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04 Jul 2007

Current rating: 3
09 Jan 2006

by AM

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It is a sad moment that muslims are killing fellow muslims on a regular basis. We muslims are busy in blaming western powerts and not paying attention to atrocities with in our own countries.
Regarding Balochistan, nawab of Balochistan are responsible for the current situation.They have not distributed money to their own people and poor Balochies are suffering on daily basis. These nawab have their own forces ant their own laws to create lawlessness and punish people who want fairness. The action of Pakistani goverment is right as you an create your own government with in a government; this is treason. we do realize that innocent are killed but thiis is a process which every nation have to go through to destabilize the corrupt and unfair establisment of bugti, Mari and other tribes. We have to get away from tribe mentality as prophet did during the early Islamic era and then able to establish a strong goverment.

Re: BALOCHISTAN : Pakistani Army attrocities against Baloch community

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09 Jan 2006

by Indian

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Massacre of Hindus in Balochistan by Pakistani Army : Video

Dera Bugti Massacre Video Archive

“I have videos and some pictures as undeniable evidence of the killings.” “I can show it to the media; according to our reports, 32 Hindus and 27 Muslims were killed while 22 people were injured in the incident.” -- Nawab Akbar Bugti
Source : Link

On 17th March 2005, Pakistan's Paramilitary Forces, Started Shelling the town of Dera Bugti, more then 60 Civilians were killed in this indiscriminate Bombardment, among them 33 Hindus were killed

Pakistan's Electronic and print media denied this incident, which was caused by their own Army and security forces. A Local of Dera Bugti Made these Video's. We are providing few clips from the Video for downloads...

Details are only now available of the 10-hour-long battle between the Frontier Corps troops and Balochi nationalists belonging to the Bugti tribe on March 17,2005. Twenty-eight members of the Bugti tribe and 33 Hindus living under the protection of the tribe were killed during the exchange of fire. Of the Hindus killed, 19 were children.

Caution Graphics Video

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List of Hindus killed in March 17, 2005 bombardment ny Pakistan

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09 Jan 2006

by Nagesh Bhushan

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Mass Killing in Dera Bugti

On 17th March 2005 the frontier Corps have started firing and many innocent people of the area died on the same day. The target was Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti who was sitting in his guestroom with his one guest. His one bodyguard died at the spot.

The bullets have no eyes, that?s why they can not see weather they are targeting the enemy or any innocent person. During this firing 19 children were died. They took the last breath on this day. Their names are as under,

List of martyred Persons of Hindu Minorities

on 17th March, 2005 at Dera Bugti.

Children	Name and parentage	Age
1	Atti Divi D/O Bacha Mal	One & half years
2	Quvita Devi D/O Dewan Chand	3 years
3	Sarkasha Devi D/O Saroon Kumar	Two & half years
4	Amar Devi D/O Rajesh Kumar	One & half years
5	Deepak Kumar S/O Narenjan Kumar	One & half years
6	Vicky Kumar S/O Tara Kumar	One & half years
7	Ajeet Kumar S/O Vicky Kumar	2 Years
8	Washal S/O Manoher Lal	Five & half years
9	Raveet S/O Manoher Lal	Two & half years
10	Rekha Devi D/O Rukan Chand	5 years
11	Ameer Chand S/O Rukan Chand	2 Years
12	Sant Kumar S/O Nand Lal	5 Years
13	Sangeeta Davi D/O Nand Lal	3 Years
14	Narmeeta Devi D/O Moti Lal	7 Years
15	Vikram S/O Sant lal	9 Years
16	Barkha Devi D/O Luchhman Singh	3 Years
17	Ramesh Kumar S/O Preetam Kumar	1 Year
18	Ravi Kumar S/O Ramesh lal	5 Years
19	Ameet kumar S/O Dewan Chand	16 Years

These casualties including some unlucky women too, which are,

Women	Names
1	Zarka Devi W/O Manoher Lal
2	Sharmeela deve W/O Rukan Chand
3	Mai Conish Devi W/O Moti Lal

Including 11 men also who lost their lives without any guilt, but they were punished by this state. No action was taken against them.

Men	Names
1	Mukhi Mohan Mal S/O Bharma Mals
2	Dewan Chand S/O Tara Chand
3	Saroom Kumar S/O Deyal Dass
4	Laloo Mal S/O deyal Dass
5	Ram Lal S/O Chander Lal
6	Rajesh Kumar S/O Chander Lal
7	Narjen Kumar S/O Ranjhan Dass
8	Nand Lal S/O Sobha Singh
9	Resha Dass S/O Nand Lal
10	Bacha Mal S/O Mokhi Mohan Mal
11	Suresh Kumar S/O Santu: succumbed to his injuries on 22nd of March, 2005

Many of the people were injured and they law enforcement officials were not allowing the patients to hospitals which were in the other town. When this thing became an issue within some hours. Then the road was open for the injured people to be transfer to the hospital. The names of the injured are,

Injured Men	Names
1	Ashok Kumar S/O Tara Chand
2	Ghulshan Kumar S/O Sunder Lal
3	Jaspal S/O sunder Lal
4	Santosh Kumar S/O Moti Lal
5	Govind Ram S/O Rukan Chand
6	Ramesh Kumar S/O Moti Lal
7	Naresh S/O Tara Chand
8	Mankoo S/O Deyal Dass
9	Krin Kumar S/O Lal Chand
10	Pond Kumar S/O Deyal Dass
11	Bhagwan Dass S/O Meechal Ram
12	Sham Lal S/O Nama Mal
13	Bhagoo Mal S/O Chon Lal
14	Rohan Kumar S/O Moti Lal
15	Vicky S/O Doulat ram
16	Navend lal S/O Mohan Ram
17	Darshan Kumar S/O Bhagwan Dass
18	Jewat Lal S/O Lal Chand
19	Sanjeet S/O Anand Lal

Injured Women	Names
1	Atti Devi W/O chander Lal
2	Anjna Devi W/O Rajinder Kumar
3	Aasha Deve W/O Dewan Chand
4	Daughter of Chander Lal
5	Mai Laila W/O Santoo Mal

At this operation which was very sudden many tribes men were also killed by the bullets of the FC without any crime or unjust against any one.

List of martyred Persons of Bugti tribe

On 17th of March, 2005 at Dera Bugti:

Men	Names
1	Yar M. Karmanzai S/O Hazar Khan
2	Gulzar S/O Raitag Dodazai
3	Shah Jamal alias Tota S/O Molha Moondrani
4	Ali Mohammad S/O Eido Karmanzais
5	Murad Bakhsh S/O Moula Bakhsh Karmanzai
6	Murid S/O Zarak Kmaranzai
7	Sharif S/O Shahwano Phoonja
8	Ghouso Ramezai S/O Jango
9	Amin Mandwani S/O Dina Moondwani
10	Janga S/O Mast Ali Chandrazai
11	Wali Dad Marhata
12	Malook Masoori S/O Daryan
13	Ghulam Ali Ranazai S/O Ramoo
14	Udo Sandrani S/O Tangi
15	Nasiban S/O Namal Kamanzai
16	Raman Nothani
17	Gul Bahar Nothani
18	Mohammad Din Joz
19	Ilmuddin Shambani
20	Yar Khan Sianzai
21	Wushdal Dom
22	Amiruddin Dangi
23	Taj Kohli
24	Kool Mir
25	Wasyak Pirbur
26	Nawabuddin Hamzani
27	Gohram Marhata
28	Bari Pahi S/O Raman

To hide this mass killing of innocent people the roads of the Dera Bugti were blocked by the Govt officials, no one was allowed to visit the area. Even the media, the lawyers, the other social workers were not permitted to enter in the area. The people who were going for Fathia prayer for the souls of the innocent people were stopped and did not let to go.

Re: List of Hindus killed in March 17, 2005 bombardment ny Pakistan

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17 Jan 2006

by Salar Baloch

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Thank for providing the list of the victims of pakistani state terrorism against Balochs and minority HIndus

Re: BALOCHISTAN : Pakistani Army attrocities against Baloch community

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10 Jan 2006

by Indian WEBMASTER

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Balochistan deserves its independence!The Indians must assist the Balochis in every possible way!
Its time to create another Bangladesh on their western frontiers.
For those low life Pakis talking abt fabricated Indian pics I suggest they step out of their medrassah horizon and check the URL if they know what it means!

Cow urine drinkers getting excited.

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10 Jan 2006

by Your momma

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Man I didn't know the residents of a country which practices State terrorism on a daily basis in Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland and Khalistan would have the audacity to come here and badmouth other countries on small infractions.
Bunch of cow urine drinkers claim to be world's largest democracy but, ironically, fail to give the people their basic right of self determination. Sod off jerks...go shower in some cow p*ss.

Re: Cow urine drinkers getting excited.

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11 Jan 2006

by Jamal

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State terrorism daily according to pakistan. Look at IOK:

What is even more striking is how Indian Kashmir is better off than Pakistan. Kashmir's literacy at 59% is much higher than Pakistan's 44%. In general, India's social indices are many notches ahead of Pakistan's. Even if Kashmir's indicators were no better than the Indian average, it would be much better off with India than with Pakistan. Per capita calorie intake in India is now higher and infant mortality is lower. India has made greater strides in developing it's infrastructure - whether it be railways, telecommunications or mass-media. Indians are now more likely to have access to a telephone, color TV or cable TV connection. They are also less indebted to the international finance community. Per capita hard currency debt in Pakistan is more than double India's. India, being a secular state has given far more importance to scientific education and research. For example, in Pakistan, 4500 out of 5000 Ph.D.s awarded after independence, were in Islamic studies - i.e. less than 500 were in the sciences. In India, 40,000 out of 75,000 Ph.D.s awarded were in the sciences, and only a fraction of the other 35,000 were in religious studies. This means that although India's population is about 6 times that of Pakistan's, it has produced more than 80 times as many Ph.D.s in the sciences as has Pakistan.

