Manila meeting: Baloch woman activist offloaded from plane

Naela Quadri, second from left.

A noted Baluch political and women rights activist was offloaded from her flight while she was going to attend a key women's rights meetings in Manila, the Philippines.

Prof. Naela Quadri, member of the executive council of the pro-independence Baloch Republican Party, was stopped from participatin in Asia-Pacific P NGO Forum Philippines 2009 by Pakistan security sleuths as she was offloaded from the Flight TG-508 Karachi-Manila on Wednesday night.

Quadri was invited as a speaker on Baloch Conflict -- one of the eight conflicts identified in Asia Pacific Region --, that needs to be resolved for peace " Weaving Wisdom, Confronting Crises, Forging the Future."

She was determined to expose rape of Baluch women at the hands of Pakistan army. A Baloch woman teacher Zarina Marri, 22, is allegedly still in the custody of Pakistani intelligence services. Earlier, a woman medic Dr. Shazia Khalid was raped by a Pakistani army captain Mohammad Hammad, but the then ruling military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf defended the criminal and said the officer was innocent.

In a letter to Patricia B. Licuanan Ph.D, convenor of Asia Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing +15, Quadri wrote:

"It was the beginning of my trust in women's power when as a young Baloch activist I participated in the historic U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women 1995 Beijing. My presentation "HOME VICTIM" against honor killing was given a great acceptance and honor killing was included in UN priority policies to combat violence against women.

"In these 14 years after Beijing, my struggle to protect women from family violence challenged the Pakistan's state violence and genocidal policies against my people and to protect Baloch women from rape and assault in Pakistan military torture cells.

"For last three years I am in a struggle to rescue my missing sister Zarina Marri, 22 years, a school teacher, kidnapped during army operation on Tratani in the Kohlu area in Balochistan. She was seen in a military rape cell by Managing Director of Baloch Voice TV channel Mr. Muneer Mengal who himself was facing torture there.

"Tonight I took my boarding pass to travel to Philippines but at immigration I was stopped and not allowed to travel, I was dealt hard handedly by security forces, they searched me and snatched my presentation on Genocide of Balochs in Pakistan and Iran, Its impact on Peace and Non Nuclearisation Movement Dedicated to my missing sister Zarina Marri and a list of 141 missing Baloch women kidnapped by Pakistan Army.

"They think power of their gun can stop our voices but I do believe in the power of the women's movement. I believe that Asia Pacific Forum 2009 will be an ongoing process of reassurance and trust building by owning our voices. Here I do not submit a request but its a call of solidarity and ownership of pain and agonies of Baloch women as painsof every women of the world who believe in sisterhood of the great feminist movement.

Quadri asked the Asia Pacific forum to Zarina Marri, even if she is chained in darkness of military rape cell but her voice is free and owned by the voices of women of the world in sisterhood.

Quadri is daughter of a prominent civil rights lawyer from Quetta. Her husband Mustafa Raisani was once very active in the socio-political movement in Baluchistan but was allegedly presssured by the infamous Inter Services Intelligence to quit politics amid charges of financial bungling.

The Baloch Republican Party is led by Nawab Brahumdagh Bugti, grandson of slain Baloch statesman Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The I.S.I. and military intelligence have come very hard on the party and also on the Bugti tribe, allegedly erecting fifth a column in both.

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