COMMENT: Significance of Raisani-Mengal meeting —Malik Siraj Akbar

Even if held in a tribal capacity, the meeting between Nawab Raisani and Sardar Mengal is a welcome development. They should keep on meeting each other to discuss all issues, including political, because political issues need political solutions

Malik Siraj Akbar

An unexpected but a very significant meeting took place between Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani and veteran Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal last Saturday (January 2) at the latter’s residence in Wadh, Khuzdar district. Limited details of the meeting were very cautiously issued to the media by both sides, as they insisted that it should be treated as a meeting between two prominent tribal elders, not politicians. They also insisted that Raisani had not called on Mengal, who became the first chief minister of Balochistan in 1972, as a head of the Balochistan government. Likewise, Mengal spoke to Raisani not as the patron-in-chief of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) but as a seasoned politician whom Raisani admires for his political sagacity.

Children of the conflict

File Photo: ONLINE

The Baloch Hal Editorial

With the commencement of the new year, 2010, children of the missing Baloch persons have established a hunger strike camp in front of Quetta Press Club. The composition of the camp is very diverse. These children come from different districts of Balochistan. Their ‘missing’ parents also belong to varying age brackets and professions. While many children of this age are busy studying at schools and colleges or preparing for their annual examinations, children of these disappeared people are spending their days in extreme chill inside the hunger strike camp. They hold the photographs of their dear ones and look at every visitor with the anticipation to bring them some ‘good news’. They do not go to school or colleges but look for their missing ones.

Zakir Majeed Baloch’s sister demands brother’s recovery

QUETTA: Zakir Majeed Baloch’s sister on Sunday demanded of human rights groups to take notice of the ‘enforced disappearance’ of her missing brother.

Addressing a press conference at the Quetta Press Club, she said Zakir Majeed Baloch, Senior Vice Chairman of BSO (Baloch Students Organisation) Azaad, was picked up by intelligence agencies on June 8, 2009 in Balochistan’s Mastung area.