Posts by AliTalpur:

Afghanistan — Peace and Security

May 25th, 2016

By Mir Muhammad Ali Talpur.

Writing about Afghanistan is difficult even for those who are there and are in touch with the people on all sides of the divide. The real analysts of Afghanistan are never foolhardy and keep their views and idea before people with caution and trepidation because Afghanistan has been in a flux since at least last four decades. The power there has changed hands often and mostly violently so the division, discord and disaffection is not only acute but is also pernicious and virulent. You cannot expect love and compassion where flames of hate have been fanned long and vigorously by so many who did not have love for Afghan people in their heart or peace there in their interest. Afghanistan has been a victim of not only its geography but also of its history; interests of overbearing powers and their factotums have simply compounded the misery of the Afghan people.

I know not much about Afghanistan and do not claim to be knowledgeable about the political and military situation there and all that I know is by reading writers like Abubakar Siddique Sahib and Mohammad Taqi Sahib. What I have is a spiritual affinity and love for the people and land because I spent 13 years of my life as a guest, along with thousands of other Baloch mostly Marris, of Afghan people from 1978 to 1991.

These years were the most turbulent and momentous years of Afghanistan’s history as they changed the course of Afghanistan nay of the world permanently. I went to Afghanistan in June 1978, walking from Dulai to Shorawak in four days and this was soon after the Saur Revolution of April 1978. The first three years I spent in the camp in mountains of Apo Tangi in Zabul Wilayat (province) and the other ten just outside Lashkargah in the ruins of ‘Qilla Kuhna’ near the airport which was then the largest camp of the Soviet Army in Helmand.

Though I hardly ventured away from the camps we lived in because I looked after the medical and educational needs of the people. However, I happened to be in Kabul at times for which many would have willingly given an arm and leg for. I was in Kabul on the 27th of December 1979 the day Hazeezullah Amin was ousted and witnessed from afar the fighting that raged at the Interior ministry and the radio station as we lived in old Mikroyan in Block 10 in apartments 26 and forty. I had to spend my birthday on 31stDecember in the district jail Kabul because over enthusiastic party cadres refused to believe that we were guests of the people and not ‘Ashrars’ as they termed us. I was on the outskirts of Kabul on the 29th of February 1980 when the people of Kabul expressed their resentment at the Soviet involvement. I suppose hardly anyone will have seen till now the number of flares that were dropped over Kabul that night to lighten up the places where people were protesting. We entered the city the next morning where pall of smoke hung heavy and the gunpowder smell was pungent. A Sindhi friend felt so insecure in the hotel he was in, he came to stay with us.

I am not gregarious by nature and moreover, I have never had an inclination to meet people in power and if ever have met it was either for the courtesy sake or accompanying someone. I met Hafeezullah Amin before he grabbed power, I met Dr. Najeebullah a couple of times when he was minister of security and once after he became President. I met Asadullah Sarwari, he was chief of Khad, at Darul Aman Palace after Babrak Karmal became the President. Aziz Asaas and Umar Rawand were our neighbours in Mikroyan. My meeting with officials was infrequent also because I was mostly at camp and there Mahmood Baryalay brother of Babrak Karmal and Aslam Watanjar visited once.

We the Baloch guests of Afghan people were well looked after by our Afghan hosts despite the difficult situation they were in because of the aggression by US, Pakistan, Europe and Arab states. We got a monthly stipend and flour etc which were delivered at the camp and occasionally household things were provided too. The life certainly not easy more so at Apo Tangi; while in Lashkargah people did odd jobs there or traded goats and sheep.

Our people were targeted by the so-called Mujahideens and quite a few Baloch travelling on buses were picked up and killed, our vehicles were ambushed, rockets were fired upon on our camps, shepherds tending flocks were attacked. While we were at Apo Tangi we were surrounded by the Mujahideens and as trucks could not bring the flour, it had to be brought by helicopters. It was after this blockade that we were shifted to Lashkargah in trucks provided by the government. Though the Baloch were never involved in any action against the Mujahideens but they considered us enemies and this was not something random. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had created the Afghan cell in 1974-75 with the express purpose of countering the Afghan help to Baloch. The initial flame of Afghan fire of death and destruction was lit then and today that conflagration is seemingly beyond anyone’s control. Despite US efforts, the progress towards peace and security has been slow and sketchy.