All things considered, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have far more opportunities in India than they would, if they seceded and joined with Pakistan.

These facts just prove that Pakistan Kashmir is not progressing.

Another Piece of info;
Are Kashmiris Oppressed?
Thirdly, it should be noted that the demand for self-determination leading to secession has usually been advanced by an opressed people. Are the Kashmiri people oppressed? In 1947, J&K was at the bottom of the economic ladder in India. In 1960-61 it ranked 11th among 16 states of India in per capita income; in 1971-72, 14th among 24 states. But with generous Central assistance it had improved its position by 1981-82 to number 7, surpassing industrial West Bengal, A.P., Karnataka and Tamil Nadu!

Links:
www.ashanet.org/projects/state-view.php for india's Kashmir.

70-80% of Kashmiri's prefer to be in India.

If you want to talk about Gujarat. Look at it today, one of the fastest growing States. GDP grew by an enormous 15.2%. Don't you think that it is up to the people of Gujarat who they want?

To all the pakistani's who think that they will overtake India etc....Take a look at this statistic, The state of Maharashtra is 4 times bigger economy with smaller population. Baffling facts isn't it.

I am a muslim from India, and I can pray in a mosque whenever I like, no one stops me. That is the beauty of India. President Kalam is a muslim. We put a Dalit as a PM.

It doesn't matter where the attrocities occur, they should all be stopped.

Reply: Re: Re: Cow urine drinkers getting excited. / 03 Mar 2007

No one outside Pakistan (say Punjab) is going to believe Islamabad’s story

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10 Jan 2006

by Nagesh Bhushan

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15 Jan 2006

by Anonymous Poster

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Cover Story
"Accept us as equal federating units or we will try to get rid of you"
-Sanaullah Baloch Senator (BNP)

http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsJan2006/cover2jan2006.htm

By Naveed Ahmad

Q: How do you characterise the situation in Balochistan today?
A: The situation is getting worse in Balochistan because the military has moved three brigades into District Kohlu and Dera Bugti. Twenty-one fighter jets flying from Sibi, Jacobabad and Loralai are involved in carpet bombing there. They have also used poison and phosphorus gases without declaring a particular target. Some 180 deaths have been caused by the bombing.
The military is denying access in the region to our political workers and even the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. However, when the military permitted the HRCP to visit the affected districts, the bombing was stopped to give a different image. So far, some 122 children have died; most of them belong to the nomad villagers who live in tents but keep migrating. Unfortunately, wherever the military sees some tents, they take these to be militant camps.
At the same time, the Frontier Corps has virtually surrounded Makran region. Some 450 people have been arrested from Turbat district. Chaghi, Kharan and the central districts of Balochistan are tense and face similar oppression. The government is deliberately trying to instigate the people of Balochistan.

Q: What is the reason behind this showdown with the government?
A: We do not accept the ruling military junta. We want to live in the country in a democratic manner as a federating unit instead of becoming a colony of Islamabad. We see Islamabad as another East India Company which had spread a network of roads, railway lines and tunnels to meet its objectives. Islamabad is working in a similar fashion to annex the natural assets of the Baloch people.
First of all, Islamabad exploited our natural gas resources and then used the province's strategic location for testing nuclear devices and established cantonments but no development work was carried out.

Q: How do you want to deal with the East India Company
A: Decisive moments come in the life of every nation. So far we have been adopting democratic and peaceful means but with little success. Khuda Baksh Marri and Attaullah Mengal have tried their best to seek the rights of the province through democratic institutions and being part of the government. I have been part of parliament for the past nine years and these institutions have become debating societies. The parliament has failed to deliver owing to a variety of factors. There are not many choices: either accept us as equal federating units or we will try to get rid of you, no matter what the cost.

Q: But there are differences amongst the Baloch leaders.
A: For the rights of Balochistan, all the leaders have come together and the old differences cannot overshadow the situation.
We have a four-party Baloch Ittehad on the lines of the PLO and the Hurriyet Conference. No doubt there are minor differences amongst the four parties about the alliance's constitution, yet we have chosen to stay together for a larger cause. Baloch leaders are also part of ARD and PONM at the national level.

Q: What have Baloch leaders contributed when they governed the province?
A: From the 1948 accession to Pakistan till today, the Baloch nationalists have ruled for only 37 months i.e. the nine-month rule of Attaullah Mengal, a year of Akhtar Mengal and 16 months of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. During Attaullah Mengal's term, the province's first university, medical college and board of secondary education were set up. The same NAP government established the first industrial city of the province, in Hub. The government was dissolved after nine months because they were doing so much for the people. Let's come to Akbar Khan Bugti's rule of 18 months, the Benazir government could not agree with him on the rights of the province. Then Nawaz Sharif made a commitment with his ally Akhtar Mengal that after the passage of the 13th amendment, he would announce a mega constitutional package on provincial autonomy. Unfortunately, he could not come up with a package after 14 months despite forming committees and debating the matter for so long. None of the Baloch leaders have been allowed to rule the province for more than 18 months. Since 1948, 23 governors have been appointed in Balochistan, only 10 of them belonged to the province while the remaining were outsiders. General Rahim-ud-Din was in the chair for nine years in the Zia era.

Q: You don't seem to accept the recent development packages announced by the Musharraf regime.
A: First of all, let me make it clear here that General Musharraf has not announced any package for Balochistan. It's all propaganda and drama. China and Pakistan are collaborating to build the Gwadar port and no Baloch consent was sought before making the deal with the Chinese people. There is no development project in Kohlu as 450 million rupees have been earmarked for the establishment of a cantonment there and another 450 million for a road to a gas well. The remaining amount in the so- called package was announced some nine years ago for the Sibi and Dera Murad Jamali road. The money has never been released. From lack of clean drinking water to other amenities of life, everything is missing in the district.
The Baloch hatred against the Musharraf regime is extremely high because on September 23, 2003, the provincial assembly passed a resolution against the construction of cantonments. In utter disregard of the unanimous resolution of the assembly, he flies into Kohlu to inaugurate a cantonment on December 14, 2005.
Please acknowledge that the Baloch petroleum resources have brought prosperity for the domestic gas consumers, private sector and industry. The fertiliser industry and domestic consumers are being given a subsidy worth 20 billion rupees every year. Balochistan deserves a representative government without any involvement of the intelligence agencies such as the ISI. The sitting government is involved in the worst kind of corruption and over the past three years, it has resorted to an overdraft of 14 billion rupees.

Q: The government accuses the Baloch nationalists of politicising development issues and keeping the people backward to serve the sardars' interests. Why do you oppose a network of roads, railway tracks and other necessary infrastructure?
A: This is a grave misconception which has been deliberately created by the military and intelligence agencies. Before establishing Gwadar port, we have demanded the setting up of a marine biological institute and a mineral development research institute near Saindak to train the local people. Similarly we have demanded the establishment of an arid agriculture research institute to tap the enormous potential of the province.
Some 35,000 paramilitary troops are stationed in Balochistan and each individual costs roughly 15000 rupees a month while there are 12000 teachers with an average monthly expenditure of 6000 rupees each. We want the government to abolish the FC and instead raise an army of teachers. I can bet no one would oppose the opening of universities and schools in Balochistan.

Q: It is said that the Baloch nationalist leadership belongs to the sardars and nawabs and is meant to protect their interests
A: I don't agree with such critics. I belong to a middle class family which was never involved in politics and parliament. Similarly, Rauf Mengal is the son of a small shopkeeper. All the representatives from the nationalist parties belong to the middle class. Even in Akbar Khan Bugti's party, Senator Amanullah Karnani comes from a very poor family.

Q: How do you look at the acts of sabotage and militancy on the part of the Baloch Liberation Army or Baloch Liberation Front?
A: There is no doubt that the BLA or BLF enjoy enormous acceptance and respect amongst the common Baloch people. They have internationalised the Balochistan cause which we (the politicians) have failed to do. The BLA or BLF is targeting locations which were illegal and caused inconvenience to the people. There were 600 illegal checkposts of the paramilitary force where officers and JCOs alike were minting money from innocent people. They were posted on border routes and we have ties across the border so billions of rupees were being minted by the paramilitary forces. The BLA attacked only those checkposts which were harming the common people.
The militants have targeted only those railway tracks and pipelines which were used to suck up our petroleum and mineral resources but the due royalty was never paid to the people. The government has been violating the constitution's article 158 and neither the judiciary nor the establishment have tried to get the royalty rights implemented. Naturally, there was a vacuum for a force which could stop an unconstitutional thing from happening. That is why the BLA or BLF enjoy a better level of respect than the Baloch political parties. Being a public representative, I cannot say that they are wrong. The first blunder was committed by the government by deploying the troops and giving a free hand to the ISI and other intelligence organs.
The next blunder was linking up of a cantonment with a mega project, thus giving birth to a perception that the military would come along to annex the resources and projects. The military is buying land and erecting housing schemes wherever there is a mega project or a vital natural resource. The BLA and BLF activists are not crazy. They are highly educated young people who are fully aware of the problems faced by their people.

