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Dejected Balochistan
The Barkhan massacre is part of a chain
Historically experienced, Baloch have always raised such legal points, but in return, they have been either abducted and tortured or killed in broad daylight and their cases were closed with FIRs against ‘unknown armed men’.
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In February alone, Balochistan has witnessed very tough days where the already sickening enforced disappearances have now included women and children too, while private jails, under ministers and local elites, have ingested innocent lives with women going raped and men tortured to death. In between, justice has always remained a mystery for the masses because they are supported by ‘powers’ that no one can challenge. As a result, a sense of deprivation is taking deep roots among the Baloch youth and women which is fueling the ongoing insurgency in the already deprived province.
On February 3, a raid was reported in Quetta where a family was arrested-cum-disappeared including Raheem Zehri, his wife Rasheeda Zehri, his mother and two children. The very next day, Zehri’s mother and two children were released, however, the couple remained captives without identifying what crimes they had committted. Protests broke out across Pakistan including Karachi, Quetta, Islamabad, Lahore, Turbat, Khuzdar and other parts of the country. After 13 days, Rasheeda was set free and till today she cannot reckon what her guilt was, while her husband Raheem is still in the ‘torture cells’.
The issue of Raheem Zehri had not then resolved and people were questioning the wrongful detention of the Zehri family, when on the night of February 17, the notorious CounterTerrorism Department (CTD) raided the house of Mahal Baloch and detained her whole family, including Mahal herself, her mother-in-law Mahnaz (around 65 years old), her two minor daughters nugrah (seven) and nazink (six) and her minor niece Banadi (12).
They were taken to the CTD prison where all the night, as claimed by the other detainees when they were released the next day, the CTD tortured Mahal Baloch and forced her to accept she had a suicide bombing jacket. “Because they were brought by CTD themselves, how could Mahal endorse that?” they say.
Apart from torturing Mahal, they interrogated the three minors which is not legal by any means. How can you interrogate minors aged six, aeven and 12 without their guardian or next friend? Under what law was this interrogation held? And under which law was Mahal tortured in front of the minors? Who will make the tarnished CTD accountable for its violations of human and state laws?
As for FIRs on unknown persons, the readers is reminded that since 2019, a woman was seen in a video holding a Quran and shouting out loudly to save her family from the illegal detention of a provincial minister, Abdul Rehman Khetran. The woman was Granaz Baloch, wife of Khan Mohammad Marri. In a recent discovery, three dead bodies were recovered in a ditch in the Barkhan district of Balochistan. The bodies, because they were tortured, raped and killed, could not be identified initially. However, Khan Mohammad Marri claimed the woman was her wife Granaz and the other two were his sons, who were in the custody of the provincial minister.
In a poster-mortem report on February 23, it was found out that the corpses did not include her whom Mr Marri had claimed to have been his wife Granaz. The doctor who examined the bodies, Dr Ayesha Faiz, says the female body is of a young girl aged 17 or 18,. who was raped, tortured and killed. “Three bullets were hit on the head of the girl, and acid was thrown on her neck and face to hide her identity,” says Dr Faiz.
Other reports say that the girl was the only daughter of Khan Mohammad, while Levies claim to have recovered Granaz with her children from Barkhan. It again becomes an enigma whose dead bodies were found? Whatever may be the case, we cannot ignore the involvement of Rehman Khetran in the private prison case and the murders of the innocent persons there.
Another mystery in the Barkhan tragedy is that the family had nominated the provincial minister but police had registered the FIR against an ‘unknown’ person, which means the provincial administration is trying hard to safeguard the minister by any means whatsoever. In
India opened four consulates at Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat and Mazar-eSharif, besides its embassy at Kabul. It pampered Ahmad Shah Massoud as its protégé for use on the Afghan chessboard as and when circumstances allowed. India is still using these consulates to stoke up secessionist movements in Balochistan and the volatile tribal belt.
The way India hastily vacated its consulates in Afghanistan portends that India would take such steps as would offend the nascent Taliban 2.0 government.
India calls Pakistan the epicentre of terrorism.
And India’s attitude reflects ‘the pot calling the kettle black’. By supplying arms to the military junta in Myanmar and the Islamic State, India has qualified itself as a rogue state. It should be classified as such by the UN, and be subjected to punitive international sanctions.
