It is the first incident of target killing in the province, in which a woman has been targeted.
Mansoor (23), son of the slain teacher, told TheNation that her mother had never mentioned receiving a threat from any organisation.
Balochistan University Vice-Chancellor, Rasool Bakhsh Raisani, condemned the murder, saying whoever targeted her had committed a heinous crime. “The killers have violated our tribal customs by murdering a woman, a guest and a teacher,” he added.
Nazima Talib belonged to Punjab and was serving in varsity for the last two decades.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/28-Apr-2010/Varsity-woman-prof-shot-dead-in-Quetta

Slain professor of Quetta varsity buried in Karachi
By Imran Ayub
Thursday, 29 Apr, 2010

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/f0209d004249d9f4a773ff3a62692e55/protest-608.jpg?MOD=AJPERES

Protestors protesting against the killing of Prof Nazima Talib. – File Photo.

KARACHI: Almost everyone present at her home was in shock and grieving on Tuesday evening. But aged Rasheeda Begum had a dazed expression on her face on seeing her daughter, Prof Nazima Talib, return home from Quetta in a coffin. The professor, who had taught generations of students at Balochistan University for over two decades, was the latest victim of killings being carried out in the province for ethnic reasons.

In what could only be described as one of life’s little ironies, Prof Talib’s younger brother is now worried about the educational future of the only son of his sister who, he says, spent “the best part of her life educating the youths of Balochistan”.

“Is this the reward for a teacher’s services? A woman who left her home, family and shared more time of her day with students than her only son?” wonders Mahmood Talib Rana with tears rolling down his face and friends trying to comfort him. “When we heard the news, we thought someone was playing a rude trick on us. We wondered how anyone could target our sister in Quetta, which she considered her first home.”

Teaching in the University of Balochistan since 1987, Prof Nazima Talib was targeted on Sariab Road on Tuesday morning by two masked gunmen riding a motorcycle when she was travelling in a rickshaw. The fresh victim of the wave of targeted killings in Quetta was associated with the mass communication department of the university as an assistant professor.

Second among three brothers and three sisters, 56-year-old Nazima Talib was also a poet and short-story writer. She is survived by her 24-year-old son Muhammad Mansoor. Her ailing mother Rasheeda Begum was too grief-stricken to even cry on seeing her daughter’s face, before the coffin placed in front of their 120-square-yard home was taken to Jamia Masjid-o-Madressah in Gulshan-i-Umar for funeral prayers.

Unlike many others who attended the funeral and then burial of the assassinated professor, Masood Talib Rana is clear about the motive behind the daylight murder of his elder sister.

“It is a tradition neither of the Pakhtuns nor of the Baloch to kill innocent people. It’s something that can only be described as sheer brutality,” he says despite the fact that the Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the murder of Prof Talib.

Hours after the incident, a spokesman for the self-proclaimed army told reporters on telephone that the murder was in retaliation for the killing of two Baloch women in Quetta and Pasni and torturing of women political workers in Mand and Tump.

“Whether in this city or another in the country, we own each and everyone. The same we expect from the people of other areas regardless of their ethnic backgrounds or religious beliefs,” says Mr Rana.

As friends, family members and neighbours laid Prof Nazima Talib to rest in the Muhammad Shah graveyard of North Karachi, the Quetta police claimed a major breakthrough while investigating her killing. However, political leaders, who saw some hope after the Feb 2008 elections, feel “things are spinning out of the control of everyone”.

“It’s time to move fast,” says Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, the senior vice president of the National Party, who was also a member of the constitutional committee that drafted the 18th constitutional amendment bill, signed into law by the president recently.

He condemned the murder of Prof Nazima Talib.

“From the NFC award to the 18th amendment, the federal government has earned several credits, but still it needs to address key issues related to the people of Balochistan directly to address their grievances.”

Above all, he sees “non-existence of the writ of the government” mainly in Quetta, where various crimes other than targeted killings are common.

“Targeted killing is not the only problem there. Kidnapping for ransom and extortion have also become routine in Quetta. There is no government on ground in the provincial capital, and in these circumstances you can’t even imagine that the situation will improve. There is a need to address the issues in both ways — administratively and politically.”

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/19-slain-professor-of-quetta-varsity-buried-in-karachi-940-hh-05

Here is an article by a man (Mr Talpur) whose approach seems to be no different from Taliban apologists (e.g., compare his logic to Imran Khan’s apologist explanation of the Taliban’s atrocities):

One thing is clear. This man is hesitating from an unconditional condemnation of violence against an innocent citizen. Shameful attitude.

ANALYSIS: Two wrongs never make a right —Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

The killing of non-combatants in any conflict is reprehensible and deserves to be unequivocally condemned; the condemnation, however, has to be even-handed. You cannot condemn infringements of the rights of one group and neglect the travails of others. At the risk of being misunderstood, I have ventured to write about the sad and unnecessary killing of Assistant Professor Nazima Talib and condemn it. I, however, want to make it clear that my sympathies have always been and will always be with the struggle for Baloch rights.

