Two Baloch students abducted by Pakistani intelligence agencies

Quetta Junior Joint Secretary of B.S.O. Azaad, Mr. Shafi Baloch has been abducted by Pakistan’s secret agencies while he was on his way back after attending a public gathering at Balochistan Medical College, in Shaal (Quetta). According to BSO- azaad’s official website http://www.sagaar.org/ On 7 November Shafi Baloch was first apprehended by the Pakistani police and taken to Barori road police station and then shifted to an undisclosed location. He was kept in the police station for 5 hours and then handed over to the Pakistani army. Shafi Baloch’s abduction provoked and disappointed the Baloch youth and his family but it comes as no surprise to anyone.

Shafi Baloch is just another name that has been added to the list of already thousands of missing Baloch students, political activists and ordinary Baloch. The Sagaar statement further reads: “B.M.C. has recently seen the brutal thrashing of the female students of medical sciences by Pakistan army where another incident of kidnapping has taken place by Pakistan army. The witnesses of the incident stated that Shafi Baloch was immensely beaten at the spot by the officers of the said police station which resulted in injuries to him, later on the Police even denied the incident and said that they didn’t know anything about it”.

It has become a trend of Pakistan’s police and the criminal army that they deny the abduction of Baloch activists after snatching them from Universities, colleges, and public places.

No one either in judiciary, provincial government or from the federal government dares to question the notorious criminal general for abducting Baloch students. The Pakistani media also ignores the atrocities against the Baloch people that their own army is committing, thus becoming a partner in crimes of the intelligence agencies.

Pakistan has stepped up the abductions of Baloch youth and killing them in cold blood while in detention. Several top Baloch political leaders have already been murdered while in custody and the relatives of the missing person fear that the rest of the missing person either have already been murdered or they might be murdered if the International Human Rights organisation and the UN do not take timely action and pressurise Pakistan to surface the missing Baloch activists.

Mr. Hai Bezinjo Baloch, a resident of Mashkay and a student of social works at Balochistan University has been abducted today (11-09-2009) by Pakistan army. Hai Baloch, also a member of B.S.O. Azaad, was taken off a bus in Shaal(Quetta) by Pakistan army personals and was thrashed in front of all passengers, he was blind folded and taken away to an unknown location.

Students in Balochistan are facing difficult conditions where the universities and colleges are turned into army garrisons by Pakistan and each day has its own stories of humiliation, torture, forced disappearances and killing of innocent Baloch students.

The Senior Vice President of B.S.O. Azaad, Zakir Majeed is also among the thousands of Baloch missing people who are facing dire consequences for raising their voice against the oppression of Pakistan army and the occupation of their motherland.

Zakir Majeed Baloch is also one of the members of Baloch Watan Dost committee which was constituted to secure the safe release of UNHCR head in Balochistan Mr Jhon Solecki and missing Baloch people.

It is worth reminding that another member of Baloch Watan Dost committee Shaheed Ghulam Mohammad Baloch was abducted by Pakistani intelligence agencies from Turbat Town along with his two companions in broad-day-light and they were later killed in custody. Zakir Majeed Baloch has twice been detained in past and release after sever torture, similarly Shaheed Ghulam Baloch and Sher Mohammed Baloch had been detained and had been tortured before their cold-blooded murder on 8th April 2009. Mr Zakir Majeed Baloch’s family members expressed fear that Zakir Majeed Baloch might suffer the same fate as Ghulam Mohammad Baloch and his friends. International Human Rights Organisations and the UN must take notice of Mr Zakir Majeed’s arrest and pressurise Pakistan’s government for his safe release.

More on Zakir Majeed: http://www.balochwarna.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1937

Councilor appeals for brother’s recovery

Councillor of Oryani area in Kohlu Mr.Kamal Marri has said that his brother Sohrab Khan Marri has been abducted from Agha Khan Hotel in Quetta. Mr Sohrab Khan Marri who has no affiliations with any political parties had come to Quetta to find out about a job.

According to his brother he had given an interview for a job in live stock department and had come to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan to get further information about the job interview. He has been taken away by plain clothed officials, apparently from the Intelligence agencies of Pakistan.

Mr Kamal Khan said that even though the Chief Minister of Balochistan Mr Raisani talks to improving the situation in Balochistan but innocent people like his brother are being abducted on daily basis and the government has failed to help them. “How can the situations get better when poor people are being abducted regularly by the security forces for crime they did not commit”, asked Mr Kamal Marri. He appealed from the Balochistan government to play their role and make sure of his brother safe recovery and early release.

BalochWarna

AHRC: Balochistan Situation Heating Up

(4 November 2009) Press Release: Asian Human Rights Commission

The situation in Balochistan is grave and demands for independence are growing stronger.

A Statement from Awami Jamhoori Ittehad and Insani Huqooq Ittehad forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

A situation akin to 1971 is brewing in Balochistan. Radical nationalists advocating a separate state of Balochistan are steadily gaining popularity at the expense of those who continue to look for a solution within the federal framework.

The reasons for this surge in separatism are quite apparent. The people of Balochistan have a long list of grievances, and next to none have been addressed over the last 60 years. Instead of negotiations and redressing the wrongs, successive Pakistani governments have resorted to brute force in the form of five military operations starting as early as 1948.

In fact, Balochistan continues to be ruled as a colony, its resources benefiting the federal government and dominant provinces. Grueling poverty and deprivation defines much of the province. 88% of the population of Balochistan is under the poverty line. Balochistan has the lowest literacy rate, the lowest school enrollment ratio, the lowest educational attainment index, and the lowest health index relative to the other provinces. 78% of the population has no access to electricity, and 79% has no access to natural gas.

The 1973 constitution provided for complete provincial autonomy within ten years. To date, this remains a meaningless promise on paper.

Scoop:AHRC:Balochistan Situation Heating Up

Media of Pakistan-Propaganda against Baloch

Balochistan, a state which is occupied by Pakistan & Iran is under another operation. Balochistan for 62 years is being looted and the people of Balochistan have been under severe human rights violation, and still for these 62 years the international human rights champions, the international media, UNO & EU have never raised there concern over the violation that have claimed many innocent Baloch lives. It is not because that the international community doesn’t want to, UNO & EU now days pay a good attention to many poverty ridden and occupied nation, But Pakistan is a country which for 62 years was under controlled by the Pakistani army. The dictatorship has never let any stone unturned; the media, the civilian population have been kept in dark whenever there was violation going on inside Balochistan. From the regime of Ayub Khan to the dictatorship of Parvez Musharaf the stage was set for propagating the agenda of Pakistan army. As another war broke inside occupied Balochistan, The state machinery such as Media, Political parties, committees & Packages were used to suppress the ongoing freedom movement of Balochistan and to further keep the Baloch as there slave nation.