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23 Jan 2006

by Anonymous Poster

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Pakistan Army using chemical weapons in Balochistan, says former Chief Minister Mengal
Karachi | January 23, 2006 4:27:14 PM IST

Former Chief Minister of Pakistan's Balochistan province, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, has claimed that Pakistani forces are using chemical weapons in Baluchistan.

Mengal, who addressed the media at the Karachi Press Club, backed his claim by showing pictures of Baluch civilians who he said had been hit by chemical weapons.

Further backing his claim of use of chemical weapons Mengal pointed to the pictures and said that " you will note the blood coming out of people's mouth without any injury to their bodies...what does this show...it shows that poisonous gases have been used in the military operation ".

Demanding the presence of international mediators to ensure a fair resolution of the dispute between the tribal-dominated province and Islamabad, Mengal, who is presently the President of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), said that the Balochis are not ready to negotiate with either President General Pervez Musharraf or his hand-picked government.

"Chemical weapons are being used (to resolve the crisis), and a large number of women and children have died as a result," Mengal claimed in an interaction with the media here.

"The parliamentary committee on Balochistan has failed to assert itself and the Baloch leadership has decided that we would not engage in any sort of dialogue with the military leadership or its representative committees. We can only talk in the presence of an international mediator," Mengal said, while appealing to all countries, "which claim to be an exponent of humanity and peace, to intervene immediately."

Mengal's lament was completely endorsed and supported by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which categorically rejected repeated claims by authorities in Islamabad that regular armed forces were not being used to crackdown on people in Balochistan in the wake of a string of rocket attacks by tribal militants last month.

The HRCP claimed that it had concrete evidence that action by the armed forces had led to the deaths and injuries among civilians" and that "populations had also been subjected to indiscriminate bombing".

"I challenge, I challenge the (Pakistan) government on their statement that there was no bombardment, number one. There was; and local people have confirmed that, or have alleged that. There were credible reports of that.Number two, they say nobody has died because of the conflict there. This is amazing, because if you go there and you find out people have given names and sadly, most of them were children and women," HRCP chairperson Asma Jahangir told reporters at a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday.

According to a HRCP report, up to 85 percent of the 22,000 to 26,000-strong population in Balochistan's Dera Bugti town has fled from their homes after they were repeatedly hit by paramilitary shelling.

The report described the situation in Balochistan as "a war-like situation, militarisation and politico-economic conflict in Balochistan," and by denying this government was only confusing the issue and "making it more intractable."

Demanding an immediate cease-fire in the province, the HRCP said Pakistan's Parliament must meet in a special session to ensure that negotiations and dialogue is sustained.

Jehangir pleaded with the military-backed government to halt army action in Balochistan, warning that if this was not done, the negative repurcussions on the future of this smallest of Pakistan's four provinces would be enormous and of long-term duration, which could have a delibitating impact across the country.

Rebutting the government's claim as regards end of military action in Balochistan, Jehangir said the military operation" was still on in various parts of the province.

"Four brigades regular army, 35,000 Frontier Corps, 12,000 Coast Guards, 8,700 policemen and 2,000 marine forces are engaged in the operation. About 12 gunship helicopters and nine jets are also operating," she claimed.

Also, the former Baluch Chief Minister Akhter mengal rejected the government's claim that Baloch insurgents had links to Indian intelligence agencies saying they were not Balochis who had the external support, but it was the Pakistan army, which with the help of external forces, had been crushing the resistance for Baloch national cause.

An emotional Mengal came down hard on the army, saying it was responsible for the tragedy of East Pakistan. " If army's role in national politics is not eliminated, it may lead to another tragedy like East Pakistan. And if it happens, army will solely be responsible for that", he contended.

The Pakistani military launched a major crackdown against militants in Balochistan after a rocket attack on December 14 during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf to the town of Kohlu.

Baloch nationalists say almost 200 people have been killed. The government has not commented on casualties but analysts say the militants' figure could be exaggerated.

Balochistan is home to Pakistan's main gas fields and local militants are battling for more autonomy and control of these resources and greater autonomy.

The crackdown has coincided with the announcement of plans to privatise two gas distribution firms operating in Balochistan. (ANI)

Balochis demonstrate in London against cultural genocide

http://www.ahwaz.org.uk/2006/01/balochis-demonstrate-in-london-against.html

Scores of Baloch people held a large demonstration against ongoing military operations in Balochistanâ€“Pakistan on Sunday opposite the official residence of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The demonstration was called by the Balochistan Action Committee in association with the Balochistan Rights Movement, World Sindhi Congress and the Sindhi Baloch Forum. Balochistan straddles the Iran-Pakistan border. Balochis from both Iran and Pakistan and their British supporters were present on the demonstration to show their solidarity with those Balochis suffering state violence in Pakistan.

Spokesmen conducted interviews with Geo TV, ANI TV and other media at the demonstration. They vigorously condemned the atrocities of Pakistani Army in Balochistan. They condemned the killing of 12 innocent Baloch in custody by Frontier Constabulary as well as killing of Baloch children and women and the use of phosphorus bombs as genocidal. Demonstrators also called for an immediate end to the Kala-Bagh Dam project.

The demonstrators called on Prime Minister Blair and other world leaders for their intervention to stop Pakistan's military from committing genocide in Balochistan and urged them to send a fact-finding mission to war-torn regions of Balochistan. They also demanded the immediate release of over 4,000 extra-judicially detained or missing Baloch, an end to all military operations in Balochistan and a recognition of Baloch rights. The demonstrators gave their unequivocal support to the people of Balochistan and the victims of military action in Balochistan and Sindh. A petition letter was handed in to 10 Downing Street by a number of demonstrators.

Iranian Balochi groups such as the Balochistan Peoples Party (BPP) have formed an alliance with the Democratic Solidarity Party of Ahwaz (DSPA) to push for minority rights and devolution of power through the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran (CNFI). CNFI also includes Kurds, Azeris and Turkmen, who are working together in a spirit of mutual solidarity. Iranian and Pakistani Balochis and Iran's Ahwazi Arab population share a common struggle for recognition of minority rights, an end to persecution and economic marginalisation and devolution of power. Both the BPP and the DSPA support non-violent means to empower minorities and are urging the international community to prevent attacks on innocent civilians in both Iran and Pakistan.

Deteriorating internal situation in Pakistan cause for concern
New Delhi | January 23, 2006 2:39:06 PM IST

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=228127&cat=India

Speaking to a Dubai daily last week, Senator and senior Baloch politician Sanaullah Baloch alleged that Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf was using poison gas to kill innocent civilians in Balochistan.

Comparing the Pakistani President and Army Chief with former Iraqi supremo Saddam Hussein, the fiery Baloch leader rhetorically asked, " Who is Pervez Musharraf? He is not a constitutionally elected President. He took over the reins in a military coup and has no business to speak about the Balochis who are suffering at the hands of the Pakistan armed forces and the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI)." This is a serious allegation by any yardstick and will be noted with grave concern both within Pakistan and by Pakistan watchers the world over. It is important to note that this allegation is being made by a senior Baloch and Pakistani politician and will no doubt be investigated further by the feisty Pakistani print-media which has put the Musharraf regime in the dock for its recent handling of the unrest in Baluchistan.

The poison gas charge is indicative of the nature of the internal discord and turbulence that has been brewing in the region for over a year. It may be recalled that in January 2005, a Pakistani lady doctor Shazia Khalid was raped in the premises of the Sui gas refinery by a Pakistani army officer and, instead of punishing the accused, the Pakistani establishment chose to hush up the case and threaten the victim--so much so that she had to flee the country.

The local Baloch people protested and this was put down with a heavy hand by the Pak 'fauj' leading to a pattern of escalating violence in which hundreds of Balochis have been killed and injured.

The Pakistani military presence has increased in the region and this has further exacerbated an already explosive situation leading to the current charge of the use of poison gas by the Pak military against their own citizens.

Comparisons are being made--within Pakistan--with the sequence of events that led to the birth of Bangladesh in 1971 and, while this may be exaggerated, there is little doubt that the internal situation in Pakistan is deteriorating in an undesirable manner--and this is of relevance to Delhi and the on-going Indo-Pak composite dialogue process that saw the two Foreign Secretaries meeting in Delhi on January 18.

The last week witnessed further unrest in Pakistan when, on January 13, in an air-strike purported to have been carried out by pilot-less CIA planes, missiles were fired at a house in the village of Damadola in the Bajaur Agency along the Pak-Afghan border. The target ostensibly was the Al Quaida number two Aiman Al Zawahiri but he appears not to have been present at the site (thereby suggesting faulty intelligence) and the net result was the killing of between 18 to 29 innocent local people--many belonging to one family.

This incident caused widespread anger in Pakistan and a nationwide protest on January 15 saw thousands taking to the streets in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and other parts of the country with the crowds chanting anti-Musharraf and anti US slogans.

This anti-American sentiment within the country compelled Gen Musharraf to assert to visiting US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns on January 21 that Islamabad would not allow such incidents to be repeated and that a recurrence could adversely affect the cooperation with the US in the war against the al Quaida.

Paradoxically, many in Pakistan believe that the relative success of the peace process with India has allowed the Pakistani military to re-assign its troops from the Indian border to deal with growing unrest within the country and that the image of stability that the Pakistani President is trying to project is misleading.

