COMMENT : Simple arithmetic — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

The establishment and its intellectuals’ priority has never been the rights of the Baloch and Sindhis 

The envisaged Gwadar-Khunjrab-Kashgar railway and oil pipeline, for which a feasibility report was completed by Chinese engineers before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s 2010 visit to Pakistan, bodes evil for the Baloch people’s rights. This is but a part of the larger strategy aimed at ensuring that Balochistan becomes the Tibet and Xinjiang of Pakistan. Masood Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, had then stated, “We support China’s policy on Tibet, Xinjiang and human rights.” China-Pakistan relations are based on mutual support for human rights violations.

آم، جمہوریت اور ڈھٹائی

پاکستان میں آموں اور جمہوریت کا موسم ہے۔ آم منڈیوں اور سیاستدان اسمبلیوں میں پہنچ گئے ہیں۔

کہتے ہیں کہ کسی ایسے ہی موسم میں ایک آدمی کسی باغ سے آم چرا رہا تھا کہ باغ کا رکھوالا وہاں پہنچ گیا۔ جس وقت مالی موقع واردات پر پہنچا تو چور آم درخت سے توڑ کے نیچے پھینکنے کی بعد اتر کے مالِ غنیمت اکھٹا کر رہا تھا۔ کچھ آم اس کے اردگرد بکھرے پڑے تھے اور کچھ اس کی جیبوں سے برآمد ہوئے۔ اسے آزاد عدالت میں پیش کیا گیا تو اس نے رنگے ہاتھوں پکڑے جانے کے باوجود جرم سے انکار کر دیا۔

COMMENT : A futile rearguard action — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

This ineffectual and futile rearguard action of putting up an apparently liberal and secular face in Balochistan is aimed at mollifying liberals and deceiving the Baloch people in general 

The liberal circles in general, and pseudo-nationalists of Balochistan in particular, are ecstatic, too precipitously I’d say, over Nawaz Sharif’s decision to put Dr Abdul Malik in the saddle in Balochistan. The accolades and felicitations would have one believe that Mr Sharif’s ‘gift’ is a panacea for and a salve to all the injustices and atrocities perpetrated against the Baloch people and Balochistan for the last 65 years. Incidentally, this best choice of the establishment just is not good enough to help it stem the rising tide of demands for freedom.

Martyr Haq Nawaz Bugti: A fallen hero

by: Mir Sarmachar Baloch

Thousands of Baloch youth sacrificed their life defending Balochistan and they made history. None of Martyr needs anything to be written about their struggle and sacrifices because they made history by giving their bloods for the noble cause. Today, I’m writing about Martyr Haq Nawaz Bugti. He was one of the youngest and intelligent Freedom Fighter (Sarmachar) in Baloch resistance movement.

Haq Nawaz Bugti was born in the house of well known family of Bugti tribe. He belongs to the ruling Rahejave clan in Bugti tribe. He was only 17 years old and the student of 8th class in Taaleem Foundation (TF) Grammar School Sui when he joined Baloch liberation movement.

A conversation between a girl and a soldier in a Balochistan village

By: Sajid Hussain

“I ran out of my house when I heard children and women crying. I saw four military trucks approaching,” recalled 22-year old Bibi Gul. Then a jeep stopped at the front gate and soldiers laid siege to the house of Mohammed Hussain, a schoolteacher and Bibi Gul’s father. “It was around 11am.”

Bibi Gul had been expecting them since early morning when FC personnel besieged their village on May 24 for a door-to-door search operation. Her house stood at the other edge of Gomazi, a small village, some 70 kilometers from Turbat city. It took soldiers four hours to reach this last abode after they searched rest of the houses in the village. Bibi Gul had seen smoke billowing out from several houses since the morning.

COMMENT : Liberty versus safety — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

All those attempting to break the chains that bind them and speaking about the simple truth about the violence of those in power are slaughtered wholesale 

Human beings generally tend to prefer safety over many other apparently intangible but otherwise absolutely essential things like liberty and dignity, and consequently, this makes them predisposed and vulnerable to slavery and bondage. The immediate and apparent advantages of safety cloud their sense of judgment and lull their sense of dignity, making safe bondage and relatively gainful slavery appear attractive enough to be accepted voluntarily. The attractiveness of safety plus marginal profits blunt the sense of dignity and liberty enough for them to acquiesce to a life where their real worth will never be realised. Moreover, they will eventually be denied even that safety and gain for those who conditionally offer these regulate them according to their requirements.

COMMENT : Ignorant people in the media — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

All political, economic, social or administrative measures that the incoming government implements or enacts will be as null and void as were those of the Raisani government 

Ghaus Bakhsh Barozai, the Balochistan caretaker chief minister (CM), speaking recently at the Punjab University (PU) said that the “Punjab was like Balochistan’s big brother and had made positive gestures towards the province”, and that “Ignorant people in the media” were not presenting an accurate picture of the problems in Balochistan. The PU Vice Chancellor (VC) Professor Mujahid Kamran in reply congratulated the cabinet-less Barozai for holding peaceful elections. He said that the Baloch people were brave, loyal and hard working and that 97 Baloch students had been admitted to the Punjab University with free tuition, boarding and Rs 3,000 monthly scholarships.

Balochistan: Writ of Pakistani government challenged and checkmated

Pakistani election 2013 in Balochistan, have been widely viewed by international and local political analysts as a referendum between those who ask for Baloch rights within Pakistani framework and those who seek an independence Baloch state.

Baloch nationalist political parties that advocate Baloch rights within the framework of Pakistani federation like National Party (NP) and Balochistan National Party (BNP -M) were brought onboard by Pakistani establishment to challenge the Baloch nationalists who seek the salvation of Baloch in the independence of Balochistan.

COMMENT : Hoodwinking people with spurious freedoms — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Pakistan has used education and the media as the primary mechanisms for thought control and the projection and promotion of a fake and distorted past to counteract the real history of nations 

Dr Paul Andre Degeorges, a renowned, respected ecologist, cultural and political activist, very kindly e-mails me a lot of valuable material. Recently he sent me a talk, “The Story of Your Enslavement” by Canadian blogger, essayist and author Stefan Molyneux. It is an exceptionally profound historical analysis of the subtle methods colonists and governments use to make something as abhorrent as enslavement seem glamorous and essential to those enslaved. Instinctively my thoughts went to the Balochistan situation.

COMMENT : The aftermath — Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Polls in Balochistan have always simply provided the much needed legitimacy to the brutal actions that the establishment had taken to suppress the rightful demands of the Baloch nationalists 

The elections in Balochistan will be less than credible because elections held in an environment of terror and harassment, where people are permanently terrorised by the security forces and their proxy death squads can never be free or fair. The turnout will be naturally extremely low due to the overall security situation, which has for long been appalling for the Baloch and Hazaras, and also the boycott. Although the physical turnout will probably be extremely low, the participation figures will be manipulated to give them a semblance of respectability. Incidentally, the turnout even during the un-boycotted and peaceful elections of 2002 was a pathetic 29 percent. The people’s interest in elections in Balochistan waned a long time ago as these brought them more misery and sufferings while only the elected and their families thrived. The extremely successful strikes of May 9 and 10 have put paid to expectations that people can be forced to come out to vote.