Journalist Haji Abdul Razzaq, the Latest Victim of Baloch Genocide in Pakistan

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 - How dare you speak the truth??

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.

Baloch resistance to all Pakistani designs, including Gwadar Project, Open Letter to Indian Media

Open Letter to Indian Media 
May 20, 2013 

Archen Baloch 

Sir, I’m a Baloch human rights activist from Balochistan but, because of media blackout, I am unable to present the ugly picture of human rights abuses that Pakistan Army is committing in the Balochistan conflict on a daily basis. Internet service is deliberately filtered and has been throttled to extremely low speed limits where it takes impossibly long times to upload or download a picture or video particularly during elections days or military operations. Media access to Balochistan can be gauged by the facts that during recent Pakistani elections, international observers’ teams were not allowed to visit Balochistan due to the fear that the grim situation of Baloch nation will be exposed to international media glare. Previously, a UN team of human rights was also not allowed to visit Balochistan. All international media outlets are banned to visit Balochistan. During Pakistani elections days no international media was allowed to enter Balochistan to report directly. Pakistani media does not report what the government does not want reported. Baloch nation entirely refused to participate in Pakistani elections, but Pakistani media, as biased as it could be, reported distorted facts about elections results. Actual Pakistani election turnout in Balochistan was 0.5% but Pakistani media, controlled by Islamabad, said it was around 35% to 40%. But, of all, the most serious situation for us is the Gwadar Port control that has been assigned to China against the will of Baloch nation. Internationally we want to say that we’re against Chinese presence on our soil but through what sort of media we can say that? Pakistani media will not risk the wrath of the state. We’re in need of effective media access so that our leaders and intellectuals can present the interests of Balochistan and expose the intrigues Pakistan weaves in the Indian subcontinent against Balochistan and of course, against India too. To oppose and expose Pakistani and Chinese designs about Gwadar in the future, we want Indian electronic media to allow us voice so that we can express our concerns. Baloch resistance to all Pakistani designs, including Gwadar Project in the Indian subcontinent has created the condition whereby we find that our national interests are dependent on each other’s success. The Balochistan conflict is a struggle for freedom for decades without assistance. Pakistan serving the strategic interests of powerful countries in the the Indian subcontinent leaves no one to insist on our rights. Therefore, as a secular people and natural allies in the Indian subcontinent, Baloch nation has high expectations that the great Indian nation would come forward and support Baloch national cause for freedom in real time for moral support. After having consultation with fellow human rights activists, we have identified one of our intellectuals, Hafeez Hasanabadi who can participate in an interview in Hindi language, as he is a well-informed journalist among Baloch intellectual circles. We request Indian media to discontinue their bias and allow us access to present the facts about Balochistan and let the world and Indian nation as well know what the ground situation in Balochistan is! Facts that Pakistani media ignores. Indian media routinely interviews Pakistani journalists and political and Pakistan Army figures, who represent only one side of the situation here in Balochistan and their talk on Balochistan is enforcing silence. We believe that a fair media would strive to give voice to those who are silenced. I am sending this open letter in the hope of stirring the conscience of Indian media and requesting aid to present the massive humanitarian crisis and devastation of the Baloch people wreaked by the Pakistani state. Ongoing attacks on people using massive weapons of war, deprivation of basic needs, radioactive contamination of our soil leading to strange illnesses, silencing of our voice, killing and dumping of our intellectuals and brutal attacks on civilian homes continue to devastate the people of Balochistan on a regular basis.


https://aamjanata.com/baloch-resistance-pakistani-designs-including-gwadar-project/

Why “Daily Tawar” is singled out For Persecution?