India too trained Afghan northern Alliance fighters. India’s ambassador Bharath Raj Muthu Kumar, with the consent of then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, coordinated military and medical assistance that India was secretly giving to Ahmad Shah Massoud and his forces in Afghanistan. east Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was not a disputed territory. It was an integral part of Pakistan.
But, India harboured, nurtured, trained and armed Bengali ‘freedom fighters’ on Indian soil.
RAW’s cover officers, including RK yadav and B. Raman, make no bones about India’s involvement in Bangladesh’s insurgency. They admitted that India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi, Parliament, RAW and the armed forces acted in tandem to dismember Pakistan. Raman reminds us that the Indian Parliament passed a resolution on 31 March 1971, to support the insurgency.
Indira Gandhi had then confided with RAW chief R.n.Kao that in case Sheikh Mujib was prevented ruling Pakistan, she would liberate east Pakistan from the clutches of the military junta.
India, the world’s largest democracy, has nurtured closer relations with Myanmar’s military junta over the past two years, including providing weapons at least four times since the 2021 coup d’etat, fact, the spokesperson of the Balochistan Government, Farah Azeem Shah, too, rejects news of setting aside the minister from his chair which is yet another hint that the government is favoring him.
On the other hand, police raided Rehman Khetran’s homes in Quetta and arrested him.
On February 23, when the provincial minister was produced in the court of a magistrate in Quetta, the police asked for judicial remand of the minister for which the court granted 10 days of judicial remand to further inquire the matter.
Among all this, we can observe a great effort to ensure Abdul Rehman Khetran is removed from the case and the delaying tactics are being used to dampen the public anger and clean their memory of the Barkhan tragedy. To further strengthen their stance, the Quddus-led government formed a judicial inquiry committee which is to probe the issue and bring forth a detailed report within 30 days after the notification was issued. And again, the members belonging to the same circle include the DIG Loralai(Chairman/Convener), SSP Quetta (Member), Representative of Special Branch Barkhan (Member), Deputy Commissioner Barkhan (Member/Secretary) and any coopted member.
The tragedy, above all and everything, is that Balochistan is used to judicial commissions with no results. From the commission on enforced disappearances to the one on Ziarat’s fake encounters by the same CTD, every commission which was formed in Balochistan was to merely serve the interests of parties other than the Baloch civilians. At a realm of this, every ray of hope for the Baloch seems hindered, ultimately leading the masses to get disheartened with the state’s stepmotherly behaviour towards the Baloch and Balochistan.
The writer is a Law student at University Law College Quetta and tweets at @Alijanmaqsood12
Last year, heavy artillery weapons, detonators for bombs and thermal imaging devices used with automatic rifles and scopes were sold.As an expression of solidarity with the junta, Indian Ambassador Vinay Kumar attended the military council’s Independence Day ceremony.
The report from the Office of the United nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also noted that an Indian state-owned enterprise supplied a remote-controlled weapons air defence station.
In 2022, India’s Tonbo Imaging delivered telescopes used in automatic and sniper rifles. And last March, Indian company Sandeep Metalcraft delivered fuses to be used in bombs and grenades by Myanmar’s military.
“India’s supply of fuses to the Myanmar military is inexcusable,” India is directly supporting the junta’s indiscriminate attacks against civilians by allowing the export of key components in the very weapons the military is using to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Of course, another factor is that India must keep the junta from drawing too close with China, Salai Ceu Bik Thaw said.
India calls Pakistan the epicentre of terrorism. And India’s attitude reflects ‘the pot calling the kettle black’. By supplying arms to the military junta in Myanmar and the Islamic State, India has qualified itself as a rogue state. It should be classified as such by the Un, andbe subjected to punitive international sanctions.
The writer is a freelance journalist, has served in the Pakistan government for 39 years and holds degrees in economics, business administration, and law. He can be reached atamjedjaaved@gmail.com
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A silent killer
HePATITIS is known as the silent killer. It has recently been found alarmingly rising in peri-urban squatter settlements around Karachi. Since Pakistan has a high load of hepatitis B and C, non-governmental organisations (nGOs) routinely screen pregnant women for hepatitis B and C in the targeted communities.