Today media plays a great part whether it is used for getting information or to misguide people from the truth. As the whole world knows today what’s happening inside Balochistan but the Pakistani media is hiding every truth and the crimes which are going on inside Balochistan, Human rights violation is on its verge inside Balochistan where every day Baloch youth are being abducted or are being tortured in Qulli Camp [Guantanamo Bay of Balochistan], Even the situation has went up that the political leadership of Balochistan who are demanding total freedom of Balochistan are being abducted, brutally tortured and are being murdered cold bloodedly, There martyred bodies dumped in the hills of Balochistan but the media of Pakistan is busy directing the attention of uninformed people to Taliban or to show the Baloch struggle as insurgency or terrorism, which is a proof that the Media of Pakistan is just a machinery of state being used to misguide people and to hide the crimes of Pakistani army. It has been 7 months since the killing of political leadership of Balochistan Likewise BNM Chairman Martyr Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, BNM Vice Chairman Martyr Lala Muneer Baloch & BRP General Secretary Martyr Sher Mohammad Baloch, but no proof of the killer is given. The local people are witness of this heinous killing and they have the proof that who abducted these 3 leaders from the office of their Lawyer Mister Kachkol Ali Advocate. Even Mr. Kachkol Ali Advocate have given information about the abduction and have also launched an FIR on the names of ISI Chief, MI Chief but no investigation was taken, first the police rejected to launch an FIR but after the pressure from the local people the FIR was taken but the ISI Chief or the MI Chief were never taken for questioning.

This was just an example or a proof of a heinous crime which are occurring inside Balochistan, The Pakistani media is not only informed but is very much busy to show that there is no freedom struggle inside Balochistan but a low level insurgency whom are trying to destabilized the Country and whom are working for foreign hands like India, America or Israel. One thing is clear that the Baloch has no hope over this media that it will ever show something which is satisfactory for the Baloch nation. An investigation was shown actually it was not an investigation but a staged drama from ISI in which Mubashir Luqman was the host and the criminal named Gazzo aged under 25 years old was being questioned about a suicide bomb which went off somewhere near Dera Bugti, Although local people have rejected that the house in which this suicide bombing took place is no where near Dera Bugti it must be Waziristan, but the host saying was that this house was used by Gazzo and his friend cum commander Jeevan for suicide bombing missions. According to the staged drama Gazzo and Jeevan were both working for Guerrilla Commander Brahamdagh Bugti and were brought here in Dera Bugti for suicide bombing on the military checkposts. The show even hosted that Gazzo was with Brahamdagh Bugti in Afghanistan all the time, he was there when Brahamdagh Bugti was receiving guests from Indian Agency, he also saw Brahamdagh, Hamid Karzai with many Indian Spy Officials who were there to support and to lend money to Brahamdagh.

One must think how stupid this show or staged drama was and who was the writer, director of this drama because it doesn’t make sense at all. How Gazzo a young man not even ranked commander can be with Brahamdagh Bugti all the time and how Indian Spy Officials can let Gazzo in there private meeting with Brahamdagh Bugti. Gazzo saw the Indian Agents lending money to Brahamdagh Bugti, The Indian Officials and Brahamdagh let Gazzo witness everything who is newly recruited and was there to be trained. According to the show Jeevan was the person who took Gazzo to meet Riaz another commander of Brahamdagh Bugti, Gazzo was trained and was sent back to Dera Bugti with Jeevan but they failed there mission because the bomb exploded in the house in which Gazzo and Jeevan were staying but by God Bless that both of them came out of the ruined house uninjured. But when the house was shown it was totally damaged the roof of the house collapsed and with seeing the destruction we could say that the bomb was much powerful but how Gazzo and Jeevan came out of it unharmed it’s a mystery.

According to the statement of Gazzo’s Father recorded by Gwank.org that Gazzo has never seen Afghanistan and he has never left Dera Bugti in his age and meeting Brahamdagh in Afghanistan is all a lie because Gazzo was abducted months before this show by the notorious ISI personals and the second character Jeevan who was said to be the mastermind that took Gazzo to Afghanistan is a school teacher according to Jeevan’s brother that he was also abducted along with Gazzo and both of these man have disappeared until there family member’s saw them in this show. Now how unfair Pakistani media is with the Baloch Nation that it’s being used by the army to propagate lies and hide the truth to safeguard the interest of State machinery, whom are involved in heinous crimes against humanity. Genocide is occurring in every part of Balochistan but the state media is propagating state policies trying to cover up the mass human rights violation, even the Nazi’s will be ashamed once they see the Pakistani army beating, torturing & murdering young Baloch whom are asking for their rights of freedom. The case of Zarina Marri when once came in the eyes of public it was shocking news that a Baloch woman’s honor is being ripped apart by the Pakistan army, But no action was taken into account and the state media didn’t even responded but when Mukthara mai was raped by the waderas in the ruler Punjab the whole state media became active which shows how Media and other state machinery deals with the Balochistan Issue.

Actually Balochistan is not an issue, it has never been an issue for Pakistan, as Balochistan was a free state even before Pakistan and was accepted as a sovereign state it was forcefully annexed and now it is being looted and plundered. From every place of Balochistan Pakistani establishment and bureaucrats are busy exploiting resources so to stable the damned economy of Pakistan which is actually not going to be that easy. Balochistan today has became highlighted and has been widely know has an occupied region which is why today Pakistan has thrown every card it has on the deck whether it be to crush the freedom struggle, Sabotage the peace, target innocent civilians, abduct political activist and leaders or to use the media has a tactic to misguide the Baloch people and to show the international powers that Balochistan is under insurgency and it has to be wiped up before Pakistan is disintegrated. In these 62 years Balochistan has been under war for 5 times and in these 5 times more than 60000 Baloch have gone missing or abducted, 30000 to 40000 Baloch have been killed for shouting independence, 250000 to 300000 Baloch have left their home and have taken refuge in Sindh or other parts of Pakistan, The living standard of Baloch inside Balochistan cannot be even called satisfactory because in 28 May 1998 Pakistan nuked Balochistan in the hills of Chagai which still today is under severe radiation from which not only the livestock are in danger but the local population is not covering up from the radiation which took place 10 years before and still has effected the region. Like the Government, the media of Pakistan has neglected Balochistan.

The massacre of the Bugti tribe on 28 March 2005 was indeed too much that it was also recorded by a patriot Baloch and it was also shown to the international public thanks to Baloch people living abroad but that recorded video was never broadcasted in any of the media channel in Pakistan. The Pakistani civilian leadership and even General Parvez Musharraf in there time of Presidency vowed to give freedom of speech and free media but these promises were not meant for Baloch. In Balochistan there is no freedom of speech as in the past couple of weeks many Balochistan print media personal have confessed that they were been threaten by the FC [Frontier Constabulary] and some of the journalist have been imprisoned for talking about the rights of Baloch. The electronic media, print media which belong to Balochistan and whom are working for the rights of Baloch or are the voice of Baloch have been sealed or were threaten not to disclose anything which will show the true face of Pakistani state. The electronic media of Balochistan which are Gwank.org, Balochvoice.org, Balochwarna.org and some of the blogs which are working for the rights of Baloch nation that is total independence have been banned from the view of general public, Sabzbaat Balochistan TV channel which broadcasted some crucial information about inhuman condition of Baloch refugees and to that it was banned, The cameraman of Sabzbaat Balochistan was abducted by the notorious ISI and was tortured. The print media Daily Azad, Asaap Publications & Daily Tawar are the famous newspaper media of Balochistan in which Daily Azad & Asaap are sealed and have stopped their publications because of everyday harassment of the staff of these 2 newspapers by the hands of FC [Frontier Constabulary] there publication were searched before printing by the FC personals, every person who came to visit were searched and were humiliated by the FC personals.