This is aptly reflected in an editorial comment in the Daily Times of January 16 that notes: "We have come to a point where 'security' is apparently held to be incompatible with 'politics.' The government is bogged down in Waziristan, Dera Bugti and Kohlu, and there is a growing threat from the grand opposition of the country of uniting and marching against Islamabad. If the PM and the President thought they could rely on Punjab, they should take another look at the growing opposition to the image the government is projecting of itself." The situation within Pakistan is further compounded by events in troubled Afghanistan next door and the resurgence of the Taliban has become very bloody in recent days. On January 15, a senior Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry was killed near Kandahar in a car bomb blast with the Taliban claiming responsibility. Later on January 16 a suicide bomber killed 21 people watching a wrestling match and this has been described as the deadliest attack since the US-led forces removed the Taliban from power in late 2001.

Consequently, there have been widespread protests in Afghanistan with more than 5,000 people in the Spinboldak region alone giving vent to their anger against Pakistan for sponsoring such violence.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has in the past accused Pakistan's ISI of nurturing the Taliban and not allowing the fledgling Afghan Parliament to settle down to the more serious task of reconstruction of a war-ravaged country and clearly the Pak-Afghan relationship is under strain.

To further stoke the kind of radical fervour that incites such terrorist violence, the Al Quaida supremo Osama bin Laden (OBL) released an audio tape through Al Jazeera (Jan 19). It dwelt on the US-led military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with an offer of truce and a warning to Washington that more attacks would follow if the truce was rejected (which the Bush administration promptly did) and a rallying call to his supporters in the Muslim world. The impact of this message will probably be known in the near future but it may be inferred that such communication will seek to convince the 'true OBL believer' to intensify the distorted 'jihad' that is being waged in the regions where this virus has spread in a virulent manner.

The theory of the psychology of terrorism accords considerable import to such motivational group dynamics and this manifests itself in a non-linear fashion as the world has tragically witnessed in the last two years from Madrid and London to Delhi.

The complex linkages of the above events would suggest that while Pakistan and Afghanistan will continue to be caught in the grip of increasing sectarian and religious radicalism, the anti-American sentiment in the Pakistani street will be the dominant strand in the popular perception. Gen Musharraf is perceived to be capitulating to the hated western Satan and the Damadola incident will generate deep reverberations among the religious right-wing constituency. In an unintended way, India is no longer the enemy Number One in the Pakistani psyche and the inauguration of the Amritsar-Lahore bus service (Jan 20) and the Munnabao-Khokrapar train link (Jan 30) are representative of the bonhomie at the people-to-people level in the two countries.

Gen Musharraf is in an unenviable position but he remains India's principal interlocutor at a time when the composite dialogue has made some encouraging progress. The much hoped for transition to true and credible civilian rule and democracy in Pakistan by 2007 is a gauntlet that the Pakistani people will have to pick up. In the interim, the Pakistani military remains the power behind the throne and long term stability both within Pakistan and its neighbourhood will be predicated on the perspicacity that the GHQ in Rawalpindi brings to the table-in dealing with Baluchistan, Waziristan and with Afghanistan and India.

(Cmde C Uday Bhaskar is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. The views expressed here are personal.) UNI XC NK DS1356

40 Sec Toilet to BALOCH Prisioners in PAKISTAN

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24 Jan 2006

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05 Apr 2006

by BALOCH FREEDOM STRUGGLE GATHERS FURTHER MOMENTUM

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BALOCH FREEDOM STRUGGLE GATHERS FURTHER MOMENTUM
by B.Raman

The freedom struggle, being waged by the people of Balochistan in Pakistan, continues to gather momentum despite the ruthless military operations launched by Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf since December last year.

2. The deployment of over 40,000 Pakistani troops and para-military forces---with many of them shifted from North and South Waziristan, where they were engaged on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other remnants of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Jundullah and various Chechen groups-- and the use air strikes have not had any negative impact on the freedom struggle and on the determination of the Balochs not to let themselves be defeated this time.

3. Afraid of moving out of their fortified posts lest they be ambushed and attacked by the forces of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the Pakistani security forces have been extensively planting mines in different parts of the State in the hope of thereby preventing the free movement of the freedom-fighters and causing casualties among them, without getting involved in a face-to-face fight with them.

4. The indiscriminate planting of mines by the Pakistani security forces have been causing fatal casualties not only among the freedom-fighters, but also innocent civilians. The BLA has instructed its fighters to exercise due care and caution in order to avoid casualties of innocent civilians.

5. The ruthless use of air strikes and mines by the Pakistan Army has not affected the morale of the BLA and other groups of freedom-fighters. Through innovative modus operandi, they have managed to maintain a regular barrage of attacks on the gas infrastructure in the province in order to disrupt the flow of gas to Punjab and other provinces of Pakistan. Last week, about 80 per cent of Balochistan was in total darkness following the disruption of the power supply by the BLA.

6. The freedom-fighters have been making imaginative and effective use of medium and long-range mortars captured from the Pakistan Army for attacking the posts of the security forces and for disrupting the movement of the security forces. Industrial and business enterprises owned by Punjabi and Pashtun businessmen continue to be the favourite targets of the BLA. The fear of the landmines has not prevented the BLA from making frontal attacks on Army posts in order to replenish their weapons holdings.

7. The people of Balochistan, despite the temporary economic difficulties caused by the on-going freedom struggle, have been extending their full support to the BLA and other groups of freedom-fighters. They understand and appreciate that such temporary difficulties are unavoidable in any freedom-struggle. The flow of volunteers to the BLA continues to remain high and their morale and motivation undiminished.

8. President Musharraf and his military-intelligence establishment have been greatly concerned over the increasing attention which the Baloch freedom struggle has been receiving in the US. Even widely-read newspapers like the "New York Times" have taken notice of the freedom-struggle and started publishing articles on the happenings in the province.

9. In a widely-disseminated (inside Balochistan) article, Carlotta Gall of the NY Times, has drawn the attention of the world to the worsening situation in the province. She wrote: " One visit makes it clear that, despite official denials, the Government is waging a full-scale military campaign here."

10. Concerned over the impact of the article on the minds of the Balochs, the Army has banned its dissemination and the police has been asked to arrest anyone distributing copies of the article. Till now, reports in the Indian media about the atrocities being committed by the Pakistan Army and Air Force were being dismissed by the Musharraf Government as mischievous Indian propaganda, but when a correspondent of a respected American daily, after a visit to the province, highlights the true picture, it is no longer possible for the Army to project that there is nothing abnormal in Balochistan.

11. Even earlier, the panic buttons were pressed in Islamabad, when, during a visit to Pakistan on March 13 and 14, 2006, Mr. Samuel W. Bodman, the US Energy Secretary, told the Pakistani journalists that the security situation in Balochistan was “an impediment” to foreign investment in Pakistan. In its issue of March 14, 2006, the "Daily Times" of Lahore quoted him as saying as follows: “The security situation needs to be improved as it is an impediment to investment. Until there is an improvement, substantial investment is not possible.”

12. He was also reported to have told his official Pakistani interlocutors that all talk of oil and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan would remain a pipedream till the security situation improved in Balochistan.

13. Following his visit, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Gen.Musharraf visited Balochistan one after the other to announce a number of economic sops for the Baloch people such as increased job quota for the Balochs in the Government service, preference for Balochs for recruitment in local development projects etc. These have been greeted with skepticism. In the past too, similar promises were made, but they remained unfulfilled.

14. Moreover, this time the Balochs are determined not to be satisfied with anything less than independence. Overtures for a dialogue have been made to them by politicians belonging to the military-created Pakistan Muslim League (Qaide Azam), but the freedom-fighters have been insisting that any dialogue has to be preceded by the abrogation of the plans for the construction of new cantonments, the de-militarisation of the province, an announcement of the willingness of the Government to order a review of the Chinese-aided projects in Balochistan and an acceptance by the Government that any future dialogue would have to be on the basis of an independent Balochistan, which might voluntarily decide to maintain some links with the other provinces of Pakistan.

15.The freedom fighters are also reportedly of the view that any dialogue between them and the Government should be on the pattern of the dialogue between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with Norway serving as a facilitator. They understand that India would not be acceptable to Islamabad as a facilitator. They are, therefore, not averse to Norway or Switzerland acting as the facilitator.

16. The duplicity of the Musharraf Government has become evident once again from the fact that even while making some seeming overtures to the freedom-fighters, Musharraf has gone ahead with his policy of divide and rule and make Baloch fight Baloch by pressurising Balochs living in other provinces of Pakistan for many years to go back to Balochistan under the protection of the Army and confront the freedom-fighters. The re-settlement of Punjabi and Pashtun ex-servicemen in key areas of Balochistan and constituting them into self-defence forces have also been stepped up by the Army in order to reduce the Balochs to a minority in their historic homeland.

17. The Shias of the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan), the Sindhis and the Mohajirs continue to extend political and moral support to the Balochs in their freedom struggle, but they are not yet in a position to launch a similar freedom struggle in their respective areas.

18. In the meanwhile, political and moral support for the Baloch independence struggle has come from an unexpected quarter--- the Maoists of India and Nepal. They have both condemned the reign of terror unleashed by the Pakistan Army against the Balochs. The Nepali Maoists have been angered by reports of the supply of arms and ammunition by the Musharraf Government to the King of Nepal to enable him to suppress the Maoists. They have retaliated by supporting the Baloch freedom-struggle. It remains to be seen whether the LTTE also would retaliate against Musharraf by supporting the Baloch freedom struggle because of its anger over reports of Pakistani assistance to the Government of President Mahinda Rajpakse for raising a Muslim regiment in the Sri Lankan Army to confront the non-Muslim Tamils in the Eastern Province.