In spite of my stay there and my spiritual affinity to Afghanistan and Afghan people I think I do not really qualify to write about Afghanistan but am writing at insistence of some Afghan friends and hope that what I will make some sense.

Without peace in Afghanistan there will be no peace in the region and world; this chaos and turmoil is the outcome of the world powers and their stooges thinking that they know what is best for the Afghan people. Had the world left the Saur Revolution alone the world would have been a different place with no Osama bin Ladens and possibly no war on terror but it was not to be. Pakistan had already started nurturing the Islamists with vengeance to deploy them against Afghan government. The USA wanting to get even for its humiliation in Vietnam began a fire that now it has been trying for more than a decade to extinguish. The Arabs wanted their brand of Islam to triumph over everything and poured in money and men not knowing that eventually the chickens will come home to roost; the Islamic State genesis dates from that period. Both the West and the Arab states are today reaping the seeds they sowed then. “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind”.

Living opposite the airfield and the Soviet army camp we got to see a lot of action in form of Katyusha rockets being fired, MIG fighter planes in action across the Helmand River. A few times there came innumerable helicopter gunships and transport helicopters for offensive in Marjah, Nad-e-Ali, Sangin and other places. I regret not having a camera with a good lens then to take pictures. The point is that in spite of such major operations the Soviet army failed. Force alone has never won a victory.

Peace in Afghanistan will not come as a result of use of military power because this power like in the 70s and 80s is being countered by those who have interest in destabilizing peace and the irony of it all is that now the USA is facing a situation that it had desired and created for Soviet Union, but at cost of Afghan people. Pakistan like then is now too against peace in Afghanistan then it was for dollars and countering the Afghan support for Baloch and now it is for their warped policy of ‘strategic depth’ and countering the Indian influence in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan fate, because of warped interests of regional and international players, has been left for others to decide and expecting the foxes to tend the chicken coop is positively dangerous and has been lethal for Afghan people. This simply means that unless the Afghan people decide to unite and start looking after their own interests as their primary concern and priority there will never be peace in Afghanistan. This, however, doesn’t mean that there should be unity and peace at all cost. For Afghanistan to bring about peace and with it prosperity for the people the regressive forces will have to be countered under whatever garb they may present themselves. They always make peace overtures to gain time and regroup.

The myth that the opposition to the progressive Afghan governments since the Saur Revolution is to resists foreign intervention due to their love of motherland and Afghan people. This doesn’t really hold water for if a foreign intervention was a detestable thing why was US, Pakistani, Arab help taken in the 70s and 80s and why now is the Pakistani and Arab involvement welcome. It is not the love for land but is the serving of interests be they political, economic or religious of those who purport to be friends. Compromising with these will never bring peace in Afghanistan; forces of regression cannot be expected to ever stand up for the progress of people.

Force as I said above has never been a reason of victory anywhere so expecting that USA’s military help will solve the problem it was instrumental in creating in first place is futile but this also doesn’t mean that US should leave Afghanistan; they should be there to help solve the problem they created. Leaving Afghanistan to its fate at this juncture will only endanger world peace and stability even more as Pakistan and Arab rulers want their political and religious influence to guide the destiny of Afghan people.

All Afghans who love Afghanistan and have a stake in it will have to unite not only to physically resist the forces of regression but also strive to create an ethos and an environment in which forces of progress and peace can flourish and gain strength. The battle for Afghanistan will eventually be won or lost on this front and not on the military front. To ensure that this battle and the military battle is won decisively it is essential for the Afghans and the world to realize that unless the clout that Pakistan and Arab rulers have is neutralized there will never be peace in Afghanistan.

Afghan people deserve peace after relentless chaos, turmoil, travails, death, destruction, displacement, agony, anguish, sorrow, woe and tragedy inflicted upon them since 1978 by the USA, Pakistan, Soviet Union for their own interests under plea of helping Afghans, the Arab rulers in name of Islam and those Afghans who served all enemies of Afghan people ostentatiously in name of patriotism. However this peace is not only the responsibility of Afghan people it also is duty of all people across the world who love this planet and the humanity that inhabits it. This duty also entails an unrelenting effort to weaken and eventually destroy the forces of regression by marginalizing them socially, economically, politically and of course militarily. I wish victory, peace and harmony for the Afghan people and also all those who are resisting neo-colonialism and oppression all over the world.

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Gwadar conundrum

March 22nd, 2016

By Mir M. Ali Talpur.