Now this kind of freedom of speech and free media is going on inside Balochistan where truth is being suffocated because of the fear that if the truth comes out the Pakistani state would be no more. Every day Pakistani media is busy to neutralize the situation in Balochistan by propagating lies from which misguided people are being brainwashed, the situation in Balochistan is tensed and every normal day becomes an Armageddon for Baloch nation. After many operations on innocent Baloch peoples, everyday abduction, killing, mass human rights violation, genocide and torturing, The civilian Government of PPP has given free amnesty to the peoples who were resisting & defending, What a shame that the Killers are giving amnesty to the oppressed who are just defending themselves, and even now Prime minister Mr. Yousuf Raza Gillani in his new speech has said that “It is time to give the due rights of Balochistan”, ‘Its Time’ In these 62 years Balochistan has been neglected, Baloch Nation faced genocide after genocide from every Government of Pakistan whether it be Civilian Leadership or Military Dictatorship, Baloch Nation suffered when ever it tried to resist the occupation of Pakistan and Iran. Every new Government of Pakistan feels guilty for the genocide and feel sorry for poverty ridden Baloch Nation and wants to change the situation by developing mega projects inside Balochistan to clear the poverty but development becomes just an excuse to start suppressing Baloch Nation more and to occupy the resources of Balochistan by starting another genocide and operation over the Baloch Nation.

Now-a-days news has been circulating that another committee or should I say Parliamentary committee is being made over Balochistan situation and the solution for the speeding insurgency [Resistance]. These kinds of committee’s are like Monsoon Weather, They comes, are discussed and are gone by the wind, because Balochistan main problem is it has been occupied, No committee or Package can clear this issue. The Parliamentary Committee comes whenever the Baloch start resisting the Occupying forces, these kinds of committee’s doesn’t include the main leaders of the Baloch movement because the resisting forces in Balochistan now doesn’t believe in the parliament of Pakistan even they don’t consider Pakistan as a country. Today the resisting forces alike BLA, BRA, BLUF & BLF from start have rejected any negotiations with Pakistan and even the leaders of Balochistan Freedom movement Martyr Nawab Shahbaz Akbar Khan Bugti, Nawab Khair Buksh Marri, Hyarbiar Marri & Brahamdagh Bugti have said in their statements that Baloch Nation will not negotiate less than freedom and to this the State Interior Advisor Mr. Rahman Malik replied that Balochistan will be granted with any wish accept Freedom. Now how could a parliamentary committee be a success if there is no negotiation going on? One more thing is that today majority of Baloch nation has rejected parliamentary politics and the politicians who are still trying their comeback inside the parliament of Pakistan have been rejected by majority of Baloch nation. In the early months of 2009 President Asif Ali Zardari visited Balochistan for solving the situation inside Balochistan for which he granted another committee under the leadership of Nawab Aslam Raisani in which problems and the solutions for it were discussed after which this committee was null invalid by the Baloch Nation and Nationalist parties inside Balochistan. After this committee was ended three Baloch nationalist were abducted and killed in which one Nationalist named Martyr Ghulam Mohammad Baloch who was the Chairman of BNM played a major role for the release of UNO Human Rights Activist John Solecki.

On 9 September President Asif Ali Zardari announced Provincial Package for Balochistan in which different aspect of Balochistan issue were stated and the method to resolve these issue were also announced. Balochistan package included many new development projects, NFC award quota increasing, Employment Quota, Gwadar port authority & Royalty for the gas utilizing. After the announcement of the Provincial Package was done it was never fulfilled. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani in his 26 September statement announced that on 5 October 2009 the Package will be showed in the Balochistan parliament and it would be publicized to other Political parties, But the package was never made public, and it was left behind like the other promises which were made by the previous Government and it was forgotten like a bad chapter.

As our topic is “Media of Pakistan? Propaganda against Baloch” which can be clearly seen that the Pakistani Media has started to campaign wrong information about the Balochistan issue. Today the Pakistani media is very keen to resolve the Balochistan issue through negotiations but actually they are negotiating with the wrong parties and political activists because the Main Leaders, whom majority of Baloch Nation support are never broadcasted or interviewed as to what are the demands of Baloch Nation because they know clearly that the answer would be Independence of Balochistan and end of Occupation, which will clearly show the downfall of the Pakistani Governmental institutions inside Balochistan, As so the result of the negotiation would be failure for the Pakistan. Today many Baloch political parties call themselves “Baloch Nationalist Party” like BNP (M), NP & BNP (A) but if we see the poll which is voted by majority of the Baloch Nation, These parties are boycotted by the Baloch Nation as being totally “Pakistan Nationalist Party”. These Parties now a days are being shown as the Baloch Nationalist Party in Pakistani media as to misguide the International Communities about the ongoing Freedom Movement inside Balochistan because these Parties whenever been given chances have talked about minor problems or issues of Balochistan like Provincial Autonomy, Royalty, NFC Quota & Gwadar port which are actually not the problems of Balochistan, The main reason to bring them in the frontline is to misguide the minds of people from the true face of the problem which is “Occupation of Balochistan” which is still not discussed on any forum because Pakistani media has blocked every path of Baloch Nation as it is propagating the wrong information which will clearly raise doubts in the minds of Baloch or Non-Baloch as to what the actual situation is inside Balochistan.

The Conclusion to this is to boycott Pakistani Media once and for all and to launch a self campaign to promote the Media of Balochistan or to promote those who accept that what’s happening inside Balochistan is against humanity and it’s against the International Laws and it has to be stopped. The last message to Baloch Nation is to stop Pakistani Media from approaching the mind of Common Baloch and to stop the propaganda it has started to crush the Freedom Struggle. Baloch Nation has to understand today that whatever is labeled Pakistani it’s going to be used against them so Baloch today has to stop and cut the roots which have been grown to dismember the Freedom Movement. Pakistani Media is a State weapon and it’s going to be used whether legally or illegally because “There is no fair game when your enemy is much more powerful than you”, Justice no longer is there in the Pakistani state books because Pakistan has for 62 years tried to crush and genocide the Baloch from the face of the earth.

This is an appeal to the International Communities, UNO, EU, Amnesty International, Asian Human Rights, and to all Freedom loving people that today Baloch and Balochistan are both on the verge of destruction and it has so far stopped the occupation of Balochistan by the Hands of Pakistan and Iran and it will do so in the future too but still the Baloch Nation appeals that whatever there is the Genocide of Baloch Nation should be stopped and Iran & Pakistan both State should be tried before the International Court of Justice for the killing of many innocent Baloch, and Balochistan should be granted as an Independent Country.

Sarmachar

Panel assembled for Baluch international moot

Shaheed Balaach Marri [left] with Baluch national hero Brahumdagh Bugti.

A number of international activists, scholars and human rights practitioners will be participating in the first-ever Baluchistan International Conference in Washington DC on Nov. 21-22.

The American Friends of Baluchistan, an organization that supports the independence movement, has organized the conference.

The conference has been organized to highlight the Baluch issues in Eastern and Western Baluchistan -- now under Pakistani and Iranian occupation -- and to pay tributes to slain Baluch freedom fighter Nawabzada Balaach Marri, 41, an elected member of the Baluchistan state assembly and son of legendary Baluch leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri.

