Aug 23: Mir Gohar Khan Zarakzai

Human Rights Violations In Balochistan: The Historical Context

Dr Naseer Dashti

During the last seven decades, the Pakistani state committed massacres and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan as a policy matter. Since 2002, these actions have increased exponentially. With the help of their auxiliary militias, death squads and religious outfits, military and civil intelligence agencies are involved in forced disappearances and illegal detentions of Baloch intellectuals, social personalities, and political activists in thousands. Dumping bodies of thousands of Baloch social and political activists with visible marks of inhuman torture has become a routine matter in Balochistan. The verified numbers of extrajudicially killed and missing persons during the last 17 years exceed 15 thousand. Nearly half a million people have been internally displaced. Thousands have fled and sought refuge in various countries, including the UK.

Why is all this happening in Balochistan?

11th August 1947 and Balochistan

BNM organised an intellectual talk on the occasion of the 11th August, the day when Balochistan got freedom from The Great Britain. Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur veteran Baloch activist and intellectual shed light on the historical details of 11 August 1947. Below is the text of his draft.

Dear and Respected Friends,

The date 11th August 1947 has immense significance for the Baloch Nation and Balochistan and has been the landmark for Baloch history particularly their present-day history. The acceptance of Kalat State’s (Balochistan) Independence by the British colonizers and the leaders of yet to come into being Pakistan on August 4th under the “Standstill Agreement” led to the 11th August declaration of Independence. The British not known for honouring treaties had accepted its 1876 Treaty obligations with Kalat State to render it a special place among the then Princely States and thus agreed to accord Kalat State independence along with India and Pakistan.

Tribal system to be strengthened

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

A headline in a national daily with the byline of Ghalani (Mohmand Agency) April 23, left me wondering what had prompted such a radical shift in the government’s avowed policy of ‘no compromise’. The headline said: “Tribal system in Fata to be strengthened.” Interestingly the headline itself was within quotation marks. The news item below said, “The traditional tribal system in Federally Administered Tribal Areas is being strengthened and the status of Maliks is being restored.”

The NWFP governor, Khalilur Rahman, who was on a visit to Mohmand Agency, had said these words. The news item further read: “The governor said development was linked to peace and maintenance of peace (and was) dependent on strengthening the tribal system.” This statement is certainly a very interesting development because they seem to be making different ‘social’ experiments in different regions in hope of solving the numerous problems they themselves have created by their shortsightedness and arrogance.

The Gulf of Kohlu incident

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

On August 4th 1964 two US destroyers in the Vietnamese waters in the Gulf of Tonkin claimed that they had been attacked by the North Vietnamese gunboats. This alleged attack had never taken place but a furore was created over this and used as an excuse to begin the bombing of North Vietnam. This was the time when slowly US forces were starting to sink in the morass of their own aggression against the Vietnamese people whom they accused of being Communists. The people of Vietnam only wanted their rightful sovereignty which the US was bent upon denying them. What eventually happened to the aggressor is history.

Incidents like these have been staged and at times State managed all through history to use as excuses for aggression and violation of human rights .In the last analysis the aggressor doesn’t really need this fig leaf for its brazen aggression. The aggressor always uses the logic of the wolf of the famous fable about the lamb and wolf ,in which the wolf alleges misdemeanours but is rebutted every time eventually comes out with the stark intent of eating the lamb come what may. 

The real challenge in Balochistan

Sardar Ataullah Mengal was wrong in saying that only Akbar Bugti could speak for Sui. Every Baloch has a right in this respect equal to Akbar Bugti. Abandoning this principle will amount to replacing one set of autocrats with another

The recent events in Sui are a manifestation of what afflicts the country’s ruling classes. They are also an expression of a people’s outrage at the rulers’ arrogance and their utter disregard of their rights. The people were outraged not only at the rape of a female doctor who had agreed to serve in the wilderness but also at the continued rape of their rights and resources since the very inception of Pakistan. They indicate what the future is going to be like if the rulers persist in their belief that overwhelming firepower is the panacea for all their problems.