Who is to blame for this killing? Naturally, those who planned and carried out this killing come to our mind, but the responsibility does not end here. Those responsible, i.e. the ruling political, military and bureaucratic hierarchy, commonly known as the ‘establishment’, for the entire 63-year span of political, social, economic and military repression of the Baloch people are equally to blame.

Complicit in this crime is the mainstream media, which chooses to be very selective in its condemnation, highlighting and sidelining of incidents. A brutal crackdown in Baloch localities in Quetta on April 20 resulted in the death of Shahnaz Mengal. It was conveniently glossed over like a normal everyday occurrence and given insignificant coverage. Was her life dispensable or of lesser importance? In contrast, there have been editorials in all major dailies regarding the sad killing of Nazima Talib. The media needs to reappraise its selectivity of highlighting what it thinks is important and neglecting the woes of those with whom it finds difficult to identify. As long as this biased media approach persists, those responsible for brutalities against the Baloch will continue.

The state and the media seem to suffer from the ‘Gaza syndrome’, in which a single homemade rocket fired by the Palestinians has to be brought to world attention, while the bombing of Gaza is glossed over. This attitude has led to the deterioration of the situation and unless the will to listen and heed the problems is shown, the spree of senseless killings will continue to escalate, taking its toll of innocent lives.

In Baloch society, women and children are never targeted in revenge killings, however intense and deep-rooted the enmity may be. In the Baloch tradition, if a woman intervenes in a fight, the opponents back off. So why are the Baloch provoked into acts which are contrary to their code of conduct and traditions? I do not attempt to justify the act of killing Nazima Talib, who did a lot of good by turning out many good Baloch journalists and should not have been targeted, but would like to say the provocations are of a grave nature. The law enforcement agencies involved in crackdowns and operations are extremely rough and coarse in their approach and attitudes. They do not respect the sensibilities of the people they come to ‘fix up’. Disproportionate use of force is the standard procedure and gender is no bar to the treatment meted out. It was this approach that resulted in the death of Shahnaz Mengal. The security personnel, like colonialists, are simply clueless about the sensibilities of the people they are sent to deal with and not bothered about the pain and suffering they cause.

Baloch women have been at the receiving end for a long time. Professor Naela Qadri Baloch used to teach at Balochistan University and her husband Ghulam Mustafa Qadri was a librarian. They were hounded due to their activism against the 1998 nuclear tests and had to go underground; her present whereabouts are not known. No one has even bothered to raise a voice in their favour. Women protestors are not spared and no one bothers. There is too much bias about whose woes are advocated and whose are conveniently disregarded.

The government has been actively promoting Talibanisation of minds by affording facilities to religious institutions in an effort to neutralise the secular Baloch people’s demands for their rights. Unsurprisingly, acid attacks against girls who venture out to bazaars are being carried out. Three sisters were seriously injured in Kalat on Friday and on April 13, two sisters were similarly injured by acid-throwing motorcyclists in Dalbandin. Such attacks can only be carried out by warped minds. An unknown ‘Baloch Ghairat Mand Group’ has claimed responsibility.

The local press is muzzled, threatened and restrained from voicing the demands of the people. A group calling itself ‘Baloch Musalla Difa Tanzeem’ threatened Khuzdar Press Club against coverage of Baloch nationalist parties or face consequences. This group had claimed responsibility for a grenade attack on students in Khuzdar during a cultural event celebration in March. Witnesses however blamed the Frontier Corps (FC). Asaap was the most popular Urdu daily, which expressed the sentiments of the people of Balochistan. Its offices were besieged in August 2009 by the FC for two weeks and eventually stationing of a tank outside its offices sealed its fate. Abid Amin, the Bureau Chief of Balochi language satellite channel, ‘Sabz Bath Balochistan’ (SBB) in District Turbat, was picked up by the FC as retribution for covering the first death anniversary of Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Lala Munir and Sher Mohammad — who were allegedly kidnapped and subsequently killed by the FC personnel last year. Munir Mengal’s story is too well known to need repeating. Instances of intimidation are too numerous to detail.

When people are denied their rights for decades with no hope of redress and meaningless packages are presented as a panacea, when brutal crackdowns and military operations on unarmed people are considered the best solution to demands for justice, when the local media is repressed and severely constrained and the mainstream media is biased and selective, when government-sponsored groups attack peaceful Baloch rallies and Talibanisation is promoted to thwart the struggle for just demands, then, though unjustified, reprisals against innocents occur. A torturous history of repression widens the chasm of trust to the extent that retaliating in kind becomes the only option for some.

However, I feel that two wrongs never make a right for the simple reason that by stooping to the level of the enemy, one loses the high moral ground and legitimacy, which in the first place justifies struggles. Revolutionaries need to remember that there is a very thin red line distinguishing revolution from terrorism and the danger is that once the threshold is crossed, return becomes difficult and all good work may be lost as a result. Retaliation decisions should not be made lightly, as soft target options may become a habit, as it has with the state.

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur has an association with the Baloch rights movement going back to the early 1970s. He can be contacted at [email protected]

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\05\02\story_2-5-2010_pg3_4