Pakistani Army attrocities against Baloch community

[indianguy4u]

Pakistani Army attrocities against Baloch community

Army operation in Marri and Bugti area of Balochistan 86 killed 100’s wounded

On 17th December 2005 Pakistani Army launched an army operation against innocent Marri Baloch people throughout Kohlu District, Parts of Dera Bugti, Noshki, Makran Districts and other parts of Balochistan.

More then thirty thousand army personnel twelve Gunship helicopters, four fighter jets, several spy planes of different sizes, heavy artillery and missiles are being used only in Talli, Bambore, Kahan, Jabbar, Nasau, Quat, Mundai and other parts of Marri Area.

Due to ten days of intensive bombing and shelling by army Jets, Gunship Helicopters and heavy artillery at least 86 confirm deaths and more then 120 serious wounded have been reported. Mostly victims are women and young children.

It is time for the Baloch people to unite and stand up against such atrocities by Punjabi Pakistan. Let me remind the international community that it is not the first time that such severe measures have been taken against the Baloch Nation.

Until and unless the Baloch don’t unite and get the help of the international community to put a leash on Pakistani (Punjabi Army) this slaughter of Baloch people will continue.

Pictures of Marri women and children killed in bombing and shelling by Pakistani Army. This shameless Pakistani Army still denies that there is no Army Operation going on in Balochistan.

Take a look at the pictures below they speak for themselves, mutilated bodies of innocent young children who were deprived of all the facilities of modern world and now deprived of their own life, all this destitution to the Baloch is by the tyrant and shameless Punjabi Pakistani Army. By Balochvoice.com 28.12.05

Click on the link & see the horific pictures of PA atrocities.

[667medic]

The pics are sickening man but then we don't have to stoop down to a pakistani's level by posting the suffering of people just to prove a point.

[Neo]

Horrible pictures indeed!

[Neo]

Whats the point of opening a fourth thread on the same issue?
Spamming?

[Neo]

Please check the following link;

http://www.gopetition.com/online/5704.html

[lemontree]

Today morning Zee News had shown yesterdays demonstration in front of the Balochistan Legislative Assembly (?), the people were protesting against the army atrocities in the on going operations in Balochistan.

[indianguy4u]

The pics are sickening man but then we don't have to stoop down to a pakistani's level by posting the suffering of people just to prove a point.

Thats why i didnt posted those image here, rather just give the link for the same & story.

[indianguy4u]

link

Pak's Vietnam

By Samuel Baid

Pakistan's largest, but least populated, province of Baluchistan has much in common with the fate of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Kashmir, which Pakistan has kept in subjugation since 1947 without giving its people civil rights or letting them have a national identity.

Pakistan calls the Gilgit-Baltistan region its Northern Areas but flatly disowns it when courts, including the Supreme Court, ask why the local people are not given their rights. True, Gilgit-Baltistan has not been shown as Pakistan's territory in the country's successive Constitutions and its areas. But Pakistan treats it as a colony, or worse. Islamabad controls its economy, natural wealth and all spheres of life.

One difference between Baluchistan and Gilgit-Baltistan is that while the former was annexed by Pakistan through persuasion and massive land and air military action in 1948, the Gilgit Scouts had revolted against Maharaja Hari Singh's rule under the instigation of the British and freed the present Gilgit-Baltistan region on November 1, 1947, and handed it over to Pakistan for temporary administration. According to the 1993 order of the High Court of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, his arrangement became defunct after the promulgation of the 1974 Provisional Constitution. Accordingly, the administration of this region was ordered to be handed over to POK or "Azad" Kashmir, as Pakistan calls it. Within less than 18 months, the High Court's order was vacated by the POK Supreme Court in an appeal filed by Islamabad.

In Baluchistan, the Khan of Kalat was forced at a darbar held in Sibi in 1948 to accede to Pakistan along with states of Mekran, Kharan and Lasbela. These four states were merged into a Baluchistan States Union of which the Khan of Kalat was made the Khan-e-Azam. The other part of Baluchistan, called British Baluchistan, was controlled by the then Governor-General, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, through an agent who was only answerable to him and not to the Cabinet. Jinnah's presence at the Sibi darbar helped the agreement with the Khan of Kalat but his (Jinnah's) death later in the same year left the work half-done.

In other words, Baluchistan's annexation was complete but its assimilation into Pakistan had not started because the post-Jinnah Muslim League leadership was devoid of a national vision and too preoccupied with petty intrigues. The Khan of Kalat had become impatient and when Pakistan was moving towards the military rule through a maze of political crises, he revolted against Pakistan saying he had been put under unfair pressure and misled at the 1948 Sibi talks. Khan surrendered after a military action.

