except the religion of Islam. In 1971, this postcolonial Frankenstein came a step closer to rectification when Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, became an independent state.

The answer to the current Pakistani train wreck is to continue this natural process by recognizing Baluchistan’s legitimate claim to independence. Baluchistan was an independent nation for more than 1,000 years when Great Britain notionally annexed it in the mid-19th century. The Baluchis were never consulted about becoming a part of Pakistan, and since then, they have been the victims of alternating persecution and neglect by the Pakistani state, abuse which escalated to genocide when it was discovered in the 1970s that most of the region’s natural resources lie underneath their soil. Since then, tens of thousands of Baluchis have been slaughtered by the Pakistani army, which has used napalm and tanks indiscriminately against an unarmed population.

Changing maps is difficult only because it is initially unimaginable to diplomats and politicians. Although redrawing maps is the definition of failure for the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, it has, in fact, been by such a wide margin the most effective solution to regional violence over the past 50 years that there is really nothing in second place. Among the most obvious recent examples (apart from the former Soviet Union) are North and South Sudan, Kosovo, Eritrea, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, East Timor and Bangladesh.

An independent Baluchistan would, in fact, solve many of the region’s most intractable problems overnight. It would create a territorial buffer between rogue states Iran and Pakistan. It would provide a transportation and pipeline corridor for Afghanistan and Central Asia to the impressive but underutilized new port at Gwadar. It would solve all of NATO’s logistical problems in Afghanistan, allow us to root the Taliban out of the former province and provide greater access to Waziristan, to subdue our enemies there. And it would contain the rogue nuclear state of Pakistan and its A.Q. Khan network of nuclear proliferation-for-profit on three landward sides.

The way to put the Pakistani genie back in the bottle and cork it is to help the Baluchis go the way of the Bangladeshis in achieving their dream of freedom from tyranny, corruption and murder at the hands of the diseased Pakistani military state. (Courtesy: The Globe and Mail)

M. Chris Mason is a retired diplomat with long service in South Asia and a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defence Studies in Washington.

By Malik Siraj Akbar

Every year on this momentous day, 60-year old retired bank employee Abdul Qadeer Baloch organises special events in Balochistan capital, Quetta, to mark the international human rights day. He has organised, for instance, hunger strike camps and convened press conferences to raise the voices of the families of the disappeared Baloch political activists, students and professionals.

Qadeer had remained absolutely aloof to such hardcore activism until February 13, 2009, when officials attired in plainclothes whisked away his son Jalil Ahmed Reki, 35, from Quetta. The disappearance of a breadwinning son turned Qadeer’s life upside down. He eventually joined the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), an organisation representing the families of missing persons, to campaign for the release of his disappeared son.

Jalil Reki, Qadir’s missing son, had regularly operated as the central spokesman for the Baloch Republican Party, a nationalist political group seeking self-rule for the resource-rich Balochistan province. He was articulate, charismatic and well-connected with the local media. Qadeer made every attempt possible to seek the release of his missing child but completely failed to bring him back from the custody of the captors. After his involvement in similar missing persons’ cases, Qadeer realised his was not the only family which had a loved one listed as ‘missing’.

“Every missing person is my son,” Qadeer assured as he was recently promoted as the vice president of the VBMP. With more organisational responsibility came more pressure. In October, two secret agents reached out to Qadeer in Quetta warning him to immediately and unconditionally end the demand for the release of the disappeared activists.

“They warned if I wanted my son alive then I should end the hunger strike camp,” Qadir shared his insecurity with the media soon after being warned in person and also on telephone.

Qadeer would have routinely snubbed this warning if he had been contacted two years ago. In the past one year, the situation in Balochistan has dramatically changed. The bullet-riddled dead bodies of at least 220 missing persons have been found from different parts of the province in the past eight months.

Thus, Qadeer and his friends were totally cognizant of what he bills as the “nasty capabilities” of the captors of their loved ones. He took the threats seriously but it was no longer practically possible to abandon an organisation which funnelled hope to the relatives of hundreds of other missing persons.