Marri was killed extrajudicially by the Pakistan military on Nov. 20, 2007.

Baluch international activist Mehran Baluch, a brother of the slain leader, will preside over the two-day conference that is aimed to find ways and means to end the plight of the Baluch natives in Western and Eastern Baluchistan.

The panelists at the conference are:

Selig S. Harrison, Asia director at the Center for International Policy, has written extensively on ethnic tensions in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran , focusing on the Baluch nationalist struggle. His 1980 book In Afghanistan?s Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, remains the most authoritative analysis of the Baluch nationalist movement. He is the author of Pakistan: The State of the Union, recently published by the Center for International Policy, where he directs the Asia Program. In this study, he calls on the government of Pakistan to honor the autonomy provisions of the 1973 Constitution and withdraw its armed forces and intelligence agencies from Baluchistan .Harrison served for 22 years as a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and was South Asia and Northeast Asia Bureau Chief of The Washington Post.

His five books on Asia include India: The Most Dangerous Decades ( Princeton ) and The Widening Gulf: Asian Nationalism and American Policy (Free Press).

Annie Nocenti's writing has appeared in Details, Utne, HEEB, Stop Smiling, PRINT, The Independent, Filmmaker, Scenario, High Times, CounterPunch, Lies of Our Times, Chronogram and Prison Life. Her story The Most Expensive Road Trip in the World was published in the Best Travel Writing 2008, editor Anthony Bourdain. She has edited books for The Nation and Moveon.org. Her interviews with film directors have been published and anthologized. Her comics include Daredevil, Longshot, Typhoid Mary, and Spider-man. Nocenti made a film with Wendy Johnson called The Baluch http://blip.tv/file/1211472 and wrote a story about her trip to Baluchistan: http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/12/express/letter-from-baluchistan Nocenti currently teaches film in Haiti.

T. Kumar is the Advocacy Director for International Issues for Amnesty International USA. He has served as a human rights monitor in many Asian countries as well as in Bosnia, Haiti, Guatemala, and South Africa. He has also served as director of several refugee ships and refugee camps. Kumar often testifies before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and frequently lectures at the Foreign Service Institute. A former political prisoner in Sri Lanka for more than five years, he has been interviewed by CNN, BBC, and NPR. He is also a Professor at Washington College of Law's Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

Andrew Eiva was born of refugee parents who fled tyranny in Lithuania, and learned early on that resistance warfare could help his homeland Lithuania regain independence. His quest took him to West Point -- where U.S. generals are trained -- and the Green Berets. He is best known for his impact on policy and the selection of effective weapons systems during Afghanistan's struggle against Red Army occupation. Later in Lithuania, he led the volunteer pro-independence forces in a showdown with Soviet occupation forces. During the Serb ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, he lobbied for military support for the Bosnians and Kossovars. Currently, he is working on a concept for the Sudanese resistance to use their oil and gas reserves as a tool for unity and victory. Eiva thinks a similar approach could benefit the Baluch drive for independence.

Saghir A. Shaikh, Ph.D, is based in California . He is the former chairman of the World Sindhi Congress -- a Sindhi advocacy and educational organization with chapters in UK, USA.. Dr. Shaikh has been active in different social and political forums since he was five. He is one of the founding members of Sindhi Baloch Forum, G M Syed Memorrial Committee, Sojhro.Org (an education and career abroad web portal), and a life member of Sindhi Association of North America. Dr Shaikh speaks regularly at Seminar and Conferences highligting the Sindh and Balochistan struggle for National Self-determination.

Munir Mengal is the managing director of Baloch Voice based in Paris, France and hails from the remote Mashkay area in Awaran, Occupied Balochistan. He had planned to launch a Balochi and Brohi language Satellite TV channel called "Baloch Voice." But Pakistani intelligence agencies abducted him on April 4, 2006 and he was held incommunicado and faced worst torture in Pakistan military dungeon for 16 months. After being freed on 23 rd April 2008, he came to France with the help of and Reporters Sans Frontieres. He has attended two UNHCR council sessions and made speeches at events organized by the UNPO and Interfaith International.

Dr. Gul Agha is a well-known Computer Scientist and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Agha grew up in, and has traveled extensively throughout Sindh and all of South Asia. He has written numerous short essays about Sindh and has lectured at many Sindhi gatherings. He was the Guest of Honor ('Mukhi Mehman') at the Sindhi New Year (Cheti Chand) celebration organized by the Bharti Sindhu Sabha in Thane in 2000 (Mumbai, India). Dr. Agha is an outstanding speaker whose expertise and personal experience enables him to speak extensively on human rights and international and domestic politics pertaining to Sindh and Baluchistan.

Wendy Johnson is a co-producer of the seminal documentary The Baluch. She has a Master's degree in Languages and Literature of South Asia from the University of Minnesota. She has lived and traveled extensively in Pakistan and India while studying Urdu on the Berkeley Urdu Language Program in Lahore, Pakistan, on two occasions, and with the American Institute of Indian Studies program in Delhi, India. She also studied documentary film at the Anthropological Film Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wendy works as a graphic designer in New York. She and her husband Albert Larew manage thebaluch.com website.

Asad Rahman is program director at the Sungi Development Foundation. He had taken part in the Baluch resistance against the Pakistan military occupation of Baluchistan along with the Marri guerillas in 1973-77. He was the youngest but fittest in the popular London Group, when at the age of 21, he used to ambush the Pakistani military convoys and take away ammunition from them to sustain the Baluch liberation movement. An eyewitness to the "genocide" of the Baloch in the 70s, Rahman alias Chakar Khan, still an ardent supporter of an independent Baluchistan. He recalls Pakistan military butality saying Baloch women were used as 'comfort women' in military custody and male fighters were captured and thrown from the helicopters.

Ismail Ameeri attended high school in port city of Chahbahar and college in Zahedan in Western [Iranian occupied] Balochistan . After the 1979 Iranian mullah takeover, he went to Karachi and did his Master's in Political Science in from the University of Karachi in 1985. In Karachi he was actively involved in Baloch politics and Balochi literary forums and joined the Western Balochistan-based Balochistan National Movement. He is presently a member of the central and executive committees of the pro-independence party.A writer in Balochi language, he had been a co-editor of Monthly Taptan ( Balochi ). He regularly chairs and moderates Baloch gatherings in London.

Ali Arjemandi, was born in Kishkor, Sarbaz in western Balochistan in a farmer's family. He was forced to become a refugee and arrived in Norway in the beginning of 1987. He graduated in physiotherapy from the State Physiotherapy School in Oslo in 1995. At the age of 14, was captured and imprisoned for 48 hours of notorious Savak – th seceret service of the Shah of Iran, Reza Shah Pehlavi, was tortured and his leg was broken. He became a member of Baloch Raje Zrombesh from 1985. He is a brother of Ehsan Arjemandi, who was kidnapped by the Pakistani Military Intelligence on August and is still missing.

Aziz Baloch now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he represents the Baloch Human Rights Council. He is MA (Economics) from University of Balochistan and former zonal general secretary of the Baloch Students Organization [BSO], a student body engaged in securing the irghts of the Baloch people since 1967. He has associate degree in professional management and business technology management and served as lecture coordinator in the student program, inviting academics to speak on international topics. A volunteer interpreter/translator for Baloch community in Canada he is a also a seasonal writer -- his articles have been published in articlebase.com and other websites.