He might have been encouraged to raise the banner of revolt by bitter protests that were raging through Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) against the imposition of the "One Unit" scheme that joined Sindh, Baluchistan, NWFP and Punjab into one province named West Pakistan. On the one hand, this scheme tried to rub off cultural and linguistic identities of constituent provinces of West Pakistan and on the other, it snatched away their right to the natural wealth of their respective provinces.

To the people of Baluchistan, it does not matter whether Pakistan has a military or civilian government. Either way, they are treated as a conquered people who cannot claim equal rights, human rights or right to the natural wealth of their province. Like Gilgit-Baltistan, Baluchistan is low priority for the national media. Their grievances, deprivations, injustices and suppression of rights are blacked out or played down. They are suddenly reported by the media when the locals' protests became violent and the military action takes place. To the common man in Punjab, these are law and order problem regions where Army action is justifiable. The British treated the people of Gilgit-Baltistan as criminal brutes and dealt with them with an inhuman law called Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). Pakistan, too, dealt with these people with FCR until Bhutto abolished it.

Unlike Gilgit-Baltistan, Baluchistan has a provincial Assembly and elects its representatives to parliament. But Baluch cannot use these representative forums to effectively air their grievances. This is sad that the people get idea about the problem of Baluchistan only when the Army starts a crackdown to suppress their protests. Gilgit-Baltistan has so-called Northern Council, which had its first political party-based elections in October 1994. The next elections took place in November 1999.

But every time the Pakistan-based parties - the PPP and the Muslim League - emerged as the main parties. Though this council is called a legislative body, it cannot legislate and its members do not freely debate the problems of their areas because of the fear of intelligence men. Moreover, the Chief Executive is not a local person, but Pakistan's Minister of Kashmir Affairs. This region, too, comes into news when the locals' protests are met with the Army's might. Both regions have a high rate of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment among young people.

(The writer is Director, Institute for Media Studies & Information Technology, YMCA, New Delhi & formerly Editor, UNI)

[indianguy4u]

link

This time Baluchs have hit hard

MK Dhar, Political analyst

Instead of deploying Air Force helicopters to ferry relief to the frostbitten and dying earthquake victims of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, General Pervez Musharraf has chosen to arm them with lethal rockets and missiles to bomb revolting Baluch tribals demanding self-governance and a share in the natural resources, including gas, so wantonly exploited by the government.

Pent up Baluch insurgency has assumed the dimensions of a revolt against the military regime, which has launched a full-fledged Army operation against the fiercely independent, but extremely poor, tribals crying for their democratic rights and end to economic and social exploitation. It seems the military junta is, once again,taking Pakistan towards possible civil war and secession.

However much Musharraf may blame other countries for the trouble in Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest province constituting 43 per cent of its territory, the truth is that successive military regimes have wantonly suppressed the democratic aspirations of the Baluchs, denied them their share in government services, police and the military and deliberately left the province undeveloped.

Even some major projects, including the Gwadar port, which is being built by the Chinese for their own strategic reasons to gain direct access to the Arabian Sea, have been cornered by businessmen from other provinces, notably Punjab. Thousands of acres of land around Gwadar have been gifted to Punjabi developers for building port infrastructure and housing colonies, without involving locals. Even staff and labour are imported from other provinces.

Military operations have been going on for days and more than 200 tribals, including women and children, have been killed and hundreds more wounded. The Marri tribals inhabiting Kan, Mamund and Babbor areas of Kohlu and Kahan districts are being specially targeted because they killed some Frontier Armed Constabulary men in ambushes and rocket attacks on their camps. Presently some 18,000 troops are deployed in the area and another two brigades are guarding the Sui gas installations, which supply nearly 50 per cent of Pakistan's energy needs, and Dera Bugti, the stronghold of the Bugti tribes.

This is the fifth insurgency against Islamabad's rule and is better organised and equipped to take on the Army. Though The Army is usually able to inflict higher casualties with the use of tanks and helicopter gunships, the rebels are in no mood to give up. In the areas controlled by the principal tribes, the government does not exist and it is the writ of the tribal chiefs which runs. The federal government messed up the situation from the very beginning and by meting discriminatory treatment to the Baluchs antagonised them permanently. The Baluchs have retaliated, from time to time, by disrupting the Sui gas pipeline, holding up Army convoys,attacking cantonments and destroying communications. General Musharraf justifies the Army action as retaliatory for attack on his soldiers who exercise their "right of self defence".

The rebels and their leaders chide the General for talking endlessly about the right of self-determination and human rights of the people of Kashmir, but denies the same to the oppressed people of Baluchistan and suppresses their democratic urges by the use of brutal force. The grievances of the people were allowed to pile up over the decades. Baluchistan generates so much revenue by supplying gas to the rest of Pakistan, yet very little money is spent on its development.

It is the poorest among Pakistan's four provinces, with the lowest per capital income and literacy. The people resent China being allowed to build a strategic naval base at Gwadar, which would pose a threat to the country's security. The developing port is a thorn both for the Baluch and the US. Moreover, the port will benefit "outsiders" more than the local people, who are not associated with it in any way.

