Collateral damage

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

The news of the death of 12 Bugti tribesmen in a supposed clash with the FC men after a mine blast that killed three of the FC men is alarming and disconcerting. Details filtering out say that they were taken into custody after the blast and executed. 

The news is all the more disturbing because this incident is not without precedent. In the Dungan area of Marri agency in the fall of 1975, nine Marri tribesmen of the Shahija and Kalwani clan, including Qaiser Khan, Baazi Khan Shahija and Ganj Ali Kalwani were lined up and shot after the army suffered losses in a clash in the vicinity. That atrocity had gone unpunished and unnoticed and this one too will probably go unpunished, in spite of being reported. Such atrocities have grave implications and consequences for the health of the federation and its credibility as protector of people’s rights.

Oct 19: Shaheed Mir Bazkhan Marri

Oct 17: Martyrs of Gishkoor

Oct 15: Shaheed Waris Baloch

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Oct 13: Shaheed Mir Nooruddin Mengal

Oct 12: Martyrs of Dohmag

Social Meltdown

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Dayaks, the head-hunting tribe of Borneo famous for shrinking heads of enemies to display as coveted trophies are considered primitive and uncivilized for their violence, but their violence was never the wanton violence that we witness today in Pakistan where worshipping places, shrines, Ulema, political leaders and innocent people all become victims of violence perpetrated by deranged minds who are exhorted on to it by even more warped minds and ideologies. Dayak head-hunters considered it immoral to kill someone they didn’t know or didn’t have a score to settle with. They were baffled to learn that the supposedly civilized people used bombs and weaponry to kill and maim. The killing of strangers and consequently the innocents with whom they had no feud was something reprehensible and revolting to them. The wilful violence practiced by the civilized had no place in their primitive society. The Dayaks were a lot more civil and refined in their violence than the people residing within the boundaries of this Islamic Republic. Here the violence is as wanton as it is senseless and immoral. We need to learn from the Dayaks.

The blame for this social breakdown and the spiralling rise of violence can be squarely laid at the doors of ruling elite whose short-sightedness and the desire to cling to power at any cost has eroded the accepted norms, values, practices and conventions that had helped keep the social fabric intact. The situation has been worsened and compounded by the connivance and complicity of the political parties, blinded by their urge and desire to be a party to the loot and plunder unleashed upon this blighted country. Politicians of easy virtue are a bane for any country and here we have them in excess.

Oct 10: Shaheed Rashid Baloch

A Tribute to Che Guevara

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Oct 6: Shaheed Kareem Jan and Arafat Ibrahim Baloch