Balochistan's Freedom Fighter Martyred

09-02-2006, 09:22 AM

QUOTEwww.dawn.com
Three provinces hit by strike: Two Rangers personnel killed
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: Two paramilitary personnel were killed and several people injured as most parts of the country gave an effective response to the strike call given by the combined opposition against the government on various issues, particularly the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.

Reports said the shutdown in most parts of Balochistan, NWFP and Sindh was near-complete while Punjab witnessed a poor response to the call.

Over 100 people were arrested in the country, most of them in Balochistan, following clashes between the law-enforcement agencies personnel and protesters.

Public transport on city and inter-city routes in the badly affected provinces remained thin.

Several shops and government buildings were set ablaze and attacked during demonstrations.

Almost all main commercial and industrial centres in cities like Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar remained closed, but business activities in Lahore remained normal.

Operations at the Karachi Port Trust and Bin Qasim Port and other government organisations and corporations remained disturbed.

Attendance in government and private organisations and educational institution was below normal.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) president Qazi Hussain Ahmed termed the strike successful and thanked people for their response to the call given by political parties in the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and MMA.

KARACHI: Two personnel of Pakistan Rangers were shot dead and a policeman was wounded in separate incidents.

One vehicle on Nishtar Road and another on Korangi Road were set on fire. Traffic signals and several buildings were damaged at various places when protesters pelted them with stones.

However, it was business as usual at the Karachi Stock Exchange.

Barring Sanghar and Mirpurkhas, all major cities in interior Sindh observed complete strike.

QUETTA: The strike paralysed the entire Balochistan. A mob in the Panjgur district set afire a police post and an unspecified number of shops.

Police claimed to have arrested 70 people on a charge of inciting trouble.

PESHAWAR: The business community observed complete shutter down in the NWFP.

In Peshawar, only a small number of rickshaws, yellow cabs and minibuses operated in certain parts of the city as major transport companies observed the strike.

ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI: A partial strike was observed in Islamabad.

Traders community offered ghaibana namaz-i-janaza of Nawab Bugti at Aabpara.

09-02-2006, 09:24 AM

EDITORIAL: Government is besieged with popular disbeliefQUOTEOn the other side, too, no one really knew what was happening. The JWP was talking about the Nawabâs body lying at Quetta CMH, Sardar Sherbaz Mazari put out a press release claiming the body had been sent to Islamabad. But this was understandable since the government was dissembling furiously all the time. It also shows that while the government was trying to hide its many blunders, the other side was also not averse to making political capital from a tragedy. The Nawabâs sons were obviously registering their protest at the governmentâs callousness.

The military and its civilian front are besieged with popular disbelief. They have both lost much moral and political ground. Worse, this episode has created new fault-lines in Pakistanâs polity that will not be cemented easily in the future. A greater national tragedy could be in the making if the consequences of this action end up reverberating in an adversely changing regional and global climate. *

09-03-2006, 08:42 AM

QUOTEPress Statement, September 3, 2006

Every Baloch knows that his ancestors were of Hindu, Bauddha, Jaina or Zoroastrian traditions and even earlier maritime traditions which extended from Tigris-Euphrates to the Mekong delta in South-east Asia during the days of contact between Mesopotamia and what cuneiform texts refer to as Meluhha. The language of Baloch is cognate with Mleccha (Meluhha) which was the ancient spoken dialect of the region extending from Gandhara (Kandahar) to Bangkok, during the days of Mahabharata. Yudhishtira and Vidura spoke in mleccha according to the Great Epic. The bonds between Hindu and Baloch ante-date the formation of Pakistan by the British colonial regime which continued its policy of divide and rule even while quitting the region and giving 'truncated independence' and certainly ante-date Islamism and Christism. The Baloch people have never accepted their being part of Pakistan and have been fighting for nearly 60 years to achieve true independence for Balochistan.

Baloch is a region rich in natural resources and the Balochi people have been exploited by the anti-people regimes of Jihadistan (Pakistan) in collaboration with China.

Baloch should say NO to Jihadi terror and return home. Many Balochi ancestors were converted to Islam during days of mediaeval barbarism. Now that Baloch has understood what the consequences of being part of Jihadistan are, it is time to re-assert the Balochi national identity and true cultural identity related to what Gautama the Buddha called esha dhammo sanantano, this sanatana dharma which treats the entire globe as one family and which does not spread hatred and violence.