Another, and more serious, problem is that of demographic invasion, as more than a million non-Baluchs have already settled in Baluchistan from Pashtu-speaking areas and Punjab, diluting the political influence of the indigenous population. Pakistan's rulers have exploited Baluchistan since 1947, but refuse to admit this fact. The Baluch fighters enjoy wholehearted support of the people; the tribal chiefs wield great influence and virtually rule the province. The Baluchs are a fine martial race, but there are no Baluchs in the Baluch Regiment of the Pakistan Army because they are not trusted. Not one Baluch is employed in the sprawling Sui gas installations that supply energy to Pakistan.

The rebellion is gathering momentum day-by-day, but the Generals show no sign of meeting the legitimate demands of the population and depend solely on a military solution. The junta needs to stop construction of new cantonments and massive induction of troops to suppress the people. Control of all mineral and gas installations should be transferred to the provincial government and these should be manned overwhelmingly by the local people.

That alone will ensure protection of Baluchistan's oil and gas reserves and not the Pakistani Army. All major projects, including Gwadar, must be assigned to the local population and outsiders not allowed to make profits at the expense of the locals. Influx of outsiders into Baluchistan must be stopped and all those who have migrated should be denied the right to contest elections, or even vote in elections.

[indianguy4u]

Mengal demands mediation
link

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Mengal demands mediation

Staff Report

KARACHI: There is no possibility of dialogue between the government and the Baloch leadership except in the presence of an international mediator, said Sardar Akhtar Mengal, president of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), on Friday.

“The parliamentary committee on Balochistan has failed to assert itself and the Baloch leadership has decided that we would not engage in any sort of dialogue with the military leadership or its representative committees. We can only talk in the presence of an international mediator,” said Mengal at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club.

“The Baloch are not ready to negotiate with either President General Pervez Musharaf or his hand-picked government. We appeal to all those countries, which claim to be an exponent of humanity and peace, to intervene immediately,” said Mengal

The army has destroyed several houses in Kohlu and Dera Bugti on the pretext that they were training camps, Mengal said. He quoted the Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao as saying that some 4,000 ‘terrorists’ had so far been arrested during the operation in different parts of Balochistan. Mengal asserted that these people were innocent.

“Four brigade regular army, 35,000 Frontier Corps, 12,000 Coast Guards, 8,700 policemen and 2,000 marine forces are engaged in the operation. About 12 gunship helicopters and nine jets are also operating,” he claimed.

Mengal alleged that chemical weapons were also being used and a large number of women and children had died as a result.[isnt srirangan & gabru said similar thing]

Denying the government’s claim that the military operation had been stopped, Mengal said the operation was still going on in various parts of the province, killing scores of innocent civilians. He regretted that the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), a major coalition partner in Sindh and the center, had withdrawn its ultimatum without consulting the people of Balochistan. “Those who are part of the government today should not forget the fact that they will not remain in power forever. They may face the same situation when they will be out of power,” he maintained.

“The MQM should have consulted us before withdrawing its ultimatum because the operation is still going on and the brutal killing of 12 innocent civilians in Dera Bugti two days ago is a glaring example of that,” said Mengal, who had been Balochistan’s chief minister for 11 months during Nawaz Sharif’s second tenure in the late 1990s.

He rejected the government’s claim that Baloch rebels had links to Indian intelligence agencies, saying the Baloch did not have external support, rather the Pakistan Army did, as it had been crushing resistance with the help of external forces. He alleged that in 1970, the army used Cobra helicopters that were borrowed from Iran. The BNP leader said that the ruthless policies of Islamabad had left the Baloch people no option but to “do or die”.

He held the army responsible for the tragedy of East Pakistan and said, “If the army’s role in national politics is not eliminated, it may lead to another tragedy such as the East Pakistan one. And if it happens, the army will be solely responsible,” he contended.

[indianguy4u]

link

NEED TO DRAW US ATTENTION TO BLOODSHED IN BALOCHISTAN

by B. Raman

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan would be visiting the US for a week from January 18, 2006. During his stay, he is due to meet President George Bush, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, and other US leaders and officials.

2. As he embarks for the US, the new phase of the military operation launched by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf against the Baloch people in order to suppress their freedom struggle would have completed one month. It was launched on December 18, 2005, following two incidents in which unidentified elements allegedly fired rockets at a public meeting addressed by him in the Kohlu area of Balochistan and also later fired at a helicopter carrying the Inspector-General of the Frontier Corps (FC), a para-military unit.

3. More than a month after the military operation was launched under the cover of a law enforcement operation to arrest so-called miscreants and criminal absconders and destroy their training camps and sanctuaries, the freedom struggle of the Baloch nationalists, spearheaded by the Balochistan Liberation Organisation (BLO), continues unabated despite the use of aircraft, helicopter gunships and tanks against them by Gen. Musharraf. It is a no-holds-barred operation against the Balochs for demanding freedom, their birth-right.