Militarising Gwadar and imposing apartheid-like measures is not something random but is part of a systematic policy to ensure that the Baloch are thoroughly disenfranchised in every way

Gwadar seems to be an exceptionally strong magnet attracting so many different forces towards it. China seems to have the most affinity and fascination for it. It is a new contender to superpower status and does not let an opportunity go by to spread its footprint however it can. Here it has found a willing accomplice in the form of the Pakistani establishment that also aspires to become at least a regional power. They think that Gwadar has all the characteristics that will help them further their respective goals. The common trait of these two is their abhorrence of diversity and greed for profits and land. China, despite its large landmass, is busy reclaiming land in the South China Sea in disputed areas and is building runways for possible military use on the Spratly Islands; Obama recently warned the country over this reclamation. For China, Gwadar is a Godsend as it is getting it all simply by investing. Yes, investing $ 46 billion to reap profits. This is not the mind-boggling sum it is shown to be because Exxon Oil company’s profits in 2008 alone were $ 46 billion.
Apart from easy trade routes and accessible corridors for its energy needs, China needs bases to protect these vital installations and routes, and it will not trust others to shoulder that responsibility. Gwadar is one such strategic point for China and it matters not to them how much Baloch blood is shed or of what magnitude Baloch suffering is. Having found a willing ally here, it is certainly not going to relinquish any such opportunity for altruistic reasons alone. China is bent upon making the highest profits possible and it has threatened the government that it will quit the cherished China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) if the tariff rates for its solar project are cut.
Gwadar airport has long been seen as a venue for a military and air force base. If this were not the case why disregard normal procedure when the 6,600 acres for the new Gwadar airport were being purchased? It was the Military Estates Officer (MEO) in Quetta instead of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that bought the land for Rs.1.05 billion. Any land acquired by the Military Lands and Cantonments (MLC) makes it the property of the Pakistan Army and this fact alone thoroughly exposes the claims that Gwadar is an exclusively commercial project. Moreover, in a January 26, 2007 Senate debate, Senator Raza Rabbani — then a dove probably — said that the airport in Gwadar was a “civil-military” airbase and that was why the MLC had acquired thousands of acres of land. Interestingly, also in this report, Senator Dr Abdul Malik (the present Balochistan chief minister) told the house that the government had purchased 150,000 acres of land through the MLC for Gwadar airport and not all people had been paid. There was uproar over the price paid as well: Pakistan Railways paid Rs 55,000 per acre while the MLC paid Rs 157,000 per acre.
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport Atlanta has been the world’s busiest airport since 1998 and attracts more travellers than any other airport in the world with 96,178,899 passengers passing through in 2014. It also manages more aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings) than any other airport in the world with 881,933 in 2014 and is built only on 4,700 acres. Gwadar airport is twice the size of London’s Heathrow (2,965 acres) where a plane lands or takes off every 46 seconds at peak time, handling 73,408,442 passengers and 472,817 aircraft movements in 2014. This oversized place is obviously required for objectives other than what is publicised. China needs a base and needs it pronto; it has to compete with US bases to make its mark as the new kid on the superpower block and the Pakistani government has allocated Rs 26 billion for the purpose.
Militarising Gwadar and imposing apartheid-like measures of residence passes for the residents of Gwadar is not something random but is part of a systematic policy to ensure that the Baloch are thoroughly disenfranchised in every way and are pushed into a corner from which they find themselves unable to resist whatever indignities and injustices are heaped upon them. This viciously inhuman policy stems not only from the desire of fulfilling their economic and strategic requirements but also from visceral vindictiveness aimed at punishing the Baloch for their resistance to the Pakistani establishment’s aim of exploiting Balochistan’s resources and utilising its 347,190 km² landmass for purposes that would deprive the Baloch but benefit their chosen ones as has been seen with natural gas, copper, gold and onyx.
The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) visited Pakistan in September 2013 but was accorded minimum of cooperation. This group visited Sri Lanka recently, inspected a former illegal prison complex in the island’s northeast during its visit, and urged Sri Lanka to speed up probes into suspected secret detention centres. Since the CPEC signing, the number of missing persons has jumped. The WGEID should also probe secret prisons, which are black holes here in which thousands of Baloch have disappeared. The impunity and the scale with which disappearances have continued in Balochistan verges on genocide and the UN body should be allowed unhindered access to these black holes to see for itself the plight of the missing Baloch.
This vindictive repression and systematic disenfranchisement of the Baloch is being helped and spurred on by disunity among the Baloch. The parable of the trees and axe is apt here. The trees complained that the axe was committing atrocities against them and something must be done to stop axe-perpetrated excesses. They were told if it were not for those of them that became the axe’s handle, the axe would be pretty much harmless. The festering and malignant disunity among the Baloch on every level is certainly not helping the Baloch in any way and is on the contrary spurring the establishment on. The latter realises how this destructive and noxious disunity weakens all Baloch, and encourages it towards more harsh and unjust measures in order to weaken them beyond recovery point. The responsibility for salvaging and protecting Baloch rights lies squarely on the shoulders of those who claim to be leaders. Without unity there is danger that the Baloch struggle for rights will become a forgotten chapter.