The intolerable situation created by the martyrdom of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti should help Balochi to rethink their adherance to a false belief system which was forced upon their ancestors and to return to the fold of civil global society. In these testing times, all Hindu everywhere will support the fight of the Balochi people to realize their true national identity and cherish their cultural traditions which date back to at least 5000 years Before Present, to the days of Mesopotamian-Sarasvati Civilizations.

All Hindu will welcome Balochi as partners in dharma and as free participants in a true confederation of an Indian Ocean Community based on dharma. Say NO to dictatorship of Jihadistan and return home to Sanatana Dharma.

The martyrdom of Akbar Khan Bugti should reinforce the responsibility of the people of Hindustan to support the Baloch people in this hour of need and in support for their freedom struggle, freedom from an oppressive regime. Hindustan has been the beacon of hope for all freedom-fighters and the role played by Baloch in achieving freedom from the colonial rule should be hailed by all people of the region who are opposed to the hegemonical interventions. The colonial regime forced Balochistan into what was then in 1947 called Pakistan while the demand of the Baloch people was for independence. Hindu people everywhere have to support Baloch people in their 60-year old freedom struggle against the Pakistani army and the earlier centuries-old freedom struggle against a colonial regime. Hopefully, measures should be put in place to facilitate cultural exchanges among the people of Balochistan and Hindustan recognizing the millennial civilizational bonds of contacts and maritime relationships.

S. Kalyanaraman

09-03-2006, 12:55 PM

QUOTE(Hauma Hamiddha @ Aug 29 2006, 04:44 AM)I think Raman is simply going overboard. It is not at all clear that the Balochs are in favor of Hindus or not. From the Realpolitik angle it would be good to support the Balochs as a counter-balance to TSPian terrorism. But given that Balochs voluntarily associated with TSP, and that they are Moslems, makes it unclear as to how rebelious they will ultimately get. A french national who has worked in Balochistan says that the Bugtis tribe specifically has several influential anti-TSP individuals. But apparently there is also intercine conflict between Bugtis and others which the TSp army might exploit in the current stand off.
[right][snapback]56387[/snapback][/right]


My Hindu forum members may be surprised to know that Bugti Hindu's were always part of the Bugti tribe and that Hindu's are still assimilated into Baluch tribes. If you do a web search you will read that the Pakistan army in their initial attack on Nawab Bugti targetted Hindu populations in Dera Bugti and many Hindu's died. Baluch have always been secular and personal and tribal loyalties overshadow religious bigotory.

09-03-2006, 04:56 PM

I as a baluch would request all the help possible in what is going to be a long and bitter fight to protect our resources and identity. Akber Khan was murdered on the whims of a dictator whose arrogance is driven by his belief that he is indispensable for the fight against terrorism. Yet he supports terror where it suits him.

09-03-2006, 07:51 PM

Shahid Khan,

As you said you are a baloch, you must know to read Baloch/Sindhi language. Can you please translate the words written in the photographs of post # 15 above?

Thanks

09-03-2006, 08:06 PM

The first is photo writen in Sindhi which I dont speak.
The second says 'this is the way to hinglaj and signed by shiv hinglaj sheva mandul las bela'

QUOTE(Bodhi @ Sep 3 2006, 07:51 PM)Shahid Khan,

As you said you are a baloch, you must know to read Baloch/Sindhi language.Â Can you please translate the words written in the photographs of post # 15 above?

Thanks
[right][snapback]56707[/snapback][/right]

09-03-2006, 08:21 PM

Thanks Shahid.

09-03-2006, 08:39 PM

shahid khan,
Do you think Baloch can achieve Freedom from Pakistan soon?
What happened in 1972 can repeat again?
What I have heard, Baloch loyalties are always bought buy higher bidder? Which may delay or they can ever achieve freedom?

09-04-2006, 12:45 AM

Read articles written in BBC websites on the Baluch. The British had said Buy the Pakhtun and honour the Baluch. Indeed Pakistan govt is dishing out billions but Nawab bugti's murder has galvanized the entire Baluch popultaion- there are only 3million Baluch in Baluchistan but there are many more in Sind,Southern Punjab Iran, and very importantly in Gulf States. There is a level of frustration never seen before . But independence will take time.