Humaira Rahman is a director of the World Sindhi Institute. A former practicing architect and lecturer, she is an environmental and human rights activist. She had laucnhed a highly successful non-profit against urban sprawl in her hometown of Karachi. Ms. Rahman belongs to a well-known family from Old Karachi, where her father and uncle were respected for their community service as educationists and jurists. Currently, she resides in Canada.

Dr. Nazir S. Bhatti has been campaigning for equal basic democratic rights of Christian people in Pakistan since 1985, he is president of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC www.pakistanchristiancongress.org He led numerous protests, hunger strikes, rallies and long marches with other leaders and members of PCC to condemn black and discriminatory laws in Pakistan. He was arrested many times.He contested the blasphemy law in Lahore High Court and Supreme Court of Pakistan and has challenged the Hadood Ordinance. He was forced to flee to U.S. safety after the government of Pakistan registered 21 false cases of treason and blasphemy against me on February 13 1998, in Karachi, for leading a protests against the burning of Christian village Shanti Nagar by radical Muslims in Punjab.

Meanwhile, American Friends of Baluchistan condemned Islamabad for putting one of the invitees to the conference, Prof. Naela Quadri of the Baloch Republican Party on the infamous exit control list. Prof. Quadri was recently offloaded from an aeroplane while she was travelling to Manila to attend a premier Asian Pacific NGO conference on conflict zones.

"We condemn the Inter Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence for their crimes against humanity in Baluchistan," two AFB leaders Rashid Baloch and Mailk Baloch said. "Those who conspire with them will face the popular wrath of the Baluch people," the two leaders warned.

Over the years, secular Baluchistan has been turned into a killing field by both Pakistan and Iran. The Baluch are engaged in a heroic David-and-Goliath struggle to regain their lost statehood.

A PROFILE IN COURAGE

Balaach Marri was born on January 17, 1966. He was the fourth among six sons of Nawab Khair Bux Marri. He was named after the great 15th century Baloch hero Balaach Gorgej of Chaker-e-Azam era. He started his primary education at Quetta Grammar School. He was only six in 1972 when the National Awami Party government was removed forcibly at the instigation of the military. The entire area around Nawab Khair Bux Marri's house in Quetta was surrounded by military and Balaach witnessed his father being arrested by the army. The seige of the house continued for many months after the arrest.

Nawab Khair Bux Marri was jailed for the next seven years for plotting to liberate Baluchistan and during this entire period, Balaach was able to see his father only a couple of times. Nawab Khair Bux was released in 1979 and went into self-exile in Afghanistan the following year with his family and thousands of Baloch people. Balaach continued and finished his secondary education in Afghanistan.

Balaach excelled in his studies. He was a keen student who really loved his school and studies. During this period Balaach started to learn and understand politics.

He attended study circles run by his father Nawab Khair Bux that included philosophy, history of Baloch people and Balochistan and about the possible options for political struggle and emancipation. The study circles and discussions also included the analysis of international situation.

At that time a lot was happening in Afghanistan, attracting many liberal activists and intellectuals from the surrounding countries. The study circles and the interactions that Balaach attended during this period had a deep mark on his understanding of Baloch issues.

He was also believed to be probably one of the closest to Nawab Khair Bux among his sons. Balaach interacted frequently with his father, whom he used to call Ada or "Elder Brother."

After finishing his secondary education in Afghanistan, Balaach moved to Moscow to finish his higher education in communication engineering. Again, he proved to be an excellent student. Balaach was very effective in interacting with people from many different countries with revolutionary ideas and enthusiasm to bring a change. He continued to maintain many of those relations that he established during this period.

Nawab Khair Bux Marri returned to Balochistan in 1992 and Balaach Marri returned in 1993 after completing his studies. He left Balochistan at the age of 14 as an adolescent and returned as a man of 27 years.

In 2000, the entire family of Nawab Marri was implicated in the murder of Justice Marri. Nawab Khair Bux was imprisoned. Balach incidentally was at that time in London. After the arest of his father, family and friends and family advised him to stay in London.

He immediately started work to raise awareness among the international community about the plight of the Baloch people. He worked tirelessly to inform international community about Baloch sufferings. He firmly believed in the combined struggle of Baloch and other oppressed nations. He was one of the founders and first secretary general of Sindhi Baloch Forum established in 2001. The purpose of this forum was to provide common platform to Baloch and Sindhi cause at the international stage. He participated in the 2002 elections in absentia and swept the polls.

In early Nov. 2003, he went back to Balochistan. During the oath-taking ceremony he refused to take oath in Urdu and insisted on taking oath in Balochi language. He did not say the words that he shall be loyal to Pakistan, but instead he said he will be loyal to his motherland, Balochistan.

Balaach was offered seats and to join PML-Q but he turned down all the offers. Soon he realised that the Pakistani agencies were after him and filing false cases against him, thus he moved to Kahan (his ancestral town) and never attended a session of the assembly again.

He started working to develop the backbone of the current Baloch resistance. One of his greatest achievements is that he resolved long-term feuds between Marri and Bugti tribes and assisted Nawab Akbar Bugti to lead the Baloch national cause. This demonstrates his visionary and statesmanlike capabilities. He organised the Baloch struggle not on tribal but Baloch national lines.

He raised the profile of the Baloch struggle to a new level within the international community and in Pakistan. The impact was so big that on many occasions coup leader and dictator General Pervez Mushraf explicitly said Balaach Marri has to be eliminated to keep Baluchistan under Pakistan's military thumb.

Friends and political activists who were close to him described him as a perfectionist as he wanted to bring perfection in Baloch struggle.
Zrombesh

Taj Mohammad Breseeg -Interview by Karlos Zurutuza

Taj Mohammad BreseegHistory Professor, University of Balochistan

Interview by Karlos Zurutuza

Nov 3, 2009

“The antagonisms between the clans have disappeared; today our people are united in the fight against the state.”

All those interested in the history of the Baloch people should read “Baloch Nationalism, its origin and development” (RBC, 2004)* by professor Taj Mohammad Breseeg. Born in Chabahar (West Baluchistan), today Dr. Breseeg teaches History at the University of Balochistan, Quetta (East Baluchistan), after several years of working at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. Both his life trajectory and his work in the field of research give him a unique perspective on his people. He shares a bit of it with us in the following interview.

What is the general situation in Tehran-controlled Balochistan? National minorities like the Kurds, the Turks, the Baluch...not only are not represented in the Persian state, but also suffer a constant assimilation by the Persian nationalism. Added to the terrible repression our people have to suffer, Iran has replaced the original Baloch toponymy and has also included historic Baluch areas within the border regions of Kerman and Khorasan. West Balochistan is the paradigm of brutal assimilation.

Can the situation be extrapolated to Pakistan? No doubt. Replace previous minorities by Sindhis, Pashtuns and Baluch, and you can also talk of a 'Punjabi nationalism.' However, the Baluch in Pakistan have a provincial government and some political recognition. In Iran, however, no Baluch party is legal. Apartheid in Iran is comparatively higher because Shiism is the only official religion.