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Desolating pestilence

August 3rd, 2015

By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur.

Desolating pestilence takes heart from the fact that the majority here refuses to see its real face under different excuses to console themselves for not supporting what is just and right

Cecil, the popular lion who lived in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, was killed in early July. He was lured out of the park and wounded with a crossbow by a US dentist, Walter James Palmer, assisted by a hunter, Theo Bronkhorst, and a local farmer, Honest Trymore Ndlovu, from Minnesota. He was finally killed by Palmer after 40 hours of tracking. Palmer spent around $ 50,000 to kill him. When the news broke the world was up in arms and a petition to Zimbabwean President Mugabe demanding punishment for Palmer collected more than 164,500 signatures within hours. Sadly, here even when people are killed no one stirs.

The reaction in the developed world at this outrage cannot be said to be out of proportion as people there often protest against injustices. They protested against the Iraq War in February 2003 and millions marched underlining their opposition to it though these protests were overlooked by those who were benefitting materially.

Pakistan is accused of killing and dumping Baloch political activists and is now trying to solve the problems in Sindh with the same tactics that alienated the Baloch people. On June 4, 2015, Dahir Dahesar, aka Raja Dahir, 40, the son of 80-year-old Mr Ata Mohammad Bhambhro, a prominent writer and historian of Sindh with 40 books to his credit, was abducted from Bachal Bhambhro village, district Khairpur. The abductors came in more than 50 vehicles. Mr Bhambhro reported the illegal arrest but the police refused to register it. Then, addressing a press conference, he said that his son was, of course, a political worker but not a terrorist.

Raja Dahir was a professional geologist with a Master’s degree from Mehran University of Technology and was also the joint secretary of the Sindhi nationalist party, Jeay Sindh Muthaida Mahaz (JSMM). He had been very supportive of the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons Long March led by Mama Abdul Qadeer when it traversed Sindh on foot towards Islamabad. The JSSM is now the target of a brutal crackdown by the Pakistani establishment and 40 of its members have turned up dead following their illegal detention.

Comrade Hussain Bakhsh Thebo, the veteran Sindhi nationalist, called for a protest against this illegal abduction outside the Karachi Press Club on June 26. A month later, on July 26, Raja Dahir was no longer missing as his body with two bullets in his skull had been found near Nooriabad; his fingerprints, sent to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) by police, disclosed his identity. Justice is no longer part of governance by the establishment. They commit these murders because they get away with it.

Raja Dahir is not the first and with the impunity that the establishment enjoys he will not be the last. Shaheed Sirai Qurban Khuhawar, who was senior vice chairman of JSMM and demanded Sindh’s rights, was killed. He remained undeterred by the frequent threats he received for raising his voice against injustices and the plundering of resources of the Sindhi nation. On April 21, 2011, he, with three party members, Shaheed Rooplo Cholyani, Noorullah Tunio and Nadar Bugti, were going to Hyderabad to attend corner meetings in various cities of Sindh for the death anniversary programme of renowned Sindhi nationalist Saien G M Syed.

A double cabin white vehicle kept tailing them and when they reached Bakhori Mori in Khipro, another car suddenly blocked theirs and armed men fired at them. Then they put some chemicals over the car and Sirai Qurban Khuhawar with Rooplo Cholyani and Nadar Bugti were burnt alive in the car. Miraculously, Noorullah Tunio was extracted alive by the villagers who had witnessed the tragedy unfold; he died after recording his statement to the police.

