The pictures of the two youths remain etched in the back of Baloch minds: portraits of innocence with a smile and calm determination. The two are Qamber Chakar, 24, and Ilyas Nazar, 26. And then the gory pictures of their bodies lying in Pidarak near Turbat. Baloch eyes get wet whenever they think of them and hatred for slavery under Pakistan military rule in Balochistan multiplies by leaps and bounds.
The bodies of the two members of the Baloch Students Organization Azad were found January 4, 2011 – New Year's gift for Balochistan from Pakistan's Frontier Corps, Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence.
There is no doubt the enemy must have offered them rewards for turning against their own people. But the two brave young men from Mekran refused and wished to get buried in the heart of their motherland than to betray the noble cause of Balochistan's independence.
Physically they are no more but they continue to live in the hearts, minds and eyes of millions of Baloch. They have become immortalized as heroes of Balochistan's liberation war.
Even Baloch teenagers are not being spared in the slew of ongoing crimes against humanity; but ruthlessly tortured and killed by the Pakistani occupation forces. Body of Majeed Ahmed Zehri, 14, a student of Eighth Grade and member of B.S.O. Azad was found from a desolate area in Khuzdar on October 24, 2010. Abid Baloch, son of Rasool Bakhsh a student of Grade Nine in Parom, Panjgur was forcibly abducted on January 23, 2011 by Pakistani security forces and four days later on January 27, 2011 by a shepherd in Gwargo.
The life and death struggle of towering activists like Ghulam Mohammed Baloch and Lala Munir Baloch, whom I knew very well since their days of activism as leaders of B.S.O. Azad, and thousands of other Baloch patriots in their fifth uprising against Pakistan's illegitimate occupation of their homeland conveys one simple message: Balochistan liberation struggle is winnable. Their supreme sacrifice is fulfilling one of the most important features in any struggle for freedom and independence: the blood line.
There are two other important features of any independence struggle, according to to Washington DC-based David Deinstag – money line and time line. I shall come to those topics at a later time.
The simple reason why majority of Baloch people are willing to bravely give their lives for their homeland is that they want their coming generations to be free of colonial bondage, not languishing forever under a third-rate client-state like Pakistan, used by the quickie-loving West, especially the United States, as French-leather for its dirty games. An illegitimate deformed child of the British raj, now orphaned and being devoured by the cancer of religious extremism.
The Baloch youths are today dreaming high dreams and are willing to pay a high price for their dreams. They have lofty national ideals.
Baloch, once regarded among the wild herds of southwest Asia, are owners of the sexiest 1,100-km long northern skirt of world's premier sea lane along the Straits of Hormuz.. They are dreaming today of a Balochistan where trade and commerce will flourish in the free ports of Chabahar, Gwadar, Ormara, Sonmiani and Jiwani. They will have a Baloch navy, air force and liberation army owing allegiance to the idea of secularism and democracy rather than jihad which is the cornerstone of the military philosophies of the Islamic republics of Pakistan and Iran. They are dreaming of Baloch currency notes carrying the pictures of Nawab Akbar Bugti, Mir Balaach Marri, Ghulam Mohammed Baloch not the thug and political imposter named M.A. Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.
The Baloch visualize mining and oil exploration activities in full swing in the length and breadth of Balochistan, with an emphasis on protecting the environment.
They believe in compulsory education for all citizens for at least 14 years, leading to college degree, for both males and females. They have reasons to believe their homeland is far richer than Saudi Arabia but if they remain under the bondage of Pakistan and Iran they will get nothing in the end, but slavery and possible decimation from the face of earth.
They yearn for centers of excellence for the promotion of Balochi, Brauhvi and Seraiki languages and having their native languages as their medium of instruction.
It is true that an independent Balochistan will have so many jobs that there won't be enough Baloch to handle them and workers from India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and possibly even Punjab and other countries would have to come to Balochistan.
The Baloch reasoning is they can run their national affairs in a far better way minus Pakistan. Pakistan's dismal performance as a failed state, run by the military and intelligence services, adds weight to the Baloch argument for statehood.
Balochistan will be a land of boundless opportunities. As they say the sky is the limit.
However, there are quite a few obstacles that need to be overcome.
The question is can Balochistan really be free? The answer is organization. Can sparsely populated Balochistan throw out nearly 300,000 heavily armed Pakistan and Iranian mercenaries. The answer again is organization. Can the Baloch muster international support? The answer again is organization.
Of course unity and discipline are a given.
It is strange but true if a Baloch has brothers, he does not need enemies. This is particularly true of the elitist classes. In contrast to the lofty dreams and ideals of the young fallen heroes, symbolized by the Baloch Students Organization Azad, Baloch leaders from the parasitic elitist classes have lowly dreams like becoming members of parliament or governor or chief minister within the boundaries of a third-rate failing state like Pakistan. Or travel in Pajeros and Land Cruisers provided to them by the Inter-Services Intelligence.
The worst among worst are the Zehri brothers of Jhalawan. One of them Sardar Sanaullah Zehri is alleged to have personally killed dozens of innocent Zehris, including his own elder brother Rasool Bakhsh Zehri, but is dreaming to become the chief minister of Balochistan.