19. In a statement titled "Support the Just Struggle of the Baloch People Against Pak Terror" disseminated last month, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has stated as follows:
"In December 2005 the Pakistan Army began massive attacks against the Balochi nationalists. They attacked by land and air bombing villages. Using combat jets, helicopter gunships and artillery, the military has been pounding tribal guerrillas in the gas-rich and strategically crucial Balochistan since mid-December. Hundreds have so far been killed. The Sui gas fields are said to have the largest reserves in the world. The crackdown coincided with the announcement of plans to privatize two gas distribution firms in the province.

"The Balochis have been facing a step-motherly treatment from the Pak rulers ever since the formation of Pakistan. The Balochi population is divided between Pakistan and Iran, but they consider themselves neither Pakistani nor Persian. In the Pakistan section they have a population of five lakhs. In all these years, they have been deprived of all political, social, cultural and economic rights. They have little educational facilities and have been kept in a state of backwardness.

"There are no Balochis in the top bureaucracy and of the 52 secretary level posts 31 are from Punjab alone. According to the secretary of the Baloch Nationalist Jamuri Vatari Party, Aga Shahid, both Pakistani and Irani secret police routinely arrest and torture Balochi youth, students and political activists. Over the years thousands have been killed. In the Pakistan part of Balochistan there are over 600 check posts and over 60,000 military forces present. Musharraf has further alienated the Balochis by sideling mainstream parties in favour of Islamists. He has alienated both the old non-religious tribal leadership as well as the new secular urban middle classes of Balochistan, who see no economic or political place for themselves in the present military-Islamic dispensation.

"Balochistan is not only rich in gas but is strategically placed; the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline will have to pass through it. The gas resources are in the control of Anglo-American consortiums.

"The struggle of the Balochi people for their right to self-determination including secession is a just struggle. The people of India lend support to their struggle against the terroristic Pakistani rulers, and at the same time oppose all forms of interference by the Indian double-dealing rulers in their struggle. No amount of repression can stop their struggle for self-determination. On February 7,2006, tribal guerrillas blew up several gas pipelines in the South-west region cutting off supplies to a US and British-owned power plant for the fourth time in one month. The main shareholders of the plant are Britain’s International Power Plc. and US firms Tenaska Inc. and GE Capital."

20. The Maoist parties of Asia have also strongly criticised the "revisionist" Chinese leadership in Beijing for helping the military clique in Pakistan in its efforts to suppress the Baloch freedom struggle.

21. The increasing US concern over the situation in Balochistan arises from the following factors:

The growing Chinese presence in a strategic area.
The safety of American investments in oil and gas exploration in the Province. Much of that investment has come from President George Bush's home province of Texas. In the fiscal year 2003-04, for which figures are available, the total value of private American investment flows into Pakistan amounted to US $ 238.36 million, of which US $ 125.80 million was for gas and oil exploration in Balochistan.
The shifting of the Pakistani troops from North and South Waziristan to suppress the Balochs has enabled the Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the International Islamic Front (IIF) to set up what is described as the provisional headquarters of the international Islamic Caliphate in the Waziristan area with Osama bin Laden as the Amir and bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Mulla Mohammad Omar, the Amir of the Taliban, Jalaluddin Haqqani of the Taliban and Prof.Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and a representative each of the IMU and the Chechens as members of its Shura.They have stepped up their activities in Afghanistan from this rear base of the Caliphate.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: itschen36-AT-gmail.com )

Re: BALOCHISTAN : Pakistani Army attrocities against Baloch community

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05 Apr 2006

by BALOCH FREEDOM STRUGGLE GATHERS FURTHER MOMENTUM

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Proof of MK-82 bombs fired from Pakistani fighter Jets

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LONG LIVE BALOCHISTAN

JWP chief says his militia killed 30-35 commandos, shot down 2 helicopters

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW OF NAWAB BUGTI

LAHORE: Tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti rejected the government’s claims of having killed 31 militants in a recent operation in Dera Bugti, saying that his private militia had instead inflicted severe damage on security forces.

: PAKISTANI FORCES SUFFER HEAVY LOSE IN BALOCHISTAN.
CLICK TO LISTEN BBC NEWS

Tribal rebels in Pakistan's Balochistan province have denied claims that Pakistani troops killed 31 of their fighters in attacks this week.

Some rebels had been injured in the clashes and security forces had now withdrawn from the Dera Bugti area, spokesmen for the tribesmen said.

Conflicting accounts of battle in Pakistan

Military says it killed 31 insurgents; tribal leaders deny toll, say they shot down a helicopter
By Naseer Kakar
ASSOCIATED PRESS
QUETTA, Pakistan - Security forces killed 31 fighters in an offensive against renegade Baluch tribesmen in southwestern Pakistan, officials said Thursday.

An aide of a top Baluch tribal leader, however, denied it, and said his militia had shot down a military helicopter — a claim rejected by the government.

It was not immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting accounts of Wednesday's fighting near Dera Bugti, a remote town about 210 miles southeast of Quetta, the capital of restive Baluchistan province.

Thousands of security forces have been deployed to battle the long-running insurgency in tribal regions of Pakistan's poorest province.

Tribesmen are demanding more royalties for natural gas extracted from their lands and oppose government moves to establish new military garrisons.

Abdur Raziq Bugti, the provincial government spokesman, said security forces on the ground, backed by helicopter gunships, targeted hideouts of militants accused of blowing up gas pipelines and attacking officials.

He said that intercepts of communications among the militants — who are led by prominent Baluch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti — indicated that 31 fighters had been killed.

Security forces also seized a cache of weapons, including rockets and land mines, but did not recover any bodies of dead militants, he said.

Wadera Alam Khan, a close aide of Akbar Bugti, denied any tribal fighters were killed.

"The helicopters bombed uninhabited mountainous areas that did not cause us any casualties. The government claims are based on lies," Khan said by phone from Dera Bugti.

"Our resistance fighters fired at and shot down a helicopter, and we are sure that all those flying in it have been killed," he said — although he offered no evidence to back up the claim.

The provincial government spokesman, and a military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have the authority to make media comments, said no helicopter had been shot down in the operation.

The government offensive this year has forced renegade chieftain Akbar Bugti from his redoubt in Dera Bugti and into hiding in arid mountains.

The violence has raised fears of a repeat of an uprising that rocked Baluchistan in the 1970s, when thousands died in a large-scale military operation against rebellious tribesmen.

Pakistan may hear a different tune from US

By Arun Kumar, Indo-Asian News Service

Washington, July 7 (IANS) Pakistan may well again raise the issue of an India type nuclear deal with US when Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri visits Washington next week, but he is more likely to hear a different tune - the war on terror and restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

When she meets Kasuri on Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is expected to focus more on how growing tension between Kabul and Islamabd is affecting the global war on terror and how further democratisation of Pakistan can put it firmly on what President Pervez Musharraf calls the road to 'enlightened moderation.'

In tune with President George Bush's famous phrase in Islamabad last March that 'Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and different histories', she may well remind Kasuri, as she did during her recent trip to Islamabad that the nuclear deal with India resulted from 'a special circumstance.'

And Pakistan's energy needs could well be met by other means like development of its coal reserves with US help as promised by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. But on the nuclear issue, the Americans are not expected to be any more receptive especially after offering it a $5.1 billion arms package, including 36 new F-16 fighter planes.
The Kasuri visit is taking place in the backdrop of a widening gulf between Kabul and Islamabad on the question of flushing out terrorists, especially the Taliban, operating from the tribal belt of North Waziristan and parts of Baluchistan.

He is thus expected to address a major US concern that in the face of increased terrorist activities, Kabul and Islamabad keep blaming each other instead of working together to curb terrorism. He would also try to remove misperceptions about Islamabad's new strategy to tackle extremism in the tribal belt through dialogue.

Washington would like to strengthen the trilateral mechanism of US, Afghanistan and Pakistan, aimed at eliminating the threat from Al Qaeda and the Taliban, at both tactical and strategic levels to make more effective.

Kasuri's interlocutors are also likely to remind him about Washington's expectation that starting with what Musharraf calls an 'enlightened and moderate Pakistan', Islamabad is finally going to move further on the road to democracy with free and fair elections in 2007.

While Afghanistan will be the primary focus, issues like US-Pakistan strategic dialogue and the composite dialogue process with India are expected to figure on Kasuri's agenda.

Kasuri will also meet with the National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and the chairmen of two key panels of US Congress, Richard Lugar and Henry Hyde, which are due to review the $5.1 billion arms package for Pakistan with the lower house committee taking it up on July 13.

The Congress has only until July 27, or 30 days after it was notified by the Pentagon, to reject the arms package. But it is widely expected that the deal would be approved as the administration has kept Congress members in the picture since March 2005 when US decided to sell F-16s to Pakistan.

Kasuri winds up his visit to Washington with a lecture on the war on terror, the Indian nuclear deal and US-Pakistani relations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on July 11.

Copyright Indo-Asian News Service

Dropping Musharraf?
Conn Hallinan | July 6, 2006

Editor: John Feffer, IRC

Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3347

There is a whiff of “regime change” in the air these days, but not where you might expect it. Not in Iraq, where the conservative U.S.-backed Shiites are already in power. Not in Iran, where White House threats have served to unite, rather than divide, that country. But in Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf has recently fallen out of U.S. favor.

Consider the following developments.