Muzaffar Bhutto, the JSMM’s secretary general, went missing on February 25, 2011. His wife, Saima Bhutto, appealed to the international community and human rights organisations for his recovery and petitioned the Sindh High Court requesting his freedom from illegal custody, without any result. Then, on May 22, 2012, her 42-year-old husband’s corpse was dumped near Hyderabad. The central leader of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM), Maqsood Ahmed Qureshi, brother of the late former JSQM chairman, Bashir Khan Qureshi, along with party man Salman Wadho suffered the fate of Sirai Qurban Khuhawar near Nausharo Feroz on March 21, 2014. They had gone missing a day before and on that fateful day villagers saw their car engulfed in fire; both had been shot.

The state’s brutality against those who do not subscribe to their worldview and the fabricated ideology that those residing within the geographical confines of Pakistan are a nation stems from the insecurity that the establishment feels as it fears that defiance of their official ideology by people will endanger their power, which they assume is a gift from Allah. They ignorantly believe that they are the chosen ones of the earth and they try to defend their power by using the foulest of means. Percy Bysshe Shelley said, “Power, like a desolating pestilence, pollutes whate’er it touches.” The power that is a bane for people is indeed a “desolating pestilence”.

This desolating pestilence takes heart from the fact that the majority here refuses to see its real face under different excuses to console themselves for not supporting what is just and right or indulging in things hat have nothing to do with the living and life. The day I was going to attend the protest called by Thebo Sahib on the highway I saw plenty of buses loaded to the top with people carrying thousands to ‘lahoot’ for the yearly Shah Noorani pilgrimage while sadly there were very few people at the protest.

I have seen devotees going for Qalandar’s Urs and Shah Bhitai’s Urs. They come in droves with families, even infants, undertake the hardships of the journey and stay at shrines quite willingly; they pay homage to the respected dead but are oblivious to the problems of the living. As long as people here will live for the dead at the cost of the living, the desolating pestilence that affects all will remain invincible and lethal.

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Pacifying Balochistan

June 29th, 2015

By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur.

Anti-Baloch rhetoric, unbridled repression and the culture of impunity naturally create concern and misgivings in the minds of the Baloch.

Pacification of ‘terrorist-riddled’ Balochistan with the Sri Lankan strategy of brutal repression of Tamils is underway and terrible times await the already traumatised Baloch people who have been under constant attack in this fifth round of hostilities since independence. However, this strategy too will surely fail as have all previous attempts to subdue the Baloch because now alienation and resistance due to repression among the Baloch people is more intense than ever before.

Seemingly, the more investors promise to help reap Balochistan’s resources and the higher the expected profits, the plans and actions of the establishment against the Baloch people become more brutal. In a piece titled ‘Drone warfare in Balochistan’, one Muhammad Ali Ehsan has not only suggested an all out use of drone warfare against the Baloch but has come up with more sinister suggestions on how to eliminate them to make it safer for Chinese and other investors even if safety comes at the price of doing away with the five percent of our population on the 44 percent land mass of Balochistan. The establishment’s supporters want measures regardless of human cost to ensure that Balochistan remains their 44 percent.

Ehsan is angry that as yet drones have not been used in Balochistan because, according to him, “Boots on the ground in Balochistan are like ‘drops of water in an empty bucket’.” He accuses the Baloch of “showing genocidal tendencies and carrying out bulk murder on religious and ethnic lines”. He conveniently forgets that it is the Hazaras, Zikris and Hindus who are targeted by the groups formed and protected by Pakistan, having nothing to do with the Baloch who are demanding their rights. Any killings by the Baloch on ethnic grounds deserve no sympathy and I condemn them.

He then asks: “The big question is: where is our indigenously developed armed drone ‘Burraq’, and its laser guided missile, ‘Barq’?” he goes on to say: “Why have we failed so far to operationally deploy it in the terrorist-riddled, vast expanse in Balochistan? If we infest the Balochistan skies with regular reconnaissance and armed drone missions, would it then be easy for the terrorists to move about in the mountainous region undetected and unpunished? If we have the technology why are we not putting it to use? Even if we are not ready to deploy them in large numbers, why don’t we consider buying the Chinese armed drone — the CH-3 — which is armed with two laser guided missiles?” Ironically, US drone use is always lambasted but its use against the Baloch seems kosher.