By Archen Baloch The difficulties that the Daily Tawar faced right from the beginning are still persisting but now their intensity has increased to extreme. It was only Journalists who reported and presented the real picture of the society and the death and destruction of the world’s horrific big wars. In its journalistic responsibilities, Daily Tawar has always strived to adhere to the principles of real journalism in the war of justice and unfairness. Despite facing the state sponsored conspiracies and bitter hostilities and having lost some of its exceptional team members, Javid Naseer Rind, Razzaq Gul, Lala Hameed, Ali Sher Kurd, Rahmtulla Shaheen and others, Daily Twar has never wavered in its ten years journey of presenting the truth. Within the parameters of real journalism, Daily Tawar not only refused to become a commercial enterprise, but also it assumed the responsibility of interpreting Baloch aspiration and worked hard to expose the real face of God gifted State of (Pakistan) and its conspiracies against Baloch identity and Balochistan’s integrity. The established role of opposition in political system world over is to effectively check the corruption and wrong doings of the state machinery. The same role of opposition is also established in Pakistani parliamentary system. It not only opposes government’s wrong decisions and misdeeds but also it helps the rulers to see the right way. This was what Daily Tawar did right from the beginning which is supposed to be the role of an opposition party in the political system of a democratic state. If you go through the archives of its ten years issues, you will not be able to find that it has ever indulged in any activity against the state. Rather, you will find that it has played the role of opposition depicting the real face of the state. Nowhere in the world is opposition regarded as a state enemy. But unfortunately, the state has designated daily “Tawar” as a state enemy, which is nothing more than hypocrisy. Daily Tawar kept changing its office in different places because of the heinous criminal threats of abduction and kill its staff members, the reporters, subeditors and proof readers received from different state security agencies. Despite being under tremendous psychological pressure and difficult financial situation, the staff members, the reporters from all over Balochistan never severed their relationship with the Tawar. The state failed to break the strong will of the Tawar because of the editorial’s strong policy of adherence to the parameters of the law. The news items or reports that Tawar publishes are the same items as disseminated from different news agencies to newspapers. As Daily Tawar has no source of its own. The only difference is that it highlights the news items that are specifically related to Baloch and Balochistan. This is the main sin that irked the Pakistan authorities and made them commit atrocities against Journalists working with Tawar. The Baloch journalists are not only harassed but many of them have also been killed after their abduction. When the state failed to suppress Daily Tawar, out of utter desperation, it burned its office and the records and computers were looted in the mid of the night. It all depends on good intention. The opponents of Daily Tawar must realize that Tawar is strongly committed to Baloch Society. It continues its struggle to remain as part of Baloch society and is ready to face any crisis that might come on its way.

The continuous strike of the families of abducted Baloch is being ignored by world media: VBMP

MARCH 23, 2013 · 10:18 PM

Reported by Archen Baloch

Occupied Balochistan: The chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Mr Nasrullah Baloch, told the media on Thursday that extra judicial killings, abduction of Baloch people and throwing their mutilated dead bodies on deserted areas is not a good example of civilized societies.

He said the International Media and Human Rights bodies were ignoring the plight of the Baloch people which is why the rights violations continue in Balochistan unabated.

He said Hakeem Bugti and Sanwal Bugti had been released, but Ali Bugti and Asgar Ali Bugti were still missing. These people were extra abducted by security forces a few days back from Jamshoro area of Hyderabad city in Sindh. He said these people were among the Baloch internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were forced to seek refuge in Sindh in 2006 when Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was murdered by Pakistani forces.

“Three more people, Sanaulla, Jalil Ahmed and Naseer Ahmed have been arrested from Quetta,” Mr Baloch said, adding that the families including women and children of the disappeared persons have been constantly protesting but nobody listens to them.

He said, “The abduction of Baloch political workers and youth is still continuing unabatedly across Balochistan. The abductors throw the mutilated dead bodies in deserted areas after subjecting them to inhuman torture.”

However, he said, that Supreme Court was constantly putting pressure on the security establishment to stop extra judicial arrests of people and present the abducted people before the court of law. “The security establishment do not need to the orders of the court,” he said.

The Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons urged the United Nations, International Human Rights Organisations and International Court of Justice to take notice of on-going human rights violations in Balochistan. Mr Nasrullah Baloch said it was the moral duty of UN human rights bodies to take strong action against inhuman practice of enforced disappearances in Balochistan and help Baloch nation to get released their loved ones from the illegal custody of Pakistani security forces.

