The Baloch Hal NewsIslamabad: On the call of the National Students Federation (NSF) scores of students, professors and staff members of Quaid-e-Azam University held a protest demonstration on Friday against the brutal murder of Balochistan University professor Saba Dashtiari, and said that if state repression against Baloch students, political activists and intellectuals continues unabated it will become impossible to bridge the growing gaps between the Baloch people and the rest of the Pakistani people. They said that it is the responsibility of democratic and progressive forces in the rest of the country – and particularly Punjab – to counter the politics of hate that is being deliberately cultivated by the establishment. The protestors were holding a placards and chanting slogans against state repression and demanding accountability of intelligence agencies.
Speaking on the occasion NSF leader Nazish Zahoor said that universities are supposed to be centres of debate and dissent in any civilized society where all conflicting views are tolerated and harmony between ethnic groups promoted. He said that over the past few years the peace in Balochistan University has been destroyed due to the oppressive policies of the military establishment, and the killing of a respected figure like Professor Saba Dashtiari will serve only to exacerbate the already acute ethnic tensions both on the Balochistan University campus and across the province more generally. He said that the state policy of abduction and target killings of the Baloch has completely alienated the Baloch people from the rest of Pakistan and if this trend is not arrested then the forces of separatism will only grow stronger.
Speaking on this occasion Professor Aasim Sajjad Akhtar said that the academic community all over the country must be joined by all political and social forces in demanding an end to the brutalization of Balochistan. He said that only some months earlier Professor Nazima Talib had also been murdered on the Balochistan University campus and it is clear that Saba Dashtiari was targeted as a form of reprisal. However he said that neither incident can be condoned in any way and until and unless the historic injustices of the state against the Baloch people are acknowledged and redressed the situation will continue to spiral out of control and more innocent people will lose their lives.
Other speakers noted that the intelligence agencies are now completely out of control and such unaccountable actions cannot be tolerated in what is supposed to be a democratic society. The protest ended peacefully and without any untoward incident.
http://www.thebalochhal.com/2011/06/national-students-federation-protests-in-islamabad-against-saba-dashtiyaris-murder/
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