But this is not the only thing that this gentleman wants to employ for the elimination of the Baloch in ‘terrorist-riddled’ Balochistan. He advises: “Take the example of India, which has allegedly imposed on us the broad proxy war that we fight in Balochistan. In the 1980s and 1990s, when the Indian state of Punjab was engulfed by an insurgency similar to ours, they raised a volunteer force. They organised a ‘village defence scheme’ comprising 1,100 village committees and 40,000 volunteer men. This force was integrated into the state’s counterinsurgency strategy. Trained and armed the volunteers in this defence scheme would carry out routine patrolling and turn over any suspects that were found to the law enforcement agencies. Balochistan today also deserves an ‘informal security system’. It is only through coordination between this informal and formal security system that the vulnerable communities in Balochistan can safeguard and defend themselves.”

He is demanding the formation of a Baloch version of al Shams and al Badr used in Bangladesh in 1971 to commit similar genocide in Balochistan. He wants an “informal security system that calls for security for the people and by the people”, which can be read as the killing of the Baloch through the Baloch. He forgets that the likes of Shafique Mengal are already doing this dirty job; the Tutak mass graves were the handiwork of these death squads.

These calls for drones, informal security systems and more brutal operations are aimed at the persecution of the Baloch people so that this 44 percent real estate is rid of the people and its resources exploited without resistance. Investors like China demand a safe environment that can only be obtained by brutal measures like those used for the pacification of the Tamils by Sri Lanka. The ensuing terrible human cost is a minor inconvenience for the perpetrators because a culture of impunity prevails now as it did in 1971. This anti-Baloch rhetoric, unbridled repression and the culture of impunity naturally create concern and misgivings in the minds of the Baloch who fully understand the consequences of this lethal cocktail of the establishment’s brute power and its obsession with resources and real estate at the cost of the local people.

Gregory H Stanton, the president of Genocide Watch, lists 10 stages of genocide as classification, symbolisation, discrimination, dehumanisation, organisation, polarisation, preparation, persecution, extermination and denial. He adds: “The process is not linear. Stages may occur simultaneously. But all stages continue to operate throughout the process.” This is what is happening in Balochistan and the world needs to wake up to it before it is too late. The ground reality is different from the military and political leaders’ oft-repeated mantra of brotherhood and goodwill for the Baloch. Those who wrongly assume that genocide is an event will dispute my reasoning but those who understand that genocide is a process will surely be concerned.

The clamour for the harshest actions against the Baloch for being a hurdle to the development of Pakistan is laying the ground for intensification of all the 10 stages of genocide, which already are subtly in action in varying severity. People need to understand this and support Baloch rights for I believe the Baloch will eventually survive this brutal repression as did the Bengalis and they will be left to rue the fact that they did not stand up for justice when great injustices were being done. All those who claim to stand up for justice will have to decide if they oppose or support this brutal pacification in Balochistan.

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“When crimes become invisible”: On the Mass Graves of Khuzdar, Balochistan

May 12th, 2015

By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur.

(Story still holds relevance)

A mass grave was discovered in Tootak, Khuzdar on the 25th January by a shepherd after which the locals converged there to recover bodies. The number of the bodies found, which the middle class government representatives are at pains to limit to 13, while reports filtering out put the number at around 150 and more. Even a Supreme Court (SC) judge said the number is 25. The numbers aside what this supposedly representative government fails to understand is that even a single body is one too many but then this government like that of the previous one is more concerned about surviving rather than serving the people.

According to Gregory H. Stanton, the President of Genocide Watch genocide consists of eight stages which are Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination and Denial. This process in Balochistan may not have been as blatant as that of the Nazi Germany or as it was overt in Rwanda but it is subtly in progress with lot of political trappings to cover it up. Two genocidal processes are going on simultaneously in Balochistan one which targets Baloch and the other which targets Hazaras and Shia.

The Baloch are systematically being marginalized to make their suppression easier and the illegal exploitation of their resources justifiable. The Hazaras, as my friend Dr. Mohammad Taqi Sahib in his piece, ‘Balochistan bleeding’ (Daily Times 30th January) has rightly said are being ‘ghettoized’. The threat of use of force is ghettoizing them while Baloch being the majority cannot be physically ghettoized in the same manner are being politically and economically ghettoized by Pakistan so that eventually they can be physically ghettoized. Instrumental in this process is the Dr. Malik government in the same manner that Raisani government was before it and their mentor and master the army and Frontier Corps (FC).

The use of force against Baloch is also being systematically and ruthlessly employed and the proof of it is the thousands missing and more than eight hundred of them killed and dumped apart from the fake encounter killings which also are of the same magnitude. This is being done to terrorize the Baloch population into submission and acceptance of their relegation to second class subjects of state who would then have to acquiesce to whatever is meted out to them and whatever political and material crumbs are thrown their way.