During 2020-2021, a data set identified a remarkable increase of hepatitis C-positive pregnant women in a local community. A screening campaign was planned for the targeted population, covering a different area each day. Advocacy was targeted through banners and awareness sessions/social meetings were held with the community by community health workers. Rapid diagnostic test kits were used for randomly screening 978 residents of villages. Out of them, 11.9 per cent individuals were positive for hepatitis C, 1.4pc for hepatitis B, and 0.2pc for both. The affected persons were financially supported by a philanthropist. They were referred to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and some welfare organisations. Their diagnosis was confirmed, and appropriate treatment was given to them. The findings were actually just a tip of the proverbial iceberg; the actual disease burden is much higher than that. The provincial government has launched the Hepatitis Prevention and Control Programme (HPCP), which aims at ensuring a hepatitis-free Sindh by providing vaccination and screening free of cost. This is the right step forward.
DR MAHWISH NAIM KARACHI
Boycott of classes is not a solution
STUDyInG at a public university comes at a cost. It is no wonder that public universities in Pakistan are fighting battles against poor infrastructure, substandard examination systems, shortage of teaching staff, appalling policy implementation, delayed entry tests and announcement of examination results, non-availability of power, … the list is simply endless.
With this shabby academic environment, students are now facing a frequent boycott of classes at the University of Karachi. One of the major public-sector universities in the country, having 53 departments and approximately 41,000 full-time students, the University of Karachi has been facing a complete boycott of academic activities by teachers for some time.
The boycott may end today or it may end tomorrow or it may go on indefinitely or it may have ended already; such is the level of uncertainty that has gripped the university and its students. The ultimate sufferers, as is always the case in such a situation, will be the students. Their academic life is in a disarray, and once the classes resume, the teachers will simply leave the course work incomplete because the exams will be held on time. By boycotting classes, the teachers may get whatever it is that they are asking for, or maybe the university administration will claim a victory, but the losers on all counts and beyond doubt or debate will be the students.
The educational system is already in a bad shape owing to a long history of neglect and mismanagement. One wonders what the teachers and the administration are up to in these grim times, knowing fully well that they are merely contributing to the decay of an already mismanaged system. The Karachi University Teachers’ Society (Kuts) has been repeatedly raising its concerns on issues pertaining to delay in the formulation of selection boards, but the university adminis-tration has been turning a blind eye to the frustration of the teachers.
It is not for the students to decide who is at fault. Maybe the teachers are right. Maybe the administration is. But what does it matter? The only thing that matters is the continuation of the classes.
Why do students have to pay the price every time somebody within the educational system feels aggrieved? The provincial government needs to get involved with the university adminis-tration and get the matter sorted out so that the academic process may resume.
MAliK MuhAMMAd AshrAf
IT is beyond dispute that the country is immersed in the worst ever economic and political crisis, courtesy the shenanigans of the military dictators, and continued interference by the establishment in the political domain and dirty politics by the unscrupulous politicians. As a result the hapless masses are groaning under the crushing blow of the never-ending agony.
The fact that Pakistan sought IMF bail-outs 23 times beginning from 1958 proves beyond an iota of doubt that the talk about development and prosperity by successive rulers was nothing but a farce. They have been duping the masses with false narratives and claims. Is it not a matter of shame that even after 75 years of independence we are running around with a begging bowl to keep the country afloat and confronting perennial political instability with its overall debilitating impact on the polity? even more painful reality is that nobody is bothered about the plight of the people and state interests. The game of power politics continues unabated.
The architect of the present situation is surely Imran Khan who was catapulted to the corridors of power through a conspiracy orchestrated by the establishment and given finality by some pliable judges of the apex court.
Since his party emerged on the political horizon in 2013 by obtaining only 35 seats in a house of 372, Imran has been fomenting political instability in the country. He alleged that the elections were rigged and also accused the Punjab caretaker Chief Minister najam Sethi of having manipulated 35 seats in favour of the PML(n) which he called ‘punctures’. He demanded judicial inquiry into his allegations regarding rigging. However when the judicial commission announced its findings in July 2015 falsifying his claims of rigging, Imran in an interview with a private TV channel admitted that allegations regarding ‘35 punctures’ were only political talk. He said that somebody had told him about it and he made it a basis of his cam-
