Dead BodyISTAN
Posted by Admin on Nov 21st, 2010

http://www.thebalochhal.com/2010/11/editorial-dead-bodyistan/

The recovery of the dead bodies of nine Baloch political workers, students and a journalist from different parts of Balochistan, within only 36 hours has sent shock waves across the province. People’s Eid celebrations were ruined after receiving the bullet-riddled dead bodies of Baloch youth, most of whom were in their 20s. While enraged Balochs decided to observe a complete shutter down and wheel jam strike in many districts of Balochistan, the complete silence of the provincial governor and the chief minister is a testament of the two top officials’ utter indifference towards the sufferings of the indigenous people of this province.

In spite of repeated requests, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Ifthakar Chaudhary has also decided to pay a deaf ear to the grave violation of human rights in Balochistan. Similarly, the recovery of at least nine missing persons’ dead bodies was not sufficiently reported in the national media.

The dead body of a twenty-five year old journalist and the president of Baloch National Movement (BNM) Gwadar Chapter, Lala Hameed Hayatan, was thrown away in the Sami River with a note saying ” a gift of Eid for the Balochs”. Hameed was a popular journalist with a background in nationalistic politics. He was popular in Gwadar for his constant involvement in the community services. Another friend of his, Hamid Ismail, who had been kidnapped along with Hameed, has also been killed and thrown in an inhuman manner.

The killing of the two young men has sparked a wave of anger and frustration among the people of Mekran. The Gwadar Press Club has called for three days of mourning while the political parties have gone on a complete wheel jam and shutter down strike. The relatives of the murdered Baloch professionals have once again pointed fingers at the official institutions for kidnapping and killing the Baloch citizens.

The situation in Balochistan is at its lowest ebb. The government has not fulfilled its promise of recovering the missing persons which is no longer the real matter. The biggest problem right now is the recovery of the dead bodies of the missing persons from different parts of the province showing marks of severe torture and thrown away in a very offensive manner. Judicial and legal committees formulated in the past to trace the perpetrators of these murders totally failed for obvious reasons.

Currently, every Baloch district in the province has a long list of the missing persons. In the same way, the phenomenon of killing the missing persons and throwing away their bodies is not confined to one or two districts alone. Besides the recovery of Hameed and Hamid’s dead bodies in Turbat, two bullet-riddled bodies of Bashir Ahmed Lehri and Asamatullah Sarpara have been found from Mastung while in Kalat the bodies of Nasrullah Samalani and Mir Jan and Mohammad Rashim were found in Kalat. In Khuzdar, the dead body of an Engineering University student Samiullah Mengal was found in Khuzdar. An activist of the Baloch Student Organization (BSO-Mohiuddin) was also killed by unknown armed men.

Veteran Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal has said such tactics are meant to make it impossible for the Balochs to live on their own land but predicted that such methods would not eliminate nationalistic movements. The underground Baloch Liberation Army has asked the Balochs to remain patient saying that “more difficult times area still ahead”. The Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party has expressed full solidarity with the Balochs and strongly condemned the killings of the Baloch activists.

The gruesome state of affairs in Balochistan once again calls for unity among the Baloch political stakeholders. While they surely have the democratic right to adopt different forms of struggle, they should understand the seriousness of the matter and end all kinds of differences.

The matter in Balochistan is no longer restricted to the issue of autonomy. It has transformed into a great humanitarian issue which needs urgent attention from the international human rights watchdogs.

We would urge the President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the deteriorating state of human rights in Balochistan. These violent tactics will further flare-up the conflict in the province.