A latest addition to the breed of corrupt opportunists is Nawabzada Jangyz Marri, eldest son of Balochistan national icon Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri. Both Nawab Marri and his heir apparent and Balochistan independence leader Mir Hyrbyair Marri have publicly disowned the rattlesnake in the leading pro-independence family.
It was during the elections of 1993 that I had my first encounter with Nawabzada Jangyz Marri in Quetta. When asked if the Marris would fight again if Pakistan violates the national rights of Balochistan, Jangyz Marri replied, “The fighting [1973-77] was a big mistake. I hope we will never repeat it.”
I had no clue that he was involved in plots in Afghanistan to allegedly kill his father Nawab Marri, highly respected among the Baloch all over for his steadfast stand on the question of Balochistan independence. Jangyz Marri always labeled his father a “failed politician.”
Birds of the same feather flock together, Jangyz Marri is seen rubbing shoulders with Sardar Sanaullah Zehri to appease the “last hope for Pakistan” Mian Nawaz Sharif. It is an open secret in Pakistan the Sharifs prospered politically and commercially under General Ziaul Haq's military regime. In fact, Sharif was trained in politics by Punjabi martial law administrators. Small wonder if Sharif survived a military regime and is up and running again to become the next civilian leader of Pakistan.
Another feudal leader whose eyes shine on hearing the name of Nawaz Sharif is Hasil Bizenjo, vice president of the National Party. It is unfortunate but true that Hasil Bizenjo, one of the biggest feudal landlords from Balochistan, and his party president, Dr. Malik Baloch, both senators, appear to have silently given the military generals a nod to kill Baloch political activists.
In the words of former Balochistan fisheries minister, Kachkol Ali Advocate, who is an intellectual in his own right, Bizenjo is “characterless.” Ali Advocate, now based in Oslo, says let alone Hasil Bizenjo, he never shook hands even with the late Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo, who had significant following among Balochistan nationalists until his death in August 1989.
The reason why the Baloch suspect the two National Party senators are a silent accomplice in the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances is that these started in July last year soon after some misguided youths, affiliated with the resistance movement, allegedly gunned down National Party leader Maula Bakhsh Dashti. The B.L.F. chief Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch denied any role in the killing of Dashti, an indicator that the alleged killers might have carried out the reckless act on their own -- the resistance movement needs better discipline.
Still, if National Party's two main leaders indeed have stooped so low all Balochistan forces and political parties will have to do some real soul searching. Regardless of the extreme opportunism of the National Party leaders it can not be declared a traitor's party on the whole. If their opportunist leaders in Na'al and Turbat are physically targeted the party might go lie even deeper down under the Punjabi generals knees, doggy-style, than they currently are.
In fact all soft targets need to be avoided at this stage of the Balochistan liberation movement. Traitors are dealt with after liberation, not before it, if the movement has to maintain its international legitimacy and credibility. Otherwise, the occupying forces can very easily channel the genuine movement into a fratricidal flexing of muscles among Baloch political parties and groups. At this time when each and every able bodied Baloch whether male or female is needed to defend the motherland, the resistance can ill-afford to target any Baloch, baring few exceptions. For example, known members of anti-Baloch death squads.
The youths are justifiably angry over opportunism among some leaders of the Baloch elitist parasitic classes – sardars, nawabs, mirs, mutabars, sardarzadas, nawabzadas. However, it would be wrong to portray all of them as traitors with a broad sweep of the brush.
For instance, just today a youth on Facebook told me Sardar Ataullah Mengal is a national traitor. I did not like the comment and reminded him, “He sacrificed his son for Balochistan.”
It is highly unfortunate that Sardar Mengal might have mellowed down in his crimson years – in his younger days he is famed to have abused Muammar Qaddhafi's best friend and civilian dictator Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on his face -- , but the sacrifices of the Mengal family are second to none. His eldest son Asadullah Mengal was one of the first cases of enforced disappearances in Balochistan as he was abducted on February 6, 1974 along with his friend Ahmed Shah Kurd and their bodies were never found.
His second son, Sardar Akhtar Mengal is called Baloch Nelson Mandela, as he is one of the few politicians who faced the wrath of former dictator General Pervez Musharraf and was reportedly lodged in a cage inside the central jail in Karachi. In fact just two days before this correspondent's flight to freedom to the United States, he had visited Sardar Akhtar Mengal in Wadh.
Nearly two dozen members of the Balochistan National Party have been forcibly abducted, tortured and killed execution style by the Pakistani security and intelligence services in recent months.
Even today two of Sardar Mengal's grandsons are in the vanguard of the national liberation movement, Mir Noordin Mengal and Bhawal Mengal. The two young and very handsome brothers are among Pakistan's most wanted as the Pakistani agencies have accused them of being the brains behind the resistance outfit named Lashkar-i-Balochistan, which Islamabad alleges is responsible for daredevil attacks on Pakistani military installations.
http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/headlinenewsd.php?hnewsid=2769
No comments:
Post a Comment