Balochistan: Taking Cognizance
By Mir
Mohammad Ali Talpur
12/2/12
Surely
Balochistan is not going to become independent due to Congressional committee
meetings. The only positive outcome of this meeting for the Baloch is that it
has highlighted their plight and this may encourage other western countries to
pay more attention to the human rights abuses in Balochistan
Sadiq
Umrani, President PPP Balochistan, while condemning the cowardly murder of
Brahamdagh Bugti’s sister and niece in Karachi by the intelligence agencies on
the Balochistan Assembly floor made a shocking disclosure that he and two other
ministers, Yunus Mullazai and Zafar Zehri, in November 2011 saw Frontier Corps
(FC) personnel holding two blindfolded and handcuffed men at the roadside on a
highway near Mangochar. He said that the FC men gunned them down and their
bodies were found from the area the next day. Equally shocking is Umrani’s four
month silence on the incident.
This
shocking disclosure like all other known atrocities against the Baloch has
fallen on deaf ears and gone unnoticed. Atrocities against the Baloch have come
to be accepted as a normal state of affairs by all and even the inhumanly
gruesome murder of Brahamdagh’s sister and niece has evoked minimal response
from civil society or the media.
Murdering
women to settle scores is the lowest ebb that establishments can reach and it
has been reached here. Banok Zamur Bugti was not Brahamdagh Bugti’s sister
alone — she is a sister of all honourable and conscientious Baloch. It is an
outrage and a wound which all the Baloch will forever remember.
A national
daily reported that these murders were a message for Brahamdagh Bugti to desist
from resisting Pakistan. Apparently the establishment overlooked the fact that
the message they gave by killing his grandfather Sardar Akbar Bugti went
unheeded, so why would he heed these chilling murders and give up resistance
now.
The state
and its representatives forget that it was they who initiated the hostilities
against the peaceful Baloch and the Baloch are exercising their right to defend
themselves and to secure their rights. Ironically, Baloch resistance to
atrocities and injustices is considered a crime while state atrocities are
deemed legal.
Interior
Minister Rehman Malik in the National Assembly said the government had taken
cognizance of the killings of Bakhtiar Khan Domki’s family. He was in turn
castigated by the assembly members for his remarks relating these killings to
those of the FC personnel killed in the recent attacks. Incidentally, the Domki
family killings followed and also prompted attacks on FC personnel in
Balochistan by militant groups. After the killings of the FC personnel in
Margat area, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) spokesperson stated these were in
retaliation for the killings of the Baloch ladies.
The Baloch
understand how utterly worthless and meaningless Rehman Malik’s cognizance
taking is but interestingly someone else too has taken cognizance of the
situation in Balochistan. Yes, the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs took
cognizance and convened a Congressional hearing for an exclusive discussion on
Balochistan.
Amid the
deteriorating mutual relationship between Pakistan and the US, this is an
important development. This powerful House of Representatives Committee
oversees the US’s foreign assistance programmes and experts believe it can
jeopardise US assistance to Pakistan over human rights violations in
Balochistan and this worries Pakistan no end. It follows the US State
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s expression of concern over human
rights abuses in Balochistan on January 15. The world is slowly waking to the
atrocities in Balochistan.
Republican
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who recently co-authored an article with
Congressman Louie Gohmert expressing support for an independent Balochistan,
chaired the hearing. In his piece he had written: “Perhaps we should even
consider support for a Balochistan carved out of Pakistan to diminish radical
power there (in Pakistan).”
At the
Committee meeting in his opening remarks, Mr Rohrabacher said that Balochistan
is a turbulent land marred by human rights violations “by regimes that are
against US values”. He outlined the history of Pakistan’s creation, and
highlighted Balochistan’s grievances vis-à-vis natural resources, and said that
the province’s wealth was being taken by the dominant Punjabi elite.
Ali Dayan
Hasan, the Pakistan director for Human Rights Watch (HRW), in his submitted
remarks, said that the cases documented by the HRW show that Pakistan’s
security forces and its intelligence agencies were involved in the enforced
disappearance of ethnic Baloch. He termed the military’s role in the province
as brutal, and an occupying one.
In his
testimony, analyst Ralph Peters, who had in his June 2006 article ‘Blood
borders: How a better Middle East would look’ published a map of free
Balochistan, called Pakistan a supporter of terrorism. In his submitted
testimony, Amnesty International’s Advocacy Director T Kumar called on the US
to “apply the Leahy Amendment without waivers to all Pakistani military units
in Balochistan”. The Leahy law prohibits US military assistance to foreign
military units that violate human rights with impunity.
Dr M
Hosseinbor, a Baloch lawyer and witness at the hearing, quoting Baloch sources
said that nearly 4,000 people have disappeared in the province since 2001. In
his submitted remarks, he called on the US to support an independent
Balochistan “in case Pakistan or Iran or both collapsed from within”.
This
meeting has naturally evoked an adverse reaction here from the Foreign Office
and the Senate where it was condemned as ‘direct intervention’. The senators
across the divide consider the meeting as an affront for Pakistan’s sovereignty
and have expressed anger. It just goes to show how misplaced their priorities
are, as there is hardly a squeak from them when atrocities are committed
against the Baloch but if someone highlights the atrocities, it is resented.
Surely
Balochistan is not going to become independent due to Congressional committee
meetings. The only positive outcome of this meeting for the Baloch is that it
has highlighted their plight and this may encourage other western countries to
pay more attention to the human rights abuses in Balochistan. Balochistan is
slowly emerging on the world scene not only because of the state atrocities but
also due to valiant and relentless Baloch resistance.
This
meeting is also fraught with adverse consequences for the Baloch; some people
in the world would not hesitate to cut off their nose to spite their face. The
Pakistani establishment falls into this pathetic category and I fear that just
to show to the US that it does not care for what its committees say or do, it
will increase the atrocities and human rights abuses against the Baloch.
It really
does not matter if the US or Rehman Malik take cognizance of the abuses in
Balochistan; what really matters is that the Baloch have taken cognizance of
the injustices against them and have decided to resist the same with all
resources and energies that they can muster and this is what will eventually
tilt the balance in their favour.
The writer
has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early
1970s. He can be contacted atmmatalpur@gmail.com
Source: The Daily Times, Lahore
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