The Baloch House

http://www.paktribune.com/news/print.php?id=224058

QUETTA: Balochistan Provincial Police Officer (PPO) Syed Javed Shah Bokhari has said the Police Department is facing problems in maintaining law and order in the province owing to lack of resources and threats to police officers from miscreants.

“The local police are receiving threats while the officers coming from other provinces are scared in discharging their duties,” he told our sources on Sunday. However, the PPO was confident that policing could be improved by providing enough resources to the province.

The police could just give general protection to the people, but it could not provide protection to each and every citizen, he said. The PPO said it was a wrong perception that the police had a magic wand to stop the crimes.

“There will be improvement in the police system if the police are provided abundant resources,” he added. He said the issue of terrorism could not be countered through normal policing. For countering the type of …

January 29, 2010

A young Sunni who was detained by Intelligence agents fours years ago, accused of planting bomb, and was found guilty of Moharebeh (waging war), was hanged on January 23.



The condemned man, Rahmat Zehi-Shahnavazi, 35, was a resident of the city of Khash, and he was known for his cultural and religious activities in Baluchistan province.



Four years ago, when a bomb went off in the city of Zahedan, he was detained in front of his residence and, without ever confessing to his guilt, he had been found guilty and held in prison for the last two years.



Source: Harana

http://www.ihrv.org/inf/?p=3629

Veteran politician Nawab Sherbaz Khan Mazari, in a candid interview with The News, talks about the past, present and future of the Baloch struggle, and politics in Pakistan

Monday, February 01, 2010
By Sajid Hussain

Karachi

Veteran politician Sardar Sherbaz Khan Mazari has said that the Baloch have reached the point of no return and had he been younger he would have joined the Baloch struggle in the mountains.

In an exclusive interview with The News, Mazari said that Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s assassination had created a wide gap between the federation and the Baloch which was difficult to bridge.

“Akbar Khan [Bugti] called me via satellite phone weeks before his assassination. He wanted to say goodbye to me because he knew he would be killed sooner or later. I told him that I wanted to (fight) along with him, but he replied in his characteristic style: ‘No Sherbaz, you are too old to fight with me’. The fact is that he was older than me,” said the 79-year-old politician-cum-intellectual.

Maza…

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=221861

Monday, February 01, 2010
By Shahid Husain

Karachi

Intelligence agencies in Pakistan are using drugs to extract information from political activists, while doctors on the payroll of the state are believed to be playing a role in this unethical practice, The News has learnt.

Abdul Wahab, a 55-year-old Baloch activist, told The News that he was injected with a drug by intelligence agencies after he was picked up on May 28, 2008 from near Zainab Market, Karachi.

“We held a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on May 28, 2008 to condemn the creation of an atom bomb. After the rally, I was going back to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan office situated nearby, when I was stopped by two plain-clothed men near Zainab Market. These men put a revolver on my temple, pushed me in a white car and put a chador over me,” Wahab told The News.

Wahab said that the car reached some place after nearly half an hour, a gate was opened and he wa…

DAILY TIMES, Pakistan

By Sanaullah Baloch
Monday, 01 Feb, 2010

IN the past 60 years, the people of Balochistan have endured immense suffering. They have lost their sovereignty and identity, and have been ruthlessly exploited.

A peaceful, autonomous region before 1948, Balochistan now resembles the war-torn West African countries where resources have been turned into a curse rather than a cure for the native population.

The recent history of the Baloch people, particularly from 1948 onwards, has been marked by confrontation, segregation, exploitation and increasingly abysmal living conditions throughout the province. During this period, the central government’s priority has been to develop and expand the security network in Balochistan, in order to get what it wants. Put simply, Islamabad has adopted a clear and consistent ‘gunboat’ policy in order to remain in command of the province.

The establishment holds the Baloch people and their leadership responsible for the current state of affa…