The BLA is certainly not a figment of some fertile imagination. This is apparent from the scale of its activity. Since 2003, 1,529 rockets have been fired and 113 bombs exploded in Balochistan. Despite Baloch leaders’ reluctance to directly answer questions about its existence and the government’s attempt to minimise its significance, it cannot be wished away. Theories about its sponsors abound. The oddest one suggests that it is being helped by the USA which is not happy with China’s role in Balochistan. Fingers have also been pointed at Iran. But does not Iran oppress its own Baloch population? One thing is certain: there are people out there determined enough and having adequate resources to sustain the attacks. The BLA’s activities may not be an adequate expression of the deep and pervasive popular resentment but they are an expression nonetheless.

A page from the Past

In keeping with the Pakistani tradition of camouflaging history a vital chunk of the country’s past has been shrouded in mystery for over 20 years. This was the period of 1973-1977, when the Baloch rose in revolt against a state that had relentlessly oppressed them for decades and military operations against the Baloch people were at their peak.

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

As Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Arbab Jahanzeb, the corps commander of Sindh and Balochistan during the rebellion and subsequently MLA, Sindh during Zia’s martial law himself recently conceded, the army “responded forcefully” to the perceived threat from the Baloch struggle.

While this may be a huge understatement, it is nonetheless demonstrative of the fact that there is at least some acknowledgment by the military brass of what happened in those years. There also other signs of a desire to hearken to that era.

Recently, the respected veteran Baloch leader, Sardar Sherbaz Mazari mentioned the individuals who went missing in those days. Similarly, the redoubtable Ardeshir Cowasjee, in a recent column in Dawn, referred to those involved in the Baloch struggle whose fate remains unknown to this day. Among those mentioned are Asadullah Mengal, Ahmad Shah Kurd and Dulip/Johnny Dass alias Dali.

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

We are happy to announce good news to the fans of Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur and our readers that every Sunday we will publish an article of Waja Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur. His last article published in Pakistan’s so-called mainstream media was “Gwadar conundrum” which was published on 21 Nov 2015 in Daily Times. It is fortunate for us that all his articles are preserved in his official app “Ustad Talpur” from which we will select an article datewise starting from his bio which is published in it.  

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur was born to Mir Ali Ahmed Talpur in Hyderabad on the 31st of December 1945 in the city of Hyderabad at their ancestral place. The Talpur family of Hyderabad ruled Sindh from 1783 to February 17th 1843 when they lost it to Britain after the Battle of Miani where more than 6000 Baloch lost their lives defending Sindh. It wouldn’t be out of place to mention that Talpurs came to Sindh around 1670 from Bhurgra which is in Dera Ghazi Khan which though illegally made part of Punjab in 1952 was Balochistan and is still considered as such by Baloch. The Talpur though having stayed for around 350 years haven’t lost touch with their Baloch ancestry and Mir Mohammad Ali grew up hearing his father say that ‘I am first a Baloch and only then a Muslim’.

Aug 23: Mir Gohar Khan Zarakzai

11th August 1947 and Balochistan

BNM organised an intellectual talk on the occasion of the 11th August, the day when Balochistan got freedom from The Great Britain. Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur veteran Baloch activist and intellectual shed light on the historical details of 11 August 1947. Below is the text of his draft.

Dear and Respected Friends,

The date 11th August 1947 has immense significance for the Baloch Nation and Balochistan and has been the landmark for Baloch history particularly their present-day history. The acceptance of Kalat State’s (Balochistan) Independence by the British colonizers and the leaders of yet to come into being Pakistan on August 4th under the “Standstill Agreement” led to the 11th August declaration of Independence. The British not known for honouring treaties had accepted its 1876 Treaty obligations with Kalat State to render it a special place among the then Princely States and thus agreed to accord Kalat State independence along with India and Pakistan.