Tarek Fatah: A Friend Of Baloch Passed Away

Tarek Fatah, Canada-based columnist, writer, and human rights defender passed away peacefully today in Toronto Canada.

According to family sources, he was ill for a long time and was hospitalized, he died today (24 April 2023) morning at St. Michael’s Hospital, Canada.

Fatah was born on 20 November 1949, in Karachi, Pakistan into a Punjabi Muslim family which had migrated from Bombay to Karachi following the Partition of India in 1947. Fatah graduated with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Karachi but entered into journalism as a reporter for the Karachi Sun in 1970, before becoming an investigative journalist for Pakistan Television. He was a leftist student leader in the 1960s and 1970s and was imprisoned twice by military regimes. In 1977, he was charged with sedition and barred from journalism by the Zia-ul-Haq regime.

Toronto Protest Rally Highlights Pakistani Atrocities, Forced Disappearances

Sindhi, Baloch & Pashtun Activists Criticize Islamabad on Human Rights & Floods

Toronto, September 17, 2022: Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada, World Sindhi Congress, and Pashtun Council of Canada jointly hosted a protest rally held at Nathan Philips Square, Toronto, as part of an awareness campaign on Pakistani state atrocities, cultural genocide, and enforced disappearances of civilians in Sindh, Balochistan, and Pakhtunkhwa.

Speakers strongly criticized Islamabad’s policies of deliberately drowning Sindh, Balochistan, and Pakhtunkhwa in floods caused by the monsoon rains and climate change. A large number of rights activists from various walks of life attended the protest rally and expressed their thoughts on the dismal state of human rights in Pakistan.

Baloch Canadians Observe March 27 Black Day

 Pakistan Military Invaded Independent Balochistan in 1948

Toronto, March 25: Baloch National Movement – North America’s call to observe March 27 as black day was attended by Pakhtuns, Sindhis, Kurds and enlightened elements of the Canadian society at a Toronto meeting. Sovereign Balochistan was invaded and occupied by the Pakistani military in 1948. The public gathering was attended by people from all walks of life sharing democratic values and respect for freedoms and rights.

Mr. Tarek Fatah, guest of honour at the event spoke on the importance of understanding the history and the evil nature of the state of Pakistan. In his speech, Mr. Fatah described the events at Dacca University on March 25, 1971 when Pakistan Army soldiers massacred more than 200 students and teachers at the university dorms and hung their bodies from the poles and trees.

70th anniversary of Pakistani occupation of Balochistan observed in Canada

Toronto: A group of Baloch political and student activists in Canada gathered at Fairview Library in Toronto to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Pakistan’s occupation of the land of the Baloch people.

The event organized by Baloch National Movement (BNM) was supported by Sindhi, Pashtun, Kashmiri, Kurd and other human rights activists.

Baloch Nationalists Speak on Human Rights Violations in Balochistan, at the UNHRC

GENEVA, September 28, 2016 /PRNewswire: An event was held on September 26, 2016, during the ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, to highlight the human rights atrocities in Balochistan, especially the kill and dump policy of the Pakistan army. Among the prominent people who participated in this event, were prominent Baloch nationalists Brahumdagh Bugti and Mehran Marri, and Executive Director of the Balochistan House, Tarek Fatah.

ISIS rears its head in Balochistan

The reported nexus between the Pakistan army and the Islamic radicals has come full circle. The tail is now wagging the dog.

By Tarek Fatah, Toronto Sun

Nearly 100 people died Monday in an attack by Islamic State (ISIS) on a hospital in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Balochistan, the size of France, is a strategic territory at the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz that can effectively choke off all oil traffic to and from the Persian Gulf.

European Parliament Hosts Event on Pakistan’s Baluchistan

STRASBOURG, France, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire: Baluchistan House, in partnership with Members of the European Parliament, hosted an event in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the topic of “Pakistan’s Baluchistan: Its Human Rights Abuses”.

The conference was attended by MEPs, European Commission officials, Representatives from Think Tanks, European Parliament Staff and Baluch diaspora.

UNPO Conference in Washington Discusses Balochistan Conflict

The UNPO conference was aimed at discussing the conflict in Balochistan, analyzing its impact on the state of human rights, press freedom and the way forward.

By Malik Siraj Akbar

WASHINGTON DC: The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) organized a one-day conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Tuesday to discuss the conflict in Balochistan, analyze its impact on the state of human rights, press freedom and the way forward.

Senator Paul Strauss of Washington D.C. welcomed the conference participants to the U.S. capital and applauded UNPO for organizing the event. He noted that Washington D.C. was also a UNPO member because it still does not still enjoy the status of a full state in the U.S.

Pakistan’s forgotten war in Balochistan

And why I participated in burning its flag

By Tarek Fatah, Toronto Sun

Last Saturday, I woke up to a phone call from a refugee who recently escaped death in Pakistan and now lives in Toronto.

Skipping the usual pleasantries, his voice quivering with anger, Lateef Johar told me:

“They’ve killed Dr. Manan and his son.”

“They”, being the Pakistan army that has occupied Balochistan since it invaded the independent state of Kalat in March, 1948.

Baloch Canadians Burn the Pakistani Flag

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Protest the Political Assassination of Dr. Mannan Baloch by Pakistan Army

Toronto, Jan 31, 2016: Battling the sub-zero cold, a significant number of Baloch Canadians took part in a downtown Toronto rally to vent their anger at the Pakistani civil and military establishment for the cold-blooded murder of Dr. Mannan Baloch, Secretary General, Baloch National Movement (BNM) in Balochistan.

Dr. Baloch, his three colleagues and a nephew were murdered in execution style by Pakistan Army’s Special Forces in the early hours of Saturday, January 30^th in the restive Balochistan region where the army is currently engaged in a bloody campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population.