Geopolitics is against it. The americans dont want to risk loosing who they believe is an ally to the war against terror. The Chinese have interests in the energy ,other natural resources and a foothold over the oil rich Gulf through the port in Gwadar Baluchistan. And Iran is worried about its own Baluch population and does not to create instatbility at its borders.

What has historically worked against the baluch are there own internal differences based on historical fueds and internal rivalries and these have been exploited by the central govt. Bugti's murder has brought in more unity than before. Hope that stays.

So the answer is not so easily. The problem of scale (small population) and geopolitics creates huge headwinds. But the army through its arrogance has created its own problem. Many more moderates are now talking about independence. Look at a canargie article on this subject.You will find it interesting.

shahid khan,
Do you think Baloch can achieve Freedom from Pakistan soon?
What happened in 1972 can repeat again?
What I have heard, Baloch loyalties are always bought buy higher bidder? Which may delay or they can ever achieve freedom?
[right][snapback]56711[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Bharatvarsh · 09-04-2006, 03:40 AM

We have been told all the same things about Bangladesh, that it would be secular and all but not 2 decades passed before it officially became an Islamic state (anti Hindu atrocties started long before that), it was Indian soldiers who shed their blood to drive out Pakis but today after getting liberated with our help they are raping and slaughtering Hindus with no qualms, where is the guarantee that the same thing won't happen in Balochistan, after all Bangladesh was not the first instance of Muslims back stabbing Hindus, if we go back into history, we see that Hindu kindness has been taken advantage of numerous times.

09-05-2006, 12:26 AM

Frankly, you folks have a choice
1) Isolate yourselves as a country OR
2) Play a role of a geoplotical power.
guarantees dont exist . And you dont have to shed your blood in Baluchistan
Baluch's will

QUOTE(Bharatvarsh @ Sep 4 2006, 03:40 AM)We have been told all the same things about Bangladesh, that it would be secular and all but not 2 decades passed before it officially became an Islamic state (anti Hindu atrocties started long before that), it was Indian soldiers who shed their blood to drive out Pakis but today after getting liberated with our help they are raping and slaughtering Hindus with no qualms, where is the guarantee that the same thing won't happen in Balochistan, after all Bangladesh was not the first instance of Muslims back stabbing Hindus, if we go back into history, we see that Hindu kindness has been taken advantage of numerous times.
[right][snapback]56748[/snapback][/right]

09-05-2006, 12:36 AM

QUOTEBaluch's will
They failed to do it till now. I think they lack power and vision for their cause.
They have even failed to make noise in world arena.
Everyday Mushy is showing them middle finger. Tribes leaders are just pocketing money. Any oil company can buy them in pennies.

Why Bangladesh became reality? because no oil interest or no so-called tribe leaders were involved.
If you ask anyone, do you know Balouchistan?, they will say what another "stan" must be Islamic.
Same is with Balwaristan or Gilgit. People sell loyalties and foot soldiers suffer, while leader grow their belly.

QUOTE) Isolate yourselves as a country OR
2) Play a role of a geoplotical power.
Balouchistan is placed in a very strategic location they can really land lock Mushyistan.
If you are talking about India. India left its neighbour long time back in every aspect.

09-05-2006, 02:03 AM

QUOTEMusharraf weighs political options in Balochistan
Posted online: Monday, September 04, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print Email
Islamabad, September 3 Tongue

akistan President Pervez Musharraf has discussed with his confidants initiatives to end the crisis in Balochistan following Nawab Akbar Bugtiâs death in an army raid. Nationalist parties today rallied in the restive southwest province to protest the killing of the rebel leader.

Musharraf, who reportedly got an endorsement for his strategy in Balochistan at the Corps Commandersâ meeting on Friday, with top ruling PML-Q politicians Shujaat Hussain and other officials to discuss a package of initiatives to mollify the public resentment in the province.

Earlier, four former generals also criticised Musharraf for the way the government handled the crisis. With Baloch nationalist leaders publicly expressing resentment that their survival lies in separation from Pakistan and the time has come for a âdecisive battle,â said former Army chief Aslam Beg.

âIt was an ill-conceived idea and badly-handled operation to capture an 80-year-old man...Hiding in a cave. The second mistake was the task to capture Bugti was given to Pakistan Army, instead of other law-enforcement agencies, despite the knowledge that he would die fighting instead of surrendering to military forces,â he was quoted by Daily Times.