The Bush administration's “man in Kabul,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai, recently fingered Pakistan as the source of the current fighting in the southern part of his country. “The world should go where terrorism is nourished, where it is provided money and ideology,” he told a Kabul press conference this past June. “The war in Afghanistan should not be limited to Afghanistan.”

Chris Patten, former European Union commissioner for external affairs, echoed this theme in a mid-May commentary in the Wall Street Journal. “The problem in Afghanistan,” wrote Patten, “is Islamabad.”

When President Bush visited Pakistan in March, he lectured President Musharraf about the need to be more aggressive in the “war on terrorism,” although Pakistan has lost more soldiers fighting the Taliban in its northwestern tribal areas than the entire NATO coalition has lost in Afghanistan. And Bush refused to discuss the issue of Kashmir, the major flashpoint in Pakistan-India relations that has brought the two nuclear-armed powers to the brink of war on several occasions.

Indeed, when Musharraf asked for the same nuclear agreement that Washington had just handed New Delhi, Bush openly insulted his Islamabad hosts. With the Pakistani president standing stiffly beside him, Bush told the press, “I explained that Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and histories.”

The nuclear deal—which was favorably voted out of House and Senate committees—would let India bypass Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty sanctions slapped on it for secretly developing atomic weapons. The Indians could freely buy uranium for their civilian reactors and in turn divert their meager domestic uranium supplies into constructing more nuclear weapons.

The Bush Administration also cut $350 million in civilian and military aid to Pakistan because of a “ failure” to improve democracy and human rights.

And according to Syed Saleem Shahzad, Pakistan bureau chief for the Asia Times, “ Western intelligence” has helped funnel money through Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and London to insurgents in Pakistan's Baluchistan Province.

One can hardly blame Pakistan for feeling as though they are in the U.S. crosshairs. But why the sudden thumb's down from Washington? Musharraf has basically done everything the White House wanted him to do, including breaking with the Taliban and sending 90,000 troops to seal the border with Afghanistan.

The answer is not that Pakistan has fallen out of favor, but that it is a pawn that has outlived its usefulness in a global chess match aimed at China.

Chess with China
In 1992 the George H.W. Bush administration drew up a Defense Planning Guidance document that laid out a blueprint for a post-Cold War world. “The United States will attempt to dissuade any military competitor from developing disruptive or other capabilities that could enable regional hegemony or hostile action against the United States,” the document read, continuing, “Of the major and emerging powers, China has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States.”

Jump ahead to the year 2000 and a Foreign Affairs article by soon-to-be national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice: “China is not a ‘status quo' power, but one that would like to alter Asia's balance of power in its own favor … The United States must deepen its cooperation with Japan and South Korea and maintain its commitment to a robust military presence in the region,” she wrote, adding that the United States had to “pay close attention to India's role in the regional balance” to recruit the latter into an anti-China alliance.

While September 11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq derailed this grand scheme, recent developments suggest it is back on track, with strong support from the influential American Enterprise Institute, the Project for a New American Century, and wealthy foundations like Scaife, Olin, and Carthage.

The anti-China alliance is already well underway.

Japan and Australia have agreed to field U.S.-supplied anti-ballistic missiles, and the administration is wooing India to do the same. While the rationale for the ABMs is North Korea, the real target is China's twenty intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Japan—which has one of the largest navies in the world—is stepping up its military coordination with the United States and has agreed to support the United States in case it intervenes in a war between China and Taiwan.

In the meantime, the United States is pouring men and materials into Asia and beefing up bases in Japan and Guam. It is also conducting war games with India, and jointly patrolling the Malacca Straits with the Indian Navy.

There is a certain schizophrenia in U.S. policy toward China, because the United States needs China to ramrod the Six Party Talks with North Korea and would like China to join Washington's full court press on Iran. So far, however, China has refused to go along with economic sanctions against either Pyongyang or Tehran, a stance that has chilled relations with the Bush administration even further.

These counter-trends, however, are more than offset by Washington's continuing efforts to build bases in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, plus recent attacks by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on China's military (using some of the same language as in the 1992 document). In short, the Defense Guidance Plan appears to be alive and well.

But while chess is a supremely logical game, diplomacy is considerably messier, and the grand scheme to corner the dragon is stirring up some dangerous regional furies.

Japan Rising?
To get Japan on board the anti-China coalition, Washington has encouraged Tokyo to adopt a more muscular foreign policy. As a result, Japan has sent troops to Iraq and dumped Article Nine of its constitution renouncing war as a “sovereign right of the nation.”

When he was secretary of state, Colin Powell told the Financial Times, “If Japan is going to play a full role on the world's stage, Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution will have to be examined.”

Japanese right-wingers, with the support of over 100 members of the Diet, as well as powerful industrial organizations like Canon and Mitsubishi, are pushing textbooks that rewrite the history of World War II and downplay Japanese atrocities. But this resurgent Japanese nationalism has angered and frightened nations in the region, many of which have vivid memories of World War II.

Goading the dragon has become almost a sport in Japan. The government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recently took control of a lighthouse first established by right-wing nationalists on Diaoyu Island, an action China called a “provocation against, and an intrusion into territorial sovereignty.” Japan and China have also clashed over the Chunxiao offshore oil field. A Japanese official told the Financial Times that Tokyo was pursuing “proportional escalation” over the fields.

South Korea, which suffered through more than three decades of brutal Japanese occupation, is barely on speaking terms with Tokyo, and has come close to blows with Japan over the Tokdo Islands claimed by both nations.

Washington's support for Japan's growing militarism has also fueled anti-Americanism in South Korea and a growing movement to close U.S. bases in that country. This is hardly the atmosphere for a grand alliance.

From Kashmir to Baluchistan
The law of unintended consequences may be playing itself out with Indian and Pakistan as well. India's central strategy has always been to insure control of Kashmir and to weaken the Pakistani Army, two goals that the Bush administration seems to share.

According to the Asia Times, a CIA official told the Indians that weakening the Pakistani army was central to the U.S. goal of bringing “democracy” to Pakistan, though the lack of it never bothered Washington in the past. The Times also reports that the CIA has been meeting with exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who recently formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy.

General Hamid Gul, former head of the Pakistani InterService Intelligence organization, told the PakTribune that he thought the United States was aiming to replace Musharraf.

If the United States sides with India on Kashmir, Pakistan could be looking at a strategic defeat in a long-running dispute that would not only weaken the army but possibly destabilize the entire country.

So could a stalemate in Pakistan's counterinsurgency war in Baluchistan.

The Baluchistan conflict dates back to the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. The Baluchs, who are ethnically distinct from the Punjabis who dominate Pakistan, were forced to become part of the new state. It is Pakistan's poorest province and at the same time home to the country's largest oil and gas deposits, two realities that help fuel the insurgency.

India has been sharply critical of Pakistani actions in Baluchistan, although the Indians are highly aggressive with their own separatist movements.

In a March meeting with U.S. Central Command chief General John Abizaid, Musharraf accused India of aiding the insurgents financially, a charge New Delhi denies.

Is U.S. support for the nuclear deal and the Kashmir policy a quid pro quo for India joining the anti-China alliance? It is hard to fathom what else might explain Washington's relentless criticism of Pakistan for not doing enough in the “war on terrorism,” or the recent cut in aid.

Pakistan's response has been to raise defense spending, step up its production of nuclear weapons, and test a new generation of long-range missiles. But there is a significant section of the Indian elite that doesn't particularly fear a nuclear war between the two nations. “India can survive a nuclear attack,” says former Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes, “but Pakistan cannot.”

Washington's obsession with China is unleashing some particularly malevolent forms of nationalism that threaten to destabilize a broad swath of the region from South Asia to the north Pacific. In this chess match, India, with its enormous population and economic potential, is a major piece on the board. Pakistan, with a sixth the population and a tenth the economic potential, is a pawn.

An expendable one it would appear.

Conn Hallinan is a foreign policy analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus (online at www.fpif.org) and a lecturer in journalism at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Pakistan revives body for federal, provincial coordination

By Indo Asian News Service

Islamabad, July 7 (IANS) Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has revived a constitutional body to debate on federal and inter-provincial issues and find a way to tackle contentious matters between the federal government and the provinces.

To be headed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the body was revived on Thursday on the directives of the Supreme Court.

Named Council of Common Interests (CCI), it would have the four provincial chief ministers as members as well as three federal ministers from three provinces concerned with inter-provincial issues.

Somewhat akin to India's Inter-State Council, the members are to be nominated by the prime minister.

The ministers include Salim Saifullah Khan, minister for inter-provincial coordination, from North-West Frontier Province, Safdar Yar Mohammad Rind, minister of states and frontier regions, from Balochistan, and Ghaus Bakhsh Mehar, minister for narcotics control, from Sindh.

Addressing a press briefing, Shaukat Aziz said the CCI had been revived after several years to provide a constitutional platform to provincial representatives to freely express their views on issues of concern.

The News daily said: 'Not only the incumbent regime but also successive governments took a long time to realise the significance of the CCI in a federation.' The government and media analysts did not indicate after how many years the CCI was being reconstituted.

The Supreme Court in its verdict on the Steel Mills privatisation case had last month asked the government to revive the CCI. The privatisation process of the Pakistan Steel Mills was criticised and the deal scrapped.

Aziz said the president had approved his recommendations on reconstitution of the CCI, which is answerable to parliament.

The body is required to formulate and regulate policies in relation to matters in the Federal Legislative List and, in so far as it is in relation to the affairs of the federation, in the Concurrent Legislative List.