Throwing of Mutilated Dead Bodies of Enforced Missing Persons isn’t a Good Example of a Civilized Society! VBMP

Archen Baloch   22/03/13

Occupied Balochistan: Quetta- The chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Mr Nasrullah Baloch told the media that extra judicial abduction of Baloch people and throwing their mutilated dead bodies on deserted areas isn't a good example of civilized societies!

Informing the media he said Hakeem Bugti and Sanwal Bugti had been released, but Ali Bugti and Asgar Ali Bugti were still missing. These people were extra judicially abducted by security forces a few days back from Jamshoro area of Khaiderabad city of Sindh provice.  He said these people were among those IDPs who were forced to seek refuge in Sindh when Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti embraced Martyrdom.

Three more people, Sanaulla, Jalil Ahmed and Naseer Ahmed have been arrested from Quetta, he informed the media while talking to “Online” he said families, women, children of the missing persons are constantly protesting but nobody listens to them.

“Extra judicial abduction of Baloch political workers and youth is still continuing unabatedly across Balochistan. The abductors throw the mutilated dead bodies in deserted areas after subjecting them to inhuman suffering in torture cells” he said.   

However, he said that Supreme Court was constant putting pressure on the security establishment to stop extra judicial arrest of people and produce them before the courts who’ve been abducted extra judicially by security forces. However, he said security establishment was not heeding to court orders.

Urging the United Nations, International Human Rights Organizations and International Court of Justice, Mr Nasrullah Baloch said “It is the moral duty of UN’s human rights related bodies to take strong steps against inhuman practice of enforced disappearances in Balochistan and help Baloch nation to get released their all love ones from their abductors”.

AN OPEN LETTER TO HAMID MIR (GEO TV)

 March 19, 2013

Translated from Urdu by Archen Baloch

Dear Hamid Mir,

I’m writing you this letter with the hope that perhaps the historians of the next century – standing in the witness box of history – will reveal the truth about the oppressed Baloch nation, hold the colonial powers and occupying rulers of the day accountable and examine the role and discourse of its advocates and intelligentsia. It should not be the case that today’s columnists and intellectuals are restrained by the fear of the ruler or its lust for conquest.

A century ago, British Lord B. Fell said, “We know and understand the history of Egypt far better than the Egyptians do.” Even one hundred and 25 years later these contemptuous words remain on the pages of history. Similarly, the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, when in Gadhi Khuda Baksh said, “Baloch should learn politics from us.” His implication was that the Baloch are ignorant, illiterate and unfamiliar with statecraft–born to be slaves. There is only the gap of a century between the words of Lord B. Fell and President Zardari, but the subject and message is the same: the lesson of slavery.

Mr. Hamid Mir, you hold the leading position among contemporary intellectuals belonging to the colonial state’s electronic and print media. Many of the policies of the state are devised and executed with the counsel of your community. But knowledge and consciousness demand to be on the side of truth. Jean-Paul Sartre, who despite being French, supported the Algerian freedom movement against the colonial system with his pen and wrote a golden chapter of history. Like Sartre, Mr. Hamid Mir, you are an intellectual. Yet you not only support the inhumane, immoral and terrorizing conduct of the occupying state in Balochistan, you have also actively advised the state regarding how to eliminate the Baloch freedom fighters and how to perpetuate its occupation over Baloch land. With the intimidation of the younger brother of Shaheed Assad Baloch, Akhar Mengal, you would enable the state to conquer the strong fortress of Baloch by building a Trojan horse out of him. If Akhtar Mengal is intimidated and taken in by you, it would be a master stroke of your molding hand. With the threat of state terrorism, not only have you tried to intimidate him into submission, but you have become a bridge to encourage him to cut a deal with the secret agencies of the state.

You have never regarded the Baloch as a nation and freedom a right of every nation. Is it just to deprive a nation of its freedom through the use of intellectual ploys? Five hundred years ago Nicholas Machiavelli advised a prince that kings and rulers are not bound by any values and permanent morals. If that is just, then why is Machiavelli under critique? Kings and rulers are never incriminated because all court intellectuals are subservient to their respective masters. In order to maintain their stranglehold, they advise their masters and propagate their policies. The struggle of the oppressed is portrayed as wrong and the result of ignorance. Sometimes religion is also utilized to subdue the oppressed. At present the intelligentsia of the Pakistani occupier is doing the same to the Baloch and you are a participant in this oppression.