Begâs comments were endorsed by two former chiefs of ISI, Gen Assad Durani, Gen Hamid Gul and retired Lt Gen Talat Masood.

Bugtiâs son questions Nawabâs belongings

Islamabad: After the burial of Nawab Akbar Bugti by Pakistani authorities, his son, Jamil said a wrist watch, ring and glasses displayed by the officials as belongings of the slain rebel chief were not that of his fatherâs, prompting government to offer to conduct a DNA test. âWe canât believe that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of my father,â he added

Abdul Samad Lasi, District Coordination Officer of Dera Bugti, claimed they were recovered from Bugtiâs body. âPTI
editor@expressindia.com

09-05-2006, 02:13 AM

PAKISTAN: BALUCH LEADER CALLS FOR SPLIT

shahid khan,
Here your leaders are making mistake, they are calling for seperation not freedom.
It means they have kept some rope to pocket money and favor.

09-05-2006, 09:13 AM

The Tumandar of the BugtisQUOTEBut there is no one in Pakistan today who can truly subscribe to the belief that the manner in which Nawab Muhammad Akbar Shahbaz Khan, the undisputed Tumandar of all the Bugtis, was killed â or assassinated, or executed (with no Medici finesse) â and the way in which he was ordered to be buried were the acts of honourable men. They were not. Like it or not, Pakistan will have to live with the consequences of this most dishonourable craven crime. Yet another war has been âwonâ in the annals of Pakistanâs dismal history.

09-06-2006, 01:50 AM

The corrupt Baluch leaders are already with the government. You cannot protect ones vested interests without armies patronageand these guys stand out. Whether its the Jam of Lasbela ( a ruler of a state ) or the mullahs supporting the puppet Baluchistan provicial Government. The divide between the puppets of the army and nationalists isnt new but tested by time and battle . The Bugti/Marri area has been depopulated under a process of genocide. and a group of people installed who had murdered Nawab Akbers son 3 years ago. This isnt a time for suspicion and scepticism.

09-06-2006, 02:28 AM

This isnt a time for suspicion and scepticism.
Shahid
I entirely agree w/ u. First of all, accept my condolences to the bereaved people of Balochistan. May God give them strength to overcome it's fallout and take appropriate action, thereof. Govt of India went against it's normal policy of non interference in other country's affairs by issuing pro Bugti and anti Pak Govt statements. Pak Govt <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/liar.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='liar.gif' /> is alleging RAW's hand in this to dupe people of Pak in general and Balochistan in particular.

09-06-2006, 04:01 AM

Balochvoice
www.balochvoice.com

Balochi Web ring
www.members.tripod.com/tbaloch/webring.htm

Baloch 2000
www.baloch2000.org

shahid khan,
Please add more sites.

09-07-2006, 06:53 AM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /> Dial M for murder

Vikram Sood

September 7, 2006|04:21 IST
In a strange irony of history. Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the Tamundar of the Bugti tribe, who supported the creation of Pakistan, served as minister in the central cabinet and then as governor of Balochistan â at a time when his fellow Baloch sardars, the Mengals and the Marris, were in revolt against Islamabad â has been killed by a Pakistani bullet.

The exact circumstances of his death are not yet clear. It is not known whether he died because the cave collapsed under heavy bombardment (bunker busters), or was killed in cold blood by commandos sent in by General Musharraf. It is quite apparent, though, that the frequent use of satellite phones gave away his position, thanks to the latest counter-terror direction-finding equipment that the Pakistanis now have.

It was the Shazia Khaled rape incident in January 2005 and the cover-up by the army that provided the real impetus to Baloch resistance, which had been simmering and erupting periodically since the creation of Pakistan. Bugti assumed control, and the movement found a totem pole.

In his last interview with the BBC on July 7, Akbar Bugti described how the Pakistan air force had strafed his positions all day for three consecutive days, and helicopter gunships and SSG commandos were pressed into service. Yet, the proud Bugti would neither bend nor surrender.

Wealthy and powerful, the 79-year-old Akbar Bugti need not have chosen to die in the Bhambore Hills. Instead, he chose to fight and die for a cause bigger than wealth and power - for Baloch pride and for the Baloch nation. The nationalists lost their leader but gained a martyr. They will now fight to honour his memory.

