‘Political revolt is our right’

KARACHI: When there is extreme oppression, discrimination and human rights violations, the reaction to that also becomes extreme, said the self-exiled central leader of the Balochistan National Party Sanaullah Baloch via a video conferencing system from Geneva, Switzerland, while explaining the cause of insurgent movements in Balochistan to an audience at The Second Floor (T2F).

Mr Baloch and Mir Sohaib Mengal, the London-based Baloch Students Organisation-Azad central executive committee member who is studying accountancy there, joined the informal talk, which was a second session of the Balochistan discussion series, on Thursday evening.

Author and journalist Mohammad Hanif moderated the session.

Sehrish awaits justice – Sohaib Mengal

No one knows the definition of anguish, pain, melancholy and torture better than Sehrish Baloch. Sehrish, a student of 18 years old, lost almost every one of her family through unnatural deaths within a short span of few years. Her father died in his forties due to a cardiac arrest. A year or so later her mother and elder sister had a car accident near Bolan. Her sister died on the spot and her mother was critically injured. She fought a week for her life before dying on a hospital bed in Quetta.

With worst socio-economic indicators in Balochistan, Sehrish still doesn’t hold the state responsible for the death of her father, mother and sister. She still doesn’t think that if there were a hospital in her hometown, better road structure in Bolan or better facilities in Quetta hospital, her father, sister and mother would have been saved.

The killings and the promises by Mir Sohaib Mengal

The media and the judiciary keep concentrating on non-issues but turn a blind eye to brutalities and human rights violations by state-run agencies

Prime Minister Gilani, on his recent visit to Quetta, asked the militants to shun violence and urged them to choose the path of peace. He was addressing the passing out parade of the recruits of Pakistan Army in Balochistan.

It seems that Mr Gilani was unaware of what his men in uniform and plain clothes were doing in Khuzdar, Gwadar and other parts of Balochistan while he was enjoying dry-fruits in the garrison city of Quetta on his short visit. In a very short span of three days, nine mutilated bodies of Baloch missing persons were found from different parts of Balochistan.