The Baloch have not meekly accepted this as their destiny and inevitable fate. They have resisted it tooth and nail since 27th March 1948 and this has been their salvation and helped them maintain their Baloch identity and also thwarted the complete domination that Pakistan desires and strives for. Had not the Baloch resisted force with force Balochistan would have been swamped by other ethnic groups and monopolized and owned by multi-nations and Gulf state rulers. The Baloch have paid a heavy price to maintain their identity and dignity and the mass graves of Tootak, which certainly are few of the many that exist, and all the missing and killed are a proof of and reminder of that. The Baloch haven’t hesitated to pay the price which history exacts of those who want to live with dignity and pride.

Nearly two hundred thousand Bugtis were displaced from Dear Bugti and adjoining areas in 2005 when the army under Musharraf unleashed a vicious operation against them to ensure that they would be obeyed unquestioningly and resulted in death of Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006. The impact of this exodus of such a large number of Bugtis can be understood when we realize that this number amounts to an overwhelming majority of Bugtis living in their ancestral lands. These Bugtis who like any other people anywhere in world would like to live in the place they know and is theirs but they have been kept away from their ancestral lands because their loyalty is suspect in eyes of army and FC whose writ is ultimate there.

Shahzain Bugti, a grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, always at pains to prove his loyalty to Pakistan was promised passage to Dera Bugti with many of the long displaced Bugtis on orders of SC and assurances of the puppets in Quetta but they were denied entry by the FC which wants certain conditions of assurances of loyalty to be met before they would allow anyone to return. The displaced Bugtis are being denied their inalienable right to live in their ancestral land by force and this injustice doesn’t even stir those who claim to be nationalists and are the government there. Dr. Malik and his government, if this cringing, groveling and pathetic band of persons can be given this respectable designation of government, are so indebted to their mentors-the army and FC- that they cannot utter a word which may jeopardize their lucrative positions.

To return back to the mass graves of Tootak one has to mention the gems which the Sarfaraz Bugti who holds the mock title of interior minister in Balochistan. In an interview to BBC Urdu while denying involvement of his mentors in this horrendous crime tried to shift on the blame to RAW and Baloch Sarmachars. He forgot that the very pusillanimous SC, which in spite of a hundred hearings on the issue of missing persons has not been even able to charge let alone prosecute a single person for the missing or killed, has quite candidly blamed FC and intelligence agencies for the missing persons and the ‘kill and dump’ policy. But Dr. Malik and his pathetic band can see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil of those they are indebted to for what they are and where they are today. Even a hundred mass graves, there may be even more, are going to move them or prick their conscience enough to at least speak the truth if not resign.

The Voice of Baloch Missing Persons’ Long March led by the redoubtable Mama Qadeer with his equally intrepid Banuks (ladies in Balochi) and Warnas (young men in Balochi) has become even more poignant and momentous with the discovery of the mass graves. The participants’ resolve is strengthened even more with this gruesome discovery. Their march is an entirely new chapter of Baloch struggle for their rights and the injustices against them. They have earned the thanks and love of Baloch nation the hard way. These brave souls deserve unreserved thanks and gratitude of the Baloch Nation. One can only stand in awe in front of these dedicated Baloch who have set new bench marks of not only patience and endurance but also of innovation of political struggle. They protested against the mass graves at Multan Press Club on Thursday to highlight the issue of the atrocities and ‘dirty war’ that is being waged against the Baloch. Their protest is unique and has made millions of people aware of the injustices. A million speeches and articles could have achieved what their historic march has. They have so far walked nearly 1700 kilometres and are still 730 kms away from Islamabad.

The injustices against Baloch do not seem to register in minds of people and Pakistani media. They are listless and apathetic towards the crimes against humanity being perpetrated against Baloch and of late against Hazaras. Could this apathy be because of what as Bertolt Brecht says that, ‘When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible.” Most likely people become inured to injustices against others especially if the persecuted are stigmatized for religion as Hazaras are or for political aims as the Baloch are. To further show the apathy and the reason I will end my piece with Bertolt Brecht’s quote from his Selected Poems:

“The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror.
Then a hundred were butchered.
But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread.
When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out “stop!”
When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible.
When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard.
The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.”

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