No truck with Pakistan, say Baluch youth

by Ahmar Mustikhan | July 14, 2009 at 11:59 pm

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In an interview at the Quetta Press Club -- the bastion of civilian protest --, Baluch students both male and female asked a Pakistani woman journalist not to call them Pakistanis as they are Baluch, with thousands of years of history behind them while Pakistan is merely 62 years ago.

Well-known Pakistani scribe Nasim Zehra tried to sell the idea of a democratic Pakistan that ensures provincial autonomy to the Baluch, but to no avail as the Baluch youth insisted their homeland was forcibly annexed against their wishes on March 27, 1948.

They told Zehra the British granted Baluchistan independence on August 11, 1947 separately from Pakistan and India, who got their indepdence a couple of days later.

These students said the Baluch do not see their future secure in Pakistan.

They mentioned the killings, disappearances and torture of Baluch youths and students at the hands of the infamous Inter Services Intelligence and other intelligence outfits.

In fact, the Baluch are treated as enemy agents by the Pakistani security and intelligence set-ups.

Picture above shows Punjabi policemen taking Baluch student leader Qambar Chakar from court July 14 -- he was missing since his arrest last Friday, July 10.

According to to witnesses, Chakar was tortured so badly that he could not stand on his feet. "He [was so weak he] could not even whisper," said one eyewitness on condition of not being named for fear of state reprisals.

Chakar was whisked away as he was walking in front of the I.T. University in Quetta.

"Most of the Baluch activists are arrested by plainclothesmen but when they produce them in courts they always send the police," Baluch human and political rights activist Faiz Baluch said from London.

"The intelligence agencies people rarely go to courts. So far I have heard only one such case when intelligence sleuths actually went to court," said Faiz Baluch, who along with Baluch national hero Hyrbiar Marri was arrested in London two years ago on the bidding of the military regime of General Pervez Musharraf.

After the court hearing, the arrested people are again handed over to the agencies, including the MI (Military Intelligence).

"Some of the people released testified that detainees are always interrogated by people from the MI, ISI while the police will actually torture the prisoners in the presence of the intelligence sleuths," Faiz Baluch said.

He said different torture tactics are employed not only on the detainees but their next of kin to extract information

"Some very old men who could not bear torture were told that if they don't talk thier sons will be arrested and killed. Others were told that there sons are already in police's custody and they will be killed if the father don't talk. Yet others are told that their sons have been killed in police encounters if they speak they will be allowed to attend the funeral otherwise they will not be able to see their sons for the last time," Faiz Baluch explained.

To counter the police atrocities, Baluch militant outfits have intensified their actions, forcing tens of thousands of Punjabis to leave Baluchistan.

The present insurgency is what the Baluch call the Fifth War of Liberation.

Baluch prisoners of conscience

By Ahmar Mustikhan

Writhing in pain you can read it on their face

Liberation for slaves is a bloody game

I see the cigarette butts in their killer hands

Burning the Baluch flesh in living graves

I hear cries of the prisoners of conscience

Coming from behind the walls of Qulli Camp

I feel nails of the toes being pulled by cowards

My mother on hunger strike, where is her son