The General was thrilled because it was on his visit to Balochistan last year that he was targeted by missiles and had to be whisked away to safety. He had neither forgotten nor forgiven that the Baloch did not celebrate his takeover in October 1999. General Musharrafâs exultation and his act of offering congratulations to his officers for killing the sardar are hardly likely to endear the General to the Balochs. The anger and the resentment will fester for years even if the Pakistan army is able to suppress the movement through the use of ruthless force. The Bugti tribe now has a personal enemy in Musharraf, so says Baloch rivaz. Unlike the Pakhtoons, the Baloch wear their religion lightly, but are fiercely nationalistic.

The Balochsâ age-old grievances have been about persistent economic and social discrimination, and about the fear of being swamped by the Punjabis and the army. They also resent their land being parcelled out to outsiders, military cantonments being set up in Balochistan and the central government not sharing the revenues from the natural resources that the Baloch say belong to them.

Long years of army rule had ensured a policy that either ignored Baloch demands or suppressed their protests. The Balochsâ hatred for the Punjabis has been deep and never really concealed. It is sometimes forgotten that the Balochs had been dragooned into joining the Pakistan federation, or what they thought would be a federation but turned out to be Punjabi domination.

The recent Ralph Peters thesis in the US Armed Forces Journal, which redraws the map of the Muslim world in West and South Asia, speaks of a greater Balochistan comprising parts of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, maps on drawing boards do not by themselves translate into a country. The Balochs sit on crucial areas that are resource rich and strategically located, lying virtually at the mouth of the Strait of Oman through, which 40 per cent of the worldâs oil passes. The province provides access to Central Asia and Iran. It lies on the land route for gas pipelines that could one day flow from Iran to India, and from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan into Pakistan, India and, possibly, China. Balochistan could provide access to US Special Forces wishing to operate in Eastern Iran where some of Iranâs nuclear facilities lie.

Seymour Hersh, writing in 2005, said the US President had signed a series of findings and executive orders authorising secret commando groups and other Special Forces units "to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in West Asia and South Asia." There were reports that the anti-Iranian Mujahedeen-e-Khalq had been shifted from Iran to Balochistan by the US to operate inside Iran.

Forty-five years ago, even the great Henry Kissinger had not heard of the Balochistan problem. The US interest was revived when the Soviets pushed into Afghanistan, but then the main interest was in Pakistan as the Cold War was being fought out. It was Carterâs national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who pointed out the importance of Balochistan for the defence of the Persian Gulf. Later, Reagan upgraded American links with Pakistan.

Today, in the post-Cold War era, there are other Great Power interests in Balochistan â of the US because of Iran and the energy resources up to the Caspian Sea, and of the Chinese because of the strategically located Gwadar port that they are helping construct. The Chinese would be quite happy to receive some of their West Asian oil and gas supplies at Gwadar and have it sent overland northwards into China.

Akbar Bugti used to allege that coastal land from Jiwani (including Gwadar) to Karachi would be detached from Balochistan and given away to a foreign power. Besides, the Chinese have been extending their reach into the USâs backyard by cosying up to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Paul Wolfowitzâs recommendation that US foreign policy should prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power, is coming into play.

The Baloch misfortune is that they are like the Kurds. They have no friends because they are scattered across three countries â Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan became a rentier State and today its realtors in jackboots face the possibility of two elephants fighting on their territory. Maybe India will stand by as an interested observer or merely a bystander as the two powers play out their Great Game on Baloch playgrounds and the rebellion continues to simmer.

There are lessons for us in this, and worries, too. Perhaps the first one is for those who oppose the Indian State. Surely the Kashmiris, who have taken to the gun, now realise how the Pakistanis treat those who revolt or ask for their rights, which is in sharp contrast to how the Indian State treats its own dissidents. No aircraft are sent in to strafe them, no helicopter gunships attack them and no artillery guns pound them. Instead, even the Prime Minister is willing to talk to them. Second, no State today can afford to ignore grievances of federated units. In India, such grievances are bound to increase as the country progresses and greater regional imbalances emerge from increasing expectations.

Finally, since Musharraf has acted out of pique and fear, his actions reflect a sense of weakness. He had refused to negotiate an agreement. A lot depends on how the General and his army handle the situation in the weeks ahead. There are already misgivings. Even retired army generals have expressed doubts. As his position seems to weaken further, Musharraf will need a diversion. The only diversion possible is either tilting towards India or meddling in Indian affairs.

Login




Remember me Lost Password?