The Baloch House

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C01%5C21%5Cstory_21-1-2010_pg3_1


The walkout by two ministers from the Balochistan Assembly session on Monday in protest against the killing of two Baloch students at a protest rally in Khuzdar last week and condemnation of the killings by senators of both the treasury and opposition benches once again focuses minds on the plight of the Baloch. When the PPP government presented a package for Balochistan, a province that has been fighting for its rights since the inception of Pakistan, many termed it a historic step. Though the Baloch nationalists rejected the package and said that it would not bring about any change in the current situation, a broad swathe of opinion thought the nationalist leaders were being overly pessimistic. Now, however, it seems the ‘pessimist’ Baloch nationalists were right after all. This has been proved yet again by the incident in Khuzdar, where the people’s right to a peaceful protest was violated and bruta…

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C01%5C24%5Cstory_24-1-2010_pg3_4

ANALYSIS: Parallel government —Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

The problem with the FC does not merely lie in its ethnic makeup, though it plays a major role in its attitude problem. The real problem lies with the mindset and its unbridled power compounded with a total absence of any accountability for its actions

Mohammad Aslam Bhootani, the Speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, though a member of the ruling coalition has a penchant for forthrightness that leaves many of his partners embarrassed. In May last year he said that the trust deficit between the Baloch leadership and Islamabad was a major impediment to resolving the Balochistan issue. He had also said there was “a perception in Balochistan that the Frontier Corps (FC) was running a parallel government in the province”.

The truth of his statement has presented itself in shedding of innocent blood in Khuzdar where two students, Ali Dost and Saddam Hussai…

The News, Pakistan
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=220240


Saturday, January 23, 2010
By Shahid Husain

Karachi

Family members of the missing persons observed a token hunger strike in front of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Friday, demanding release of their loved ones.

Carrying portraits of their loved ones, the innocent children and wives of many of the missing persons remained there for several hours.

The demonstration and hunger strike was observed under the auspices of Voice of Baloch Missing Persons Committee.

About 50 children and women from different parts of Balochistan participated in the protest.

Speaking at a press conference at the camp, Chairman and Vice Chairman of Voice of Baloch Missing Persons Committee, Nasrullah Baloch and Qadeer Baloch, respectively, and mother of Mir Wadood Raisani said that the people of Balochistan have been suffering from military operations for the last 62 years and genocide of Baloch people continues unstopped.

They said that the people…

Source: The News, Pakistan
Link: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=220029

Friday, January 22, 2010
By our correspondent

NAWABSHAH: Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Thursday called for the trial of his former mentor and president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf under Article VI of the Constitution for murdering the veteran Baloch leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

Addressing a press conference at the Circuit house here, the Baloch leader said the People’s Party government seems to be shy of taking action against Musharraf because it had brokered a ‘deal’, which enabled it to come to power.

Jamali said during his tenure as the prime minister, the former military dictator had asked him a number of times to take action against the Baloch insurgents but he refused.

Jamali opined the biggest problem in Balochistan was the trust deficit, saying half of the Baloch problem would solve if the government reposes trust in its people. He said if the Sindhis could unite on a single…

Daily Times , Pakistan
Link: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C01%5C23%5Cstory_23-1-2010_pg12_12

By Amar Guriro

KARACHI: Elderly Haji Muhammad Ibrahim, a resident of Bheempura, Lyari, still remembers the day of the grand wedding when they all prepared long for the celebrations.

Long before the wedding, the youths of his family had started rehearsing folk songs, drum beating and traditional Baloch dance.

They were all preparing for the wedding of their beloved leader Benazir Bhutto. “Bibi [Benazir Bhutto] used to call the people of Lyari ‘Lyari kay laadlay’ (pampered boys of Lyari) and also termed Lyari as her home...that’s why she decided to have her wedding in this town,” said Ibrahim.

“Bibi gave huge respect to the people of Lyari by arranging her wedding here and on her wedding day, she looked like a princess and we had dreamt that only she could bring an end to our sorrows, but alas they proved to be just dreams.”

Besides being a Pakistan People’s Party stronghold, …

Jan. 22, 2010

Washington DC: The American Friends of Baluchistan has lodged a formal complaint with U.S. authorities against suspected agents of the infamous Inter Services Intelligence who are working as diplomats at the Pakistan embassy, for posing as journalists and interviewing Baluch and Sindhi dissidents.

"Today on Friday as A.F.B. activists were protesting at the Pakistan embassy to protest the killing of Baluch people at the hands of state security forces of Pakistan and also by goons of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement the I.S.I. repeated its dirty tricks campaign,” the A.F.B. press statement said.

“At that time a lond sarrag, or oval head, the name used for Punjabis committing atrocities on Baluch people, approached me and said he wanted to interview me for GeoTV. I aked for his Press I.D., but he assured me he was a colleague of Sami Abraham, the GeoTV reporter in D.C."

The A.F.B. said at the time its acivists were raising slogans like "I.S.I. terrorist" and &q…