“Quitting wasn’t simply an option” said Qadeer. Those who had warned him stood by their words. On November 24, the tortured and bullet-infested dead body of Qadeer’s disappeared son was found in Turbat district.

This year brings a totally different international human rights day for Qadeer. He says his young son’s killing has not undermined his resolve but given him a reason to stand beside those who still await the return of their loved ones.

‘Moral Crisis’

There is increasing international concern about human rights violations in Balochistan. Official denial of access to international media, human rights groups and researchers and increased role of agencies further make it difficult to independently analyse the crisis in Balochistan.

On November 16, the deputy spokesman of the US Department of State, Mark Toner, expressed concern over the situation in Balochistan.

Amnesty International’s Pakistan researcher Mustafa Qadri terms Balochistan as one of Pakistan’s “greatest moral crises”. The province, he says, has fast become a “human rights-free zone” with security forces and armed groups acting with total impunity.

Qadri, whose London-based global human rights watchdog has actively sought an end to killings and disappearances in Balochistan, says there are no excuses for the government to continue “such policies” in Balochistan.

“The failure of the state to protect its citizens’ right to life has left all of Balochistan’s diverse communities living in constant fear of abductions, torture, and targeted killings. The state continues to suppress the Baloch community’s right to freedom of expression whether with respect to nationalist politics or calls for justice for victims of enforced disappearance,” he claims.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has decided to dedicate this year’s international human rights day to the people of Balochistan in order to urge Islamabad to “make vigorous efforts to ensure respect for the rights of the people in the long suffering province.”

Zohra Yusuf, HRCP’s chairperson, says at least 107 new cases of enforced disappearance have been reported in Balochistan in 2011, and the ‘missing persons’ are increasingly turning up dead.

“Bodies of at least 225 ‘missing persons’ have been recovered from various parts of the province since July 2010,” she reveals, “It is scandalous that not a single person has been held accountable for these disappearances and killings.”

Alarming Trends

With numerous existing indicators, there are valid reasons to paint a murky future scenario for Balochistan vis-à-vis the state of human rights.

Firstly, defenders of democracy, champions of human rights and the advocates of press freedom are all being forcefully dragged into the ongoing conflict. At least two HRCP coordinators, eight journalists and one campaigner for the IDP (internally displaced persons) rights have been tortured and killed in less than a year.

In addition, the so-called ‘kill and dump operations’ provide a glimpse into the prevalent and sophisticated network of illegal torture cells maintained inside Balochistan. For example, when activists, such as Qadeer’s son, disappear from Quetta and are found dead 856 kilometres away in Kech district, it gives a clear idea about the extraordinary operational and logistical capabilities of people involved in such regular and untraceable operations.

Meanwhile, an underground armed group calling itself as the Baloch Musla Defai Tanzeem (Baloch Armed Defence Organisation) recently issued a hit-list of four journalists in Khuzdar district warning to kill them all if they reported the activities of Baloch nationalists. At least two former presidents and two members, of the same district press club have been murdered in recent past, highlighting the threats faced by journalists working in Khuzdar.

Amidst the crises, the governments at the centre and the province do not currently have an engagement policy in Balochistan to give an idea where it stands on the issue of disappearances, killings and warnings to defenders of human rights. It demonstrates absolute official indifference toward the issue while the attacks on defenders of democracy and human rights are taking place with flagrant impunity showing a total absence of an accountability-driven system.

The number of unknown, shadowy armed groups is increasing day by day. Emboldened over lack of official action against them, these groups have become less reclusive, more assertive and more selective while singing out their targets.

Turning a blind eye, the provincial and central governments and the executive and the judicial branches of the government continue to throw the issue of human rights into each other’s court. Additionally, the government has not either completed or initiated investigations into killings for which it has been blamed, such as the murder of Professor Saba Dashtiyari of the University of Balochistan, to assure its commitment to independently probe blatant attacks on educators and free-thinkers.

The government has also not fulfilled the promise it made unveiling the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-Balochistan Package that all missing Baloch persons would be released.

Decades of unabated attacks on dissenters have eroded Balochistan’s political landscape to such an extent that violence has knocked out an ambiance of political dialogue. (Courtesy: Dawn.com)