Dispatch from Balochistan: How mothers try to keep their newborns alive

‘Women in our tribes have to learn how to take care of their babies on their own.”

Sara Farid

Malnutrition in Pakistani children is cause for serious concern. Just consider these numbers from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13:

Healthcare professionals associated with medical aid charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), find that lack of breastfeeding is one of the prime causes for this high level of malnutrition. These observations are based on the NGO’s work dealing with malnutrition in Balochistan.

In 2008, MSF began working in the eastern districts of Jaffarbad and Naseerabad in Balochistan, supporting primarily nutrition programmes for children under five years in the District Headquarter Hospital in Dera Murad Jamali, with a network of ATFC mobile clinics and outreach sites.

Qambar Chakar: A Man and a Myth

by: Baloch Students Action Committee, BUITEMS

Birth of a Leader

In Shahi Tump, a far-flung town of Balochistan in Kech (Turbat) district, the house of Chakar Baloch was overflowed with merriness and gleaming lights over the birth of the first son, Qambar. The boy was to become an inspriational leader for the Baloch people soon after entering his teen ages. One day, some ill-fated soldiers of darkness would walk, take this light away to the shadow of torture and death. His was a story of celebrations in unison. When he was born, the whole family, even the entire town cheered up with uncontrollable delight. When he was killed, the whole of Balochistan wept. His was a song of happiness and a melancholy.

Is the Islamic State Now in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province?

How the Middle Eastern terrorist group found a home in Pakistan’s restive province.

By Shah Meer Baloch

Pakistan has been a hotbed of Islamic militants for years. Over 45 known terrorist and extremist organizations have sprung up or split off since the 1980s.  The government, however, has continued to deny that the Islamic State (ISIS) is present in the country. Speaking in London last year, then-Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif said “even a shadow of ISIS would not be allowed.” Senior officials in both Karachi and Punjab province have admitted, however, that their forces had carried out raids against ISIS militants.

Now it seems that the government is admitting to the presence of ISIS after the military says it thwarted planned ISIS attacks on foreign embassies and the Islamabad airport, according to military spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa.

A Baloch activist’s puzzling disappearance

Maikan mostly stays silent. The 13-year-old girl often refuses to eat; neither does she want to go to school. She wakes up in the night, goes to the roof of her house and sits there all by herself, says her elder sister Hani.

A few months ago, Maikan was as chirpy and giggly as most girls in her age group. She changed after her father, Abdul Wahid Baloch, went missing on July 26, 2016.

Balochistan; 300 people abducted, 122 extra judicially killed By Pak Forces In September, 2016: BHRO

BALOCHISTAN: Baloch Human Rights Organization released its monthly report about human rights violation in Balochistan which says that in the month of September 300 people were abducted by State Forces and went missing while 122 people were killed in Balochistan. Among the killed ones 20 mutilated bodies were found who were already in the custody of forces and were abducted from different areas of Balochistan. The report further added that forces are targeting innocent civilians without any discrimination.

Human rights are being violated on daily basis during operations in far fledged areas of Balochistan which are beyond the reach of media. Media is failed to play its role to bring forward the whole situation in front of common people.

Women, kids being targeted to discourage Baloch resistance, say activists

IANS | Sep 28, 2016 | Balochistan : Rattled by growing resistance across its restive Balochistan province, the Pakistan Army has intensified its crackdown in recent weeks, especially targeting women and children, and leaving several dead and many missing, say Baloch activists.

According to well informed local sources, the death toll and abduction cases are over 43 and 185, respectively, as of September 27. About 30 of the dead are women and children, activists in Balochistan told IANS in phone conversations, email exchanges and via video conferencing.

Baloch Prisoner Discloses Tortures Endured In Iran Prisons And Calls For Justice

NCRI – According to reports, Ajab Gol Nour Zehi, a Baluch prisoner and resident of Iranshahr in Sistan & Baluchistan province, in a report revealed a part of horrific and medieval tortures imposed on him by the government agents in prisons.

He writes in part of his report:

“They ruthlessly subjected me to beating with cables on the head and face and back such that after nearly one and half years the signs of the flogging with cables can be seen on my body.