What about North Balochistan?Afghan Baluch live mainly in the provinces of Helmand and Nimruz, two areas hard-hit by the war. Their first and main handicap is their low numbers. However, they have recognition in the Afghan Constitution: the Baluch have a regional language category and there is even a minister in the government, Karim Baloch.

The Baluch are not only divided by three states but also suffer the consequences of living in a distinctly tribal society. What are then the unitary traits of your people? We have a language and a common history in the region, as old as the Punjabi or the Persian. The tribal system is more powerful in Pakistan and is a direct manifestation in both local government and in the various armed organizations. Iran is a more prosperous, more developed state, therefore tribes have little real power in the Persian society. In any case, the antagonisms between the clans have disappeared, and today our people are united in the fight against the state.

The Baloch resistance movements are active on both sides of the border. However, they seem to have different agendas…All of them are fighting against a totalitarian state, call it Iran or Pakistan. However, there are big differences between the armed movements. The resistance in East Baluchistan is a secular and leftist movement which struggles for total independence of Baluchistan whereas in the west, the People's Liberation Army of Iran (formerly 'Jundallah') has a strong Sunni ideology and seeks greater degree of autonomy as well as recognition of national rights, but without breaking the rule of Iran.

Note: Prof. Taj Mohammad Breseeg is also the author of “Standarization of the Balochi language” (in farsi)

Karlos Zurutuza is a freelance correspondent and writes in Basque, Spanish and English. His work has been published in several newspapers and magazines.

The Baluch

The Baloch aspiration is for a free and independent Balochistan

By Abdullah Baloch –London, 3rd Nov. 09

The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) has published an article entitled “Destabilizing Baluchistan, Fracturing Pakistan” written by Mr Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya who is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization, specializing in Middle Eastern and Central Asian affairs, based in Ottawa.

Since this inaccurate article on Balochistan is published by a well respected institution, it needs a response in order to assist CRG for future paper publications on Balochistan.

The article reads: So, with a purposeful focus on Baluchistan, what is Sistan-Baluchistan and where is it? The Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan, which is located in southeastern Iran, is in fact the blending of two different bodies, one is Sistan and the other is Baluchistan. Both were separate historical entities and Iranian provinces until they were amalgamated into one in 1959 under the reign of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the last shah or monarch of Iran.

It is factually inaccurate that “Both were separate historical entities and Iranian provinces until they were amalgamated into one in 1959 under the reign of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the last shah or monarch of Iran.”

The fact is that Iran at no time had a province called Sistan.

Another deliberate misinformation on Sistan is that in ethnic terms the people of Sistan are not Persians as stated by the writer. Sistan has a mix population of Baloch in most rural areas and Persian speaking people mainly in urban areas. The indigenous people of Sistan are Baloch, and Persian speaking people were brought to Sistan by Nadir Shah Afshar following his invasion of India.

The term province Sistan & Balochistan is a manipulated term with political impacts. The prefix Sistan was added to province of Balochistan some years before fall of Pahlavi density. The contemporary example is the attachment of prefix Sistan to the University of Balochistan (Islamic republic of Iran changed it from Balochistan University to the Sistan & Balochistan University).

Therefore, it is a distortion of history to refer Sistan as a different area from Balochistan. In Balochi Ballads and folk music Sistan is referred similar to Sarhad or Makoran; a mere region of Balochistan. All the clans and tribes in Sistan are Baloch which is a socio-ethnic barometer that Sistan is an integral region of Balochistan.

The writer, Mr Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya attempted to substantiate his finding in relation to Sistan by giving the origin of Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. First of all migration has a very long history, and such conclusions are far from academic. For instance Jewish community in Iran migrated during Darius region, but they are not indigenous inhabitant of Iran. Likewise Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and other Persian speaking of Sistan are migrant inhabitants of Sistan (Baloch views indigenous inhabitant and migrant inhabitants of Sistan as equal).

For the origin of Baloch there is no clear cut consensus among scholars. Therefore, the migration of Baloch ancestors from Kerman or else is not established apart from some writings due to some authors’ inclinations to preferential histories of those regions. The writer’s finding that “The Baluchi moved eastward to most of present-day Baluchistan from the Iranian province of Kerman or Kermania (Germania) during the period of Seljuk rule in Iran” is historically wrong since no reader in history stated such a finding (apart from contemporary Iranian writers in history).

What is clear is that Baloch lived in Balochistan since the recorded history of mankind in that region can be traced. The writer at least can refer to Ferdosi’s Shahname in relation to Baloch and see some aspects of the history of 2000 years ago.

Balochistan prior to 1928 was not part of Iran, but an independent region ruled according to the traditions with regional chieftains. At some point of time all Balochistan from Minab to Karachi and to Shaal was under Khanate of Kalat.

Balochistan was divided between Qajar Dynasty, British Balochistan and Afghanistan from Kalat confederacy due to the Great Game by the British Empire to halt Russian advancement and access to warm waters of Balochistan as Baloch were considered to be weak to resist Russia on their own.

The Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization finds that “Baluchi separatism is not a factor in Iran, but it is a real force in Pakistan. The Baluchistan People’s Front, which from Britain claims to represent the Baluchi in Iran also has no real popular base and is propped up by British and American support, whereas the Baluchistan Nationalist Party has a popular base of support in Pakistan.”

It is another deliberate attempt by the writer to distort facts on Balochistan. In 1928 Mir Dost Mohd Khan Baranzai went to war with Iran and proclaimed himself Shah of Balochistan (Western Balochistan or it is identified by writer as Iranian Balochistan). He latter was captured and executed in Tehran. In 1970’s a political party, Jebhe Tahrir Azadi Balochistan (Balochistan Liberation Front) was formed and fought against Iran for an independent Balochistan. It is a fact that Baloch fight for independence in eastern part of Balochistan which also known by the writer as Pakistani Balochistan has far greater momentum than western part of Balochistan.

At the height of Pahlavi dynsty’s glory in 1971, Balochistan Raji Zrombesh was formed to defend Baloch people’s rights. On July 4th 2009 Balochistan Raji Zrombesh too opted for an independent Balochistan. The Baloch have been seeking restoration of their sovereignty since the occupation of their Mother land, Balochistan. The writer can refer to the Conference of Gwadar where Baloch Delegation unanimously resisted any annexation of Balochistan to Qajar Dynasty despite strong pressures from the British Empire.

The Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization made some efforts to portray Baloch question as misleading the World on Balochistan by some powers. He posed the question of “do the Baluchi as a whole have aspirations to create “Free Baluchistan” or their own state?

Then the Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization without any hesitation concludes: The answer has been given as no in regards to Iran, but a mixed yes when it comes to Baluchi feelings in Pakistan.

It is clear that the Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization has no knowledge of Balochistan's political struggles or he himself rather than others is misleading the World on Balochistan. As a matter of fact Baloch in western part of Balochistan when their sovereignty was taken away by Pahlavi of Iran, fought against Iran’s occupation. Eastern part of Balochistan as a whole remained independent, except the part which was ruled by the British Empire, until 1948. Baloch in eastern part of Balochistan fought 4 long wars against occupation of Pakistan to regain Balochistan Independence. The 5th war is being fought vigorously since 2003 with occupying forces of Pakistan. To state that Baloch have no aspirations to regain their sovereignty is a misleading notion. The Baloch fight for its rights and independence is not a new phenomena but a question with full momentum that free world no longer can afford to ignore.

