By Archen Baloch
I didn't believe they would kill Baloch Journalist, Haji Abdul Razzaq who was arrested on March 24, 2013 in Karachi by Pakistani secret agency ISI and today Baloch media reported his mutilated dead body was found in Surjani area of Karachi along with another Baloch labour, Patan Bugti.Based on two assumptions I thought that firstly, his abduction has been well reported in international media and in international human right organizations and secondly, the newly ‘elected democratic’ government of Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad would at least spare the lives of Journalists in Balochistan. Unfortunately, I was wrong on both assumptions. It shows that Pakistan gives a tinker’s damn about what the international human rights organizations say and international media reports.
It goes without saying that Baloch
Journalism is too hard to be digested by Pakistani state because, it refused to
promote jihadi concepts and rather it sought to adhere to the truth and Razzaq
was one of those Baloch Journalists who promoted secular values and Human
Rights through his journalism and as a political activist. Dailytawar.com was
his only media platform through which he could reach to the general public and
wider world community.
After 11 days of his arrest,
Dailytawar.com in the form of Paper vanished from the streets of Balochistan’s
cities and villages and went offline from net service since the day when its
head office in Karachi was rampaged by Pakistani security forces in the early
hours of Saturday on 6th April, 2013.
None of Pakistan’s so called
mainstream media outlet protested against the attack on Daily Tawar’s office
and burning its entire archive, but again, just for international media
consumption, they often raise their concerns about the media freedom and of
course about the welfare of Journalists in Pakistan too.
Daily Tawar did not stop its
publication just because of security threat its reporters and writers received,
but because of the state’s systematic clampdown on the paper, which made it
utterly impossible for it to reach to general public, from printers to
transporters from street hawkers to bookshops all were prevented from
cooperating with it. And an online ban to dailytawar.com is in place to date.
Javid Naseer Rind, Razzaq Gul, Lala
Hameed, Ali Sher Kurd, Rahmtulla Shaheen and Ahmed Dad all were arrested by
Pakistani security agencies and put to death when they refused to submit to
state repression and their mutilated bodies were recovered in desolate areas .
All district press clubs and journalist associations across Balochistan have
received their fair share of gifts of mutilated dead bodies of reporters with a
single massage -
Naseer Rind Tagrani, subeditor of
Daily Tawar based in Hub city of Balochistan lost his life when he was arrested
along with Samad Tagrani, a leader of Baloch National Movement. Samad Tagrani
too was brutally killed and the bodies of both men were found dumped in Naal
area of Khuzdar district.
Noor Ahmed’s only sin was that he
reported about military operations from besieged towns of Sui and Dera Buigti
where Pakistani’s main energy arteries are situated that carry gas to
Pakistan’s dominant province of Punjab and other provinces whereas the owners
of the Sui gas fields are still forced carry woods from miles to use for
burning their homes.
Siddique Eido, a famous Baloch
journalist and human rights activist hailed from Balochistan coastal city of
Pasni where Pakistan’s second biggest Naval Base is situated after Karachi. His
reporting of military excesses against local fishermen irked ISI. Hence they
abducted him and subsequently his mutilated dead body was found near Gwadar
zero point.
Entire Khuzdar city of Balochistan
has been cleaned of Journalists, Mohmmed Khan Sasoli, one of the most senior
Journalists lost his life in a targeted attack by state sponsored death squad
when he refused to shut down Khuzdar Press Club even after losing all of
journalist colleagues. The brave Baloch Journalist, Saiful Rehman lost his life
when he rushed to the site where the deadliest suicidal carnage was inflicted
upon Balochistan’s religious minority Shiite Hazara people in Quetta.
In some cases, Pakistani state
agencies create a wall of obstacles with false reports against the asylum
seeking Baloch Journalists so that their applications for asylum are rejected.
Regular contributing journalists like Hafeez Hasanabadi, Shabir Baloch, Salam
Sabir and many others were forced to seek refuge abroad as the state security
apparatus made their live hell in Balochistan.
Khadim Lehri, the Chief Editor of
Daily Tawar went into hiding with his family when he saw that reporters and
journalists associated with his paper were being brutally killed by state
functionaries. He narrowly escaped abduction and subsequent as he went underground
just before his office was ransacked. He fled the death lurking behind him
every day as consequences of publishing the Daily Tawar. Once he was summoned
by a high ranking official of Pakistan’s secret agencies for a “Mutual
Understanding” and a message through him was conveyed to Hafeez Hasanabadi that
said he should refrain from writing against Pakistani state policies.
Hafeez Hasanabadi, a senior Baloch
journalist, who mostly writes in Urdu but has a good command on Russian,
Balochi and Persian languages, has been alleged with blasphemous remarks by
religious death squads. The death squads threatened to kill him and harm his
family abroad. With such allegations, neither can he freely travel nor can live
among his people in Pakistani occupied Balochistan where religious elements,
supported by state security agencies, are freely roaming and brandishing fatwa
against those who speak against atrocities of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He
and his family have gone in hiding to save their souls.
