Pakistan - News and Discussion -7

[Guest]

<b>Nawabzada Balaach Marri</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The organisation is reportedly headed by Nawabzada Balaach Marri, the <b>Moscow-educated son of Nawab Khair Baksh Marri, who is known to have Marxist leanings</b>. Some sources believe that the BLA was a Russian creation and came into being during the Afghan war of the 1980s, and was propped up as a reaction to Pakistan’s anti-Soviet involvement in Afghanistan. However, this claim is countered by others who view it as a purely secular-nationalist movement without any foreign links. These sources say that the BLA activists receive no foreign assistance and use their own resources to keep the struggle going.

But a question that is frequently asked is whether an insurgency of this level can be sustained without outside support. A report that was submitted by the Pakistan intelligence to the government in the late 1990s mentioned the location of a militant training camp linked to the BLA, in Kishan Garh, India, a few kilometres away from the eastern border, and along a route of illegal arms supplies. Eyebrows were also raised when Balaach’s brother, Nawabzada Gazin Marri, was arrested in Dubai in March 2006 and accused of channelling funds to the BLA from Dubai-based sympathisers.

Even though it is considered to have a loose structure, the attacks the BLA has claimed responsibility for in Balochistan have been successful and coordinated. In 2004 alone, the rebels carried out almost 1,500 attacks
link
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri The Great Baloch leader</b>