Baloch are of the view that it is a long-due responsibility of the free world to express their explicit support for independent Balochistan. A free Balochistan will ensure peace and prosperity in the region and the world in general due to its geo-strategic importance and vast natural resources.

Note: The author is a political activist from western part of Balochistan who strives for independent Balochistan.

Zrombesh

Click here to see the inaccurate article about Balochistan written by Mr Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

BRSO Chairman Gulzar Dost Baloch abducted from Karachi

Quetta: The chairman of Baloch Republican Student Organisation Mr Gulzar Dost Baloch has been abducted from Karachi, BRO called for a shutter down protest across Balochistan against his abduction. BRO Central Committee members have said that chairman Gulzar Dost Baloch was abducted at gunpoint from Saddar region in Karachi around 2 pm on Monday afternoon; Mr Baloch was staying at a cousin’s. The Central Committee members said that GulzarDost Baloch’s abduction is the continuation of state’s criminal and terrorist activities from last 61 years against Baloch freedom loving youth.

They said that the state was scared of BRSO’s revolutionary programmes and hence abducted the chairman of organisation. They said the GulzarDost Baloch is being tortured in Karachi Kent but BRSO will not give in to their pressure tactics. They said that they won’t ask Pakistan for their chairman’s release but they do request the International Human Rights Organisation to take notice of Chairman GulzarDost Baloch’s abduction and Balochistan issue.

The Organisation announced shutter-down protest across Balochistan and asked the transport owners and traders to keep their businesses shut on 3rd November (Today).

Balochs in Iran, the “enemies of God”

Story and photos by Karlos Zurutuza
Originally published in Spanish by gara.net

October 2009

The last Jundallah attack in Western Balochistan´s capital has exposed the dire situation local Baloch face under Tehran´s rule. Since the annexation of Western Balochistan to Iran in 1928, Iranian Baloch have been condemned to an assimilation based on both ethnic and religious factors.


“This city sucks”, complains Abdullah, a young Saudi businessman who has already spent over two months In Zahedan trying to close a deal with Baloch camel merchants.

“No women, no alcohol, no fun…and, what is more, everybody takes me for an Al-Qaeda terrorist!”, complains this 27 year old bearded Arab. He can hardly wait to return to his native Riyadh.

Zahedan is the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province. Sharing borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, here every “non farsi" is a potential "terrorist", “drug dealer", or both at the same time. And if you are a Westerner, you must be an “agent”. The ayatollahs accuse the Baloch of collaborating with the West and the armed People's Liberation Army of Iran (formerly "Jundallah"), a Wahabi type group, of allegedly receiving assistance from both the CIA and Al-Qaeda. True or not, the Shia regime seems not to distinguish between the fight against drugs and political dissidents. The result of this conflation is the public hanging of Baloch without benefit of trial. Just last June, 19 "enemies of God" were executed in Zahedan. They were characterized as "corrupt on earth"--in other words, both “terrorists” and “drug dealers”.

"Did you know that here they use camels to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan? Once they are taught the route, the drug is then grafted inside the hump and the animals make their way across the border", explains the young Saudi with a smile shining from his black beard.

In fact, drugs have always been an issue here. When Western Balochistan was annexed by Iran in 1928, Britain had already introduced the opium trade to the region long before. Compared to other parts of the country, its use here was still rare, limited to a handful of tribal leaders. But the consumption of heroin in Western Baluchistan was given a boost with the Pahlevis, whose huge windfall profits were not lost on the ayatollahs. Local public Farsi officers (Baloch are prevented from governmental positions) amassed huge fortunes and now continue to make money with the drug traffic that comes from neighbouring Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Tehran directs their “war on drugs” at small dealers. Drug abuse itself it not worried by Tehran, for a Baloch population hooked on opiates, estimated to be as high as 50%, simply translates as 50% fewer potential dissidents.

Neither men nor names
First local place names just vanish (Zahedan was Duzzap until the early '30s) and the same happens later with the local Baloch population. Today, 6 out of 10 people in Zahedan are Farsis. Unsurprisingly, there are no official figures for the missing local Baloch.

But there must be many, as added to the plethora of Persian security forces and intelligence services is now also the Mersad. It is a paramilitary group said to be operating under the direct orders of the Supreme Leader, Khamenei, that specializes in random beatings and shootings; doubtless an effective way to spread the sense of terror and insecurity among the local population. This unemployed young man from Khash came across them last year. "It was about six in the morning. We were waiting at the entrance of the village for someone to offer us work in the harvest. Suddenly, we heard firing from a Toyota van. Three died and other eight were wounded", explains this young man whilst he shows a bullet wound on his left shoulder.

When the British entered the region in the 18th century, they asked the local Baloch people how they wanted to settle civil cases. Unlike their neighbours who cried “Sharia (Islamic law)”, the Baloch shouted “Rawaj (Baloch traditional code of conduct)”. Tehran has obviously not bothered to ask anybody so, despite the constant killing of Baloch dissidents and Sunni religious leaders, no one in Tehran ever speaks of “religious conflict”. Such is the Persian version of the “war on terror”… and drugs!

"It is a tyrannical regime that seeks the Farsis total hegemony in Iran, nothing else”, complains one of the very few ethnic Baloch professors at the University of Sistan and Baluchistan. He denounces that out of over 20,000 students on the campus, only 500 are Baloch. Needless to say, discrimination in the classroom is proportional to the labour market.

"70 years ago this province was just called Baluchistan; later it turned into Baluchistan and Sistan', and today it´s `Sistan and Baluchistan'. If we stick to this trend, in the future it will be just called `Sistan´", explains this maths teacher. "The power in Iran is held by the Farsis since the Shah´s times. Nonetheless, with the Pahlevis our only 'sin' was our ethnicity, but today Tehran also hates us because we are Sunnis", he adds.

The Kurds in the northwest of the country, or the Arabs in the south also have to cope with this “double handicap”. That´s the price to pay in a country which claims to be a republic, but is very much ruled as an empire.

"The main obstacle is the Iranian Constitution itself. It limits the Persian identity with Shiism as the only religion and Farsi as the only language", says Ibrahim, a student in the campus. "This is the source of the apartheid imposed on us by the ayatollahs," he stresses.

"I am Iranian"
Whatever the case, the university still remains an unattainable dream for most Balochs here, for Sistan and Balochistan provice has been deliberately abandoned to become the poorest region in the Islamic Republic. Mansur has a small appliance store in the impoverished town of Iranshar (once Parah), the second largest settlement in Western Balochistan.

In Tehran people take Mansur for an outsider for his dark complexion and, above all, for his white shalwar kameez, that long shirt and baggy pants set that is indistinguishable between nationalities in Central and South Asia.

"When I go to Tehran they always ask me whether I am Pakistani or Indian”, says the trader. "Then they get puzzled when I tell them in perfect Farsi that I happen to come from their very same country" he says.

"You are not Iranian," Mansur often has to hear on such occasions. "Unfortunately, I am."

The Baluch

Pakistan's Other Problem Area: Baluchistan

When the world looks at Pakistan, its attention justifiably focuses on the rugged northern border with Afghanistan, a nexus of Taliban activity and the site of an ongoing multi-pronged campaign against the militants. Battling jihadism there is a pivotal plank in the Obama administration's plans to stabilize the war-ravaged region and eventually dial down America's military presence.