If the federal or a provincial government is dissatisfied with a decision of the CCI it may refer the matter to the parliament in a joint sitting, the decision of which will be final.

Pakistan has several long-pending disputes among the provinces and regions on sharing of natural resources, including river waters and gas. The CCI would be the forum where aggrieved parties, including the government, could make their appeals.

Copyright Indo-Asian News Service

MMA to fiercely resists Musharraf’s re-election: Fazl
QUETTA: Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) secretary general Maulana Fazlu Rehman has said that the religious alliance would strongly resist any move by present or any assembly to re-elect Musharraf as President for a second term.

Addressing the Nafaz-e-Shariat Conference in Kalat on Thursday, he said that MMA would never allow a President who has encouraged social degradation in the country, to be elected for the second term.

He said that contrary to the general impression that MMA supports the current uniformed regime, it would never permit the Assembly to re-elect President Musharraf for the second term.

He said that the current regime has itself admitted their failure to solve the main problems of the country, and its popularity has declined considerably. Hence they should bid farewell to their rule to save it from further annihilation.

He strongly refuted any differences in MMA polity, and said that the only solution for a way out of the current impasse was transparent and fair elections through an independent Election Commission.

While referring to the current budget, he said that the government has presented a total of seven budgets during its long tenure, and has brought nothing but disaster in its economic policies, causing more poverty, inflation and unemployment in their wake.

He lamented the sorrowful condition of provincial autonomy, while condemning the crisis of Balochistan.

He said that MMA would fully participate in a movement against the regime alongside its other opposition allies, and would leave no stone unturned to struggle for implementation of Islamic laws in the Country.

He also derided the government for Steel mill privatization fiasco, and vowed to nationalize all privatized assets, if voted to power, and to bury the army’s role in politics forever.

He also criticized Islamic Ideology Council as being a fake institution, and vowed to nominate true Islamic minded Ulema as its members.

He said that all the religious minded parties were struggling to uphold Islamic principles and values, which were being impugned with impunity by the current regime on the directives of its western masters.

He cited government’s bid to exclude Islamiyat from the education syllabus, countrywide, but was refrained from doing so due to MMA’s resistance, and government has been forced to announce Islamiyat studies from class one onwards.

He said that MMA wanted the rule of Constitution in the Country, but army rulers have always tended towards decimation of democracy, and institutions of the Country.

Commenting on the International scenario he said that America has not only committed acts of aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan but has also set its eyes over Iran, which would never be permitted. The Conference was also addressed by such notables as secretary general of the party , Maulana Ghafoor Haidri, Maulana Abdul Majeed Nadeem Shah, district nazim Kalat Hafiz Muhammad Ibrahim and others.

IRSA to meet water shares to provinces
ISLAMABAD: Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has started to supply water to provinces in accordance with their need due to the increase in water flow in rivers and dams.

IRSA sources said that presently 1,51,000 cusec water was being supplied to Sindh, 1,37,000 cusec to Punjab, 12,000 cusec to Balochistan and 8,000 cusec water being provided to NWFP.
They said that situation of water available for irrigation was improving and water flow in Indus river has been increased by 12,000 cusec.

Water flow in dams and rivers have been increased by 3,45,000 cusec in Northern Areas due to increase in temperature and down pour in different areas there after which outflow has been increased to 2,72,000 cusec.

Sources further said that about 74,000 cusec water was being stored in Mangala and Tarbila dams adding, presently water storage in Tarbila dam is 1.6 million acre feet and 2.9 million acre feet in Mangala dam.

Water flow in River Indus has been increased from 1,88,000 cusec to 200,000 cusec while 43,000 cusec water flows in River Kabul and 71,000 cusec has been recorded in Chanab river, they said.

Presidency now selecting cops for Balochistan
Posted by Admin on 2006/7/7 2:09:00 (1 reads)
ISLAMABAD: The Presidency and not the Prime Minister’s Secretariat will now decide which police officers of BPS 18 to send to serve in the violence-hit province of Balochistan, after Quetta complained that the Punjab government was blocking pending transfers.

A close aide of President General Pervez Musharraf - Lt General (r) Hamid Javed – in the Presidency has been tasked to directly select police officers from Punjab and post them in the troubled province, without yielding to pressure from the Punjab government or contacts of police officers who are unwilling to serve in Balochistan.

Sources confirmed that as a first major step, the Presidency had selected a group of nine officers of the Punjab Police, including the district Police officers of Narowal and Pakpattan, to serve in Balochistan.

Sources said that the Punjab government and Punjab Inspector General Major (r) Ziaul Hassan were not consulted in the selection, and the first they heard about it was when they received a fax from Islamabad containing the names of the officers and the ‘request’ to shift them to Balochistan.

Sources confirmed that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s powers to approve such transfers had been scrapped by the Presidency following complaints from the Balochistan government that the Punjab government was blocking the much-needed transfer of competent police officers.

Sources said the legal role of Establishment Secretary Tariq Bokhari in such postings and transfers had also been curtailed on the basis of a report that he was under pressure from politicians and influential cops to cancel their transfer orders. Sources said Mr Bokhari was now advising everyone who approached him regarding a transfer to contact the Presidency.

Sources said the decision to curtail the powers of the PM in such cases was taken after the Balochistan IGP, facing criticism for failing to bring security to the province, complained that he lacked competent officers. He is reported to have told the president that officers being shifted to Balochistan from Punjab would get their transfer orders cancelled through the Punjab government or even the prime minister in some cases. The president then decided to hand the task to Gen Hamid.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=200677\story_7-7-2006_pg1_2

Disappearances bother Balochistan

By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA: The Balochistan government has decided to covertly engage in negotiations with the federal government over the illegal disappearances of people in the province.

Sources told Daily Times that the Balochistan government had decided to lodge a ‘soft protest’ over the increasing reports of citizens allegedly being abducted by intelligence agencies. “The provincial government intends to send Finance Minister Ehsan Shah to Islamabad to discuss the increasing number of illegal detentions in Balochistan with Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao,” said a source asking not to be named. Daily Times also learned that in a recent telephone chat with Sherpao, Mr Shah had pleaded the case of two people, one a driver and the other a cable operator, reported missing from his constituency. A source said that Sherpao had assured Shah of getting one of the missing free, but Shah demanded both’s release.

“No innocent citizen is in custody of the agencies,” said Governor Owais Ghani. About Ali Asghar Bungulzai, a tailor from Quetta, who has been missing since October 18, 2001, Ghani said he had moved from pillar to post to find him but to no avail. “The chief of an intelligence agency had admitted in front of Hafiz Hussain Ahmed that Ali was in their custody,” said Daad Mohammad, Ali’s elder brother. Hafiz confirmed Daad’s claim and said that he had also been told to send some clothes for Ali.

It’s too late to talk to Bugti

QUETTA: It is too late for the government to offer Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti another invitation for negotiation because he has defiantly spurned all offers for peaceful talks, said Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani.

In an exclusive interview to Daily Times at the Governor’s Secretariat on Thursday, Ghani said that Balochistan did not belong to a handful of sardars and nawabs. “The government believes in taking the middle-class, educated majority of the province into confidence regarding all development plans,” he said, adding that there are no contacts between the government and Akbar Bugti. He said if Bugti is sincere with Balochistan and his people he should give up weapons and surrender. “Akbar Bugti would be given amnesty because of his old age,” said Ghani.

The governor said that most tribesmen had realised that their chiefs were fighting for their own interests. This realisation, he added, had prompted a large number of tribesmen to surrender to the government. Ghani said the government had evidence that some foreign countries were assisting the Baloch sardars in creating unrest in the province. Ghani refused to comment on suspected Indian involvement in the Balochistan crisis. He said the Gwadar Port will be inaugurated soon after the construction work is finished.

Balochwarna want to ask Mr Ghani the stooge of Islamabad's Punjabi generals that do you think Nawab Bugti will talk to a cheap person like? We doubt it.

Humanitarian crisis in Pakistani occupied Balochistan

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11 Jul 2006

by Anonymous Poster

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Humanitarian crisis in Pakistani occupied Balochistan

PRESS RELEASE:

KALAT, Balochistan – The Punjabi Raj and its military wing, the Pakistani armed forces, have embarked on “ethnic cleansing” of the Baloch nationals in occupied Balochistan. More than 300,000 Baloch are now displaced, and they are living as refugees under harsh conditions in neighboring territories of Pakhtunkhaw (officially known as the Northwest Frontier Province), Punjab, and Sindh.

Government of Balochistan (GOB) in Exile and its council members appeal to the global community and to the readers of this Blog to write to humanitarian organizations about the plight of the “Baloch Refugees”. These refugees are living in extreme hardship, and they are in dire need of assistance at this critical juncture.

The humanitarian organizations must setup refugee camps for the displaced Baloch nationals. They should establish field hospitals to treat the sick and injured civilians, and offer makeshift schools for the Baloch children. GOB (Exile) operatives have visited various areas in Balochistan, and they have identified the following locations for these refugee camps:

Kashmore-Jacobabad-Sibi area
Rakhni-Barkhan-Fort Munro areas
Quetta city
Each camp must have access to off-road vehicles, ambulances, landmine clearing vehicles, and rescue helicopters to reach the displaced Baloch nationals. The camps must be equipped with medicine, tents, clothing, blankets, water, foodstuff, milk powder, veterinary medicine, and etcetera to sustain the refugee and their livestock.