Mr. Mir Sahib, you claim to be the banner bearer of human rights. When Malala Yousufzai was attacked you were among the first to condemn this inhumane act. Although it is commendable, on December 25, 2012, when Pakistani occupying forces were showering fire and iron from their helicopter gunships at Tank of the Mashkay area, in which 18 innocent women, children and elderly men were killed–among them Bahti was 2 years old and Bibi Mahnaz, 70–all Pakistani intellectuals, including you, were silent.

Is this justice to a man of your intellect? Or is it beneficial to vicious rulers? You decide. Two years ago, Bibi Zamur Baloch and her daughter were martyred by Pakistani beasts in the streets of Karachi. Previously, Pakistani state agents abducted Zarina Marri, along with her infant child Murad, while she was on her way to school in Quetta. On January 21, 2013, in Besima of Kharan district, Pakistani forces, along with the local death squad, broke into a house and martyred a prominent Balochi and Brahvi poet, Qasim Baloch, along with his sister Rozina Baloch. Over such poignant, heart-rending incidents, not a single word comes out of the mouths of Pakistan intellectuals. Perhaps it is because these oppressed people are Baloch.

At present Baloch are fighting a war for their freedom and the blood of this freedom loving nation is cheap. The only way to do justice with their blood is to forget it altogether. Because forgetting is the only way to escape the wrath of the master.

Those are just a few examples among thousands of incidents, mutilated dead bodies of our martyrs and Baloch prisoners that I mentioned herein. Mir Sahib, nations never die. If it were so, then the Israeli nation would have not existed at all. Even after two thousand years of persecution they have their state, although their suppressive treatment of the Palestinians is condemnable. General Dyer is not alive anymore, but the British Prime Minister calls the Jalyanwala Bagh mishap shameful. And your Bangladeshi history is a recent example.

Mir Sahib, it may come to pass that the words of Zardari and Lord B. Fell and your silence will be deemed Machiavellian. Perhaps our great grandchildren, while reading the bitter facts of history after a century, will conclude that today’s enlightenment was not directed against oppression, but utilized to maintain oppression. In any case, it is now a chapter of history that Pakistan’s intellectuals have encouraged the occupying army to control Makuran and Bolan in order to successfully control Balochistan.

Regards,

Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch

March 15, 2013

The so Called Nationalist Parties are forming an Evil Alignment against Baloch Freedom
Movement: BNM

18/12/2012 

By Archen Baloch

Occupied Balochistan Quetta:The central spokesperson of Baloch National Movement has said that occupying state is engaged in a sinister design to align all so called nationalist parties into a front against revolutionary forces of freedom movement. To revive the dead politics of vote and money these Parties have been given the task to spread lethal propaganda against popular freedom movement. Referring to a statement issued by National Party in which it was said that “the Elections are the only way to prevent civil war in Balochistan” the spokesperson said that that statement was the clear proof of National Party that it was collaborating with occupying state.
The spokesperson further said that National Part has now become a propaganda machine for occupying state which has interpreted the resistance movement as a civil war so that the revolutionary freedom
movement does not get the public support which help them to solidify Punjabi rule over Baloch as a slave nation. He said that one cannot reject the fact that it was National Party leadership that took a U turn from revolutionary path of freedom movement by selling the sacred blood of our fallen heroes. They traded the sacred freedom ideology of martyrs
for some privileges of the enemy.
The spokesperson said that BNM continues to oppose those parliamentary parties who have now started lacing themselves for upcoming elections.
He added that a strong public campaign would be launched against Pakistani elections in occupied Balochistan.
He said that Baloch nation is well aware of the real face of these state salaried parties. He urged the workers of the BNM to proactively work for public awareness so that the colonial state and its henchmen are not succeeded in their ill design against freedom struggle of the fallen heroes for an independent of Balochistan.