But in the shadow of this "Af-Pak" frontier, another conflict has grown new life in recent years and, according to experts, poses a possibly greater existential threat to the Pakistani state. The province of Baluchistan, situated along Pakistan's west and northwest borders with Iran and Afghanistan, comprises more than 40% of Pakistan's landmass but less than 5% of its people. Its unforgiving deserts nearly annihilated the armies of Alexander the Great as they marched home. The native Baluch, descendants of nomadic tribes who roamed these arid wastes, number around five million and have for years complained of marginalization and mistreatment, particularly at the hands of the Pakistani military.

Beneath their homeland's soil lies a treasure trove of natural gas and oil reserves, which, while largely untapped, yield revenues from which the Baluch feel excluded. Successive generations have waged armed rebellions against Pakistani rule — in 1948, 1953, through the 1960s and 70s, and now. According to analysts, continued abuses at the hands of security forces and Pakistan's shadowy intelligence agency, the ISI, have intensified separatist feeling to an unprecedented scale. "Baluch nationalism is more broad-based, is a more serious phenomenon than at any time in the past," says Selig Harrison, director of the Center for International Policy in Washington, a leading authority on the Baluch.

The dimensions of the Baluch struggle are made all the more complicated by the region's political geography. Around a million ethnic Baluch live on the other side of the border in Iran and there, too, have long agitated against a repressive state for greater freedoms. During Pakistan's most brutal crackdown on Baluch separatists in the 1970s — when civilians reportedly died in the thousands — Iran lent Pakistan logistical support, including helicopters. At the time, the two countries were allied together under the U.S.-led CENTO Cold War pact, but following Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979 relations changed, with Tehran's Shia establishment increasingly wary of their Sunni counterparts in the Pakistani military leadership. The Iranians loath the Afghan Taliban, who were created in part by elements within the Pakistani state. "There's an inherent set of tensions [between the two countries] based on their prior strategic choices," says Sameer Lalwani, a Pakistan watcher at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

On Baluchistan, the cooperation of old has shifted to a more guarded mutual distrust. On Oct. 18, Jundullah, a Baluch militia based on Pakistani soil struck the Iranian border city of Pishin, killing 41, including a number of senior figures in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. A week later, Pakistani troops detained 11 Iranian agents who had infiltrated across the border, possibly in a mission aimed against Jundullah. They were eventually released, but the incidents spotlighted the uncomfortable place Baluchistan occupies in both Tehran and Islamabad's internal affairs — and their dealings with each other.

These tensions may balloon in the future as other regional powers expand their interests in Baluchistan as well. The presence of some 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the province has raised the prospect of significant outside investment, but it has only deepened Baluch anxieties of alienation. China has already set about securing access to Baluchistan's other rich veins of resources: it owns a controlling interest in the massive gold and copper mine at Saindak and has steered the building of a $1 billion blue water port at Gwadar, mostly using Chinese labor. The growing hub of Gwadar, which Islamabad has slated to become a special economic zone, is not only a focal point of Chinese strategic interests in southwest Asia, but also a source of contention for the Baluch, who have been almost entirely frozen out of its development and, as in elsewhere in the province, kept at arm's length by ethnic Punjabis and Sindhis arriving to do business here from other parts of Pakistan.

Baluch separatists claim that they never wanted to be part of Britain's partitioning of colonial India into the independent states of India and Pakistan and that they are the victims of an empire that barely ruled them. The border that splits Iranian and Pakistani Baluchistan was a line plotted in 1871 by a British colonial official, ceding territory to Iran's rulers in a bid to win Tehran's support against Czarist Russia. Now, the Baluch in Pakistan and Iran who fear independence may be out of reach campaign for expanded freedoms and guarantees to preserve their language and culture within the Pakistani and Iranian states. Others have taken arms over the years. Suggestions made by some Pakistani officials linking Baluch separatism to the activities of the Taliban are wrong, says Harrison. Baluch nationalism has always been a secular project; its militant fronts warring with Pakistan, like the Baluch Liberation Army, descend from a tradition of Marxist-Leninist guerrillas that took root in the 1970s. Jundullah, though an avowedly Sunni group, articulates its identity as a rejection of the Shia clerics ruling Iran — a political act — rather than one born out any particular fervor.

When trying to discredit Baluch separatism, Islamabad often blames its regional rival, India, for abetting and influencing the rebels. Pakistan's wariness of India's hand in its affairs has only grown after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan saw Indian engagement there bloom — Pakistani officials say Indian consulates in the Afghan cities of Kandahar and Jalalabad are behind the destabilizing acts of subversion in Baluchistan. Baluch attacks are frequently followed by Pakistani accusations of Indian involvement, though Islamabad, which has a noted record of being a breeding ground for terrorists who make their way to India, has yet to show any evidence of Indian collusion. Earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected any notion of India backing insurgents. "The people and government of Pakistan know jolly well that this is a false accusation," said Singh.

Meanwhile, Baluchistan simmers. Beyond the standard detachments of border troops, the Pakistani military has kept an occupying army in six major garrisons across the province since 1958. For decades, the Baluch have accused the army of kidnappings, disappearances and extrajudicial killings. In April, three dissident Baluch leaders were reportedly abducted by Pakistani security forces and found days later, their bodies bruised and ridden with bullets, triggering weeks of rioting and violence. A 2008 Amnesty International report, "Denying the Undeniable: Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan," charted at least 600 unresolved disappearances in Baluchistan alone. The 2006 killing of Akbar Bugti — at the time, the emotive figurehead of Baluch separatism — in a firefight with Pakistani troops gave the current wave of Baluch nationalists a martyred hero to latch onto. "The continued atrocities all over Pakistani Baluchistan has kindled a very strong separatist feeling that will have to be answered," says Harrison of the Center for International Policy.

In a report published earlier this year, Harrison recommends the withdrawal of a chunk of the Pakistani occupying army and a political solution that grants the province greater autonomy and control over its resources. The Baluch desire for greater autonomy commands a decent level of sympathy among the Pakistani public, but is a non-starter with the military, who view the province as a vital geopolitical bulwark against Tehran, Kabul or New Delhi's interests. The political paralysis in dealing with this remote, restive province is another sign, experts say, of the real power the military holds over the country's weak civilian government. "[Pakistani President Asif ]Zardari and his entourage understand what needs to be done," says Harrison. "But they have no ability to get the armed forces and the ISI to cooperate."

The U.S. has remained mostly quiet on the matter, in part because it only has so much leverage that it can wield over the Pakistani military. During the Bush administration, there were suggestions that Washington was even secretly backing anti-Iranian groups like Jundullah and staging covert operations against Iran from Baluchistan. But a more public effort to reach a just solution for Baluch grievances would go a long way toward securing stability for Pakistan in general. The Baluch disturbances have put on hold plans to build a lucrative gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan — a link that would enhance regional cooperation as well as boost the nation's wealth. Calming separatist passions would also serve as a lesson to the Pakistani military, which, as seen during the traumatic and bloody independence of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), has a habit of trying to brutally stomp out secessionist movements. At a moment when there are so many hearts and minds to be won — and boots on the ground stretched so thin — it wouldn't hurt to give peace a chance.

Time