It is imperative that these humanitarian organizations are informed that “ethnic cleansing” is taking place in occupied Balochistan by the Punjabi Raj, and therefore, the Baloch Refugees do not trust anyone of Punjabi ethnicity who works for them. The refugees prefer to deal only with foreigners and ethnic Baloch, Pashtun and Sindhi nationals. All hiring by these organizations must be cognizant of this fact and avoid hiring Punjabis to assist the Baloch Refugees.

Involvement of humanitarian organizations to establish refugee camps will certainly minimize the sufferings of the affected Baloch Refugees. Furthermore, their presence in Balochistan will expose the atrocities being committed by the Punjabi Raj on the oppressed Baloch people. These camps will facilitate visits by international journalists so they can witness the suffering of the Baloch Refugees and investigate the ground realities in the conflict-ridden areas of occupied Balochistan.

Baloch News Bureau Report

Mir Azaad Khan Baloch
General Secretary
The Government of Balochistan in Exile
governmentofbalochistan.blogsport.com/

Re: BALOCHISTAN : Pakistani Army attrocities against Baloch community

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13 Jul 2006

by Hindu Baloch

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04 Sep 2006

by yahya mohiuddin

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Salam alaikum

I believed in pakistan when it claimed to mitigate the half-century long crisis in kashmir. They claimed to fight for independence for the "people" of kashmir. Now its becoming cleaer to me that it is not the people that we pakistanis care about it, it is the land. If the Balochis want thier own country or if they want to acheice an autonomy, then why should people from pakistan object that. It is very sad to know that pakistan is becoming a state that is after the land, the minerals, and other resources. It is really disheartening to see these pictures. I could not stop crying when i saw these pictures. It took me a long time to reach the ability where i could see these pictures and not burst into tears. I honestly hope that pakistan has the same objectives for balochistan as it claims to have for kashmir (independence or "Azadi")

Re: BALOCHISTAN : Pakistani Army attrocities against Baloch community

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06 Sep 2006

by Anonymous Poster

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The Miranshah agreement should be a cause for concern not only to the Balochs

by B. Raman

Since June 25, 2006, there has been a ceasefire in the North Waziristan area of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, where the Pakistan Army, under US pressure, had launched a military campaign two years ago against the remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban operating from there and their local tribal supporters, who had set up a de facto Talibanised Sharia state in the area.

2. The de facto Sharia state arrested and executed suspected spies of the US and the Government of Pakistan, banned radio and TV entertainment programmes, burnt TV sets and vigorously enforced the Islamic laws. It allowed Pakistani jihadi organisations such as the Jundullah, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) to set up their training camps there where Uzbeck, Chechen and Afghan instructors trained volunteers from Pakistan and the Pakistani diaspora abroad.

3. According to some Pakistani police sources, at least two of the suicide British terrorists of Pakistani origin, who had participated in the London blasts of July, 2005, and some of those arrested in connection with a recently thwarted terrorist plot targeted against US-bound planes had been trained in one of the training camps in the North Waziristan area. In addition to the training camps of these Pakistani organisations, a training camp of the Taliban of Mullah Mohammad Omar, its Amir, and another of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are also located in North Waziristan.

4. While the Jundullh camp was being run by Maitur Rehman, ,its Amir, who was previously in the LEJ and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), the camp of the Taliban was being run by Jalaluddin Haqqani and that of the IMU by Tahir Yuldeshev, its Amir. Apart from the Afghan Pashtuns and the Uzbecks, the other foreigners present in North Waziristan were Chechens, Uighurs and some Arabs, mainly Yemenis, Saudis and Egyptians. All these foreigners were mainly the survivors from among those who were helping the Taliban and Al Qaeda before 9/11. They were originally based in Afghanistan and crossed over into the FATA when the US started its military action against the Taliban and Al Qaeda on October 7, 2001.Many of these foreigners have married Pakistani tribal women, who have given birth to children. The tribals do not look upon those married to their women as foreigners. They treat them as members of their own tribe. Only those who have not married their women are treated by them as foreigners.

5. According to the same police sources, Osama bin Laden himself and his No.2 Ayman al-Zawahiri live separately. They keep moving between North Waziristan, the adjoining Bajaur agency and the Chitral area adjoining the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan).

6. The FATA has a total area of 27, 220 sq.kilometers---about 2.6 per cent of the total area of Pakistan. It has seven tribal agencies--- South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Kurram, Orakzai, Khyber, Mohmand and Bajaur. Orakzai is the only agency which does not have a common border with Afghanistan. The remaining six agencies have a common border with Afghanistan.

7. There are six more pockets which are designated as tribal areas, but these are in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and are located in the Districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Laki, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. The combined tribal population of the FATA and these six pockets is 3.5 million.

8. Initially, all these terrorist remnants had taken shelter in South Waziristan. The Army, under US pressure, mounted an operation against them in 2003. These operations, in which the Army sustained heavy casualties, led to a ceasefire under which the local tribals agreed not to allow foreigners to operate in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in South Waziristan. In return, the Army agreed to release all those arrested and to withdraw its troops from the area.

9. Following this, the terrorist remnants moved to North Waziristan and started operating against the US-led forces in Afghanistan from their new sanctuaries there. While Mullah Dadulla Akhund, a Pakistani member of the Taliban, co-ordinated the Taliban forays into Afghanistan from sanctuaries in Balochistan, Jallaluddin Haqqani co-ordinated the Taliban forays into Afghanistan from North Waziristan and Yuldeshev co-ordinated the forays of the Al Qaeda and the IMU.

10. In December last year, when the situation in Balochistan deteriorated due to the increase in the activities of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and other Baloch nationalist organisations, the majority of the Corps Commanders was reported to have told President General Pervez Musharraf that the Army was not in a position to wage two-front war---one against the Balochs in Balochistan and the other against the tribals of the FATA for sheltering the foreign terrorist elements operating against the NATO forces in Afghanistan.

11. They reportedly pointed out that the activities of the Baloch freedom-fighters posed a threat to Pakistan's unity and territorial integrity whereas the activities of the remnants of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban did not pose a threat to Pakistan's unity and territorial integrity. They, therefore, urged that Musharraf should reach a cease-fire with the tribals in the FATA area and divert the troops deployed there in support of the operations of the US-led forces in Afghanistan to Balochistan.

12. Since the beginning of this year, Musharraf started shifting some of the troops and equipment given by the US for counter-terrorism operations in the FATA to Balochistan. He posted Lt-Gen (retd) Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai, who is from the FATA, as the Governor of the NWFP, in which capacity he is also in charge of the FATA.

13. Lt.Gen.Orakzai, who has many friends from amongst the tribal elders in North Waziristan, persuaded the tribals to agree to a cease-fire from June 25, 2006, to enable the shifting of more troops to Balochistan. The cease-fire has held since then except for a few minor incidents. Lt. Gen. Orakzai constituted on July 20, 2006, a 50-member jirga (consultative council) of tribal elders to negotiate a peace agreement with representatives of the Government.

14. This peace agreement was signed on September 5, 2006. Azad Khan, a representative of the local Taliban, and North Waziristan's Chief Administrator Dr Fakhar-e-Alam signed the agreement at the football stadium of Government Degree College in Miranshah, the headquarter town of North Waziristan, in the presence of army commander Major General Azhar Ali Shah. A 10-member committee of tribal elders, clerics and administration officials was set up to monitor the progress and implementation of the agreement.

15. Under the agreement, the local Pakistani Taliban accepted the Government demand that cross-border attacks should not be launched into Afghanistan and no sanctuary should be given to foreign terrorists. They also agreed not to attack government buildings or security forces, and not to conduct “targeted killings” of government servants, tribal elders and journalists co-operating with the Government. In return, the Government agreed to stop air and ground operations; return all weapons and other material seized during operations; restore the privileges of tribesmen; and remove all check-posts.

16. A similar agreement signed in South Waziristan two years ago did not work. The Taliban, Al Qaeda and their supporters just moved to North Waziristan and started operating from there. It is likely that they would now move to Bajaur or some other agency and operate from there. The agreement covers only the forays of the terrorists from North Waziristan into A


Army operation in Marri and Bugti area of Balochistan 86 killed 100’s wounded On 17th December 2005 Pakistani Army launched an army operation against innocent Marri Baloch people throughout Kohlu District, Parts of Dera Bugti, Noshki, Makran Districts and other parts of Balochistan. More then thirty thousand army personnel twelve Gunship helicopters, four fighter jets, several spy planes of different sizes, heavy artillery and missiles are being used only in Talli, Bambore, Kahan, Jabbar, Nasau, Quat, Mundai and other parts of Marri Area. Due to ten days of intensive bombing and shelling by army Jets, Gunship Helicopters and heavy artillery at least 86 confirm deaths and more then 120 serious wounded have been reported. Mostly victims are women and young children. It is time for the Baloch people to unite and stand up against such atrocities by Punjabi Pakistan. Let me remind the international community that it is not the first time that such severe measures have been taken against the Baloch Nation. Until and unless the Baloch don’t unite and get the help of the international community to put a leash on Pakistani (Punjabi Army) this slaughter of Baloch people will continue. Pictures of Marri women and children killed in bombing and shelling by Pakistani Army. This shameless Pakistani Army still denies that there is no Army Operation going on in Balochistan. Take a look at the pictures below they speak for themselves, mutilated bodies of innocent young children who were deprived of all the facilities of modern world and now deprived of their own life, all this destitution to the Baloch is by the tyrant and shameless Punjabi Pakistani Army. By Balochvoice.com 28.12.05













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