4. Unmindful of international opinion, Gen. Musharraf has intensified acts of State terrorism against the Baloch nationalists in general and the leaders and members of the Marri, Bugti and Mengal tribes in particular. More military and para-military reinforcements have been rushed to the province to suppress the nationalists and put an end to their guerilla operations directed against the gas installations supplying gas to the other provinces while depriving Balochs of their due benefits. The total number of military and para-military troops now deployed against the Balochs has been estimated at six Brigades plus. Fourteen plus helicopter gunships are also being used against the nationalists.

5. These reinforcements and intensified air strikes have not been able to subdue the nationalists as would be evident from some of the latest incidents reported in the Pakistani media. On January 15, resistance-fighters blew up a gas pipeline in the Dera Murad Jamali area, shutting supplies to a US and British-owned power plant for the second time this month. A blast damaged a 24-inch diameter pipeline, cutting off gas supply to the nearby Uch private power plant. The resistance-fighters had carried out a similar attack in the same region earlier this month, shutting down the plant. A Government spokesperson said that the 586-megawatt Uch power plant would remain closed until the pipeline, which is not owned by the power plant, was repaired, but could not say how long this would take.

6. On the night of January 14, 2006, resistance-fighters fired 16 rockets at the Pirkoh gas field that landed and exploded near gas well No 10, destroying the rig installed at the well. The gas well was also damaged. In another incident the same night, the resistance fighters blew up the main pipeline of water supply, suspending the supply to a gas purification plant. The resistance fighters also fired at least four rockets at the officers’ mess of the Oil and Gas Development Corporation in an adjacent area.

7. Earlier in the day (January 14, 2006),the Government's para-military forces launched another operation in the Marri area using helicopter gunships and heavy weapons while unidentified people fired rockets at a Frontier Corps camp in Kohlu. Baloch nationalist leader Mir Balach Khan Marri, a member of the Balochistan Assembly, said that security forces had been lobbing mortars and rockets at the small township of Kahan for the last two days in which 25 people, mostly women and children, had been killed and several others injured. He said that the residents of Kahan and other areas had left their houses and moved to safe places and added: “The entire town is empty but mortar and rocket lobbing continues from the FC (Frontier Corps post) Qila. Over 2,000 rockets and mortars had been fired by security forces. "The resistance fighters fired eight rockets at the FC base camps in the Kohlu and Babar Tak areas of the Harnai tehsil on January 14 morning. Four rockets landed and exploded near the FC camp in Kohlu town.

8. Musharraf has extended his military operation to intimidate the Hindu Balochs also. The Pakistan Army, which looks upon Balochistan as a sensitive area of strategic importance because of its location, natural resources and the location of its nuclear-testing and missile-targeting grounds in the province, has been over the years forcing the Hindus either to leave for India or to shift to Sindh. After the post-Partition anti-Hindu massacres which resulted in the large-scale exodus of Hindus from the then Western Pakistan to India, Balochistan and Sindh were the only provinces still having a Hindu population of a little over a million. The Sindhi and Baloch nationalists looked upon them as their ethnic brothers and sisters and protected them.

9. So did the Baloch Sardars. Baloch Sardars such as Mr. Khair Bux Marri, Mr. Akbar Bugti and Mr. Ataullah Khan Mengal looked upon the Hindu Balochs as their own, treated them with respect and affection and protected them.

10. In the early 1970s, the late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, who looked upon these Hindus as security threats, started forcing them to leave Balochistan. This policy continued under the Governments that followed. After inviting the Chinese to construct the Gwadar port and the Mekran Coastal Highway, Musharraf started forcing the remaining Hindus, whose numbers had considerably dwindled, to shift to Sindh.

11. The Baloch Sardars took under their protection those Hindus, who resisted Musharraf's attempts to re-settle them outside Balochistan. Nearly 250 Balochs were thus enjoying the protection of the Bugtis in their area. Similarly, there were small clusters of Hindus, who were living under the protection of the Marris and the Mengals. All these Hindu Balochs are now being forced to leave Balochistan since Musharraf launched the present phase of the military operation on December 18, 2005. According to the Balochistan Chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the number of Hindu Balochs living in the Bugti area has come down from 250 to two.

12. Addressing a press conference at Quetta on January 14, 2006, Malik Zahoor Shahwani, the Vice-Chairman of the Balochistan Chapter of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, said:

The Commission's visiting team, led by Ms. Asma Jahangir, the Chairperson, witnessed serious violation of human rights by the security forces in Dera Bugti.

Information collected by the team revealed that 53 civilians have been killed and 132 injured during an outbreak of hostilities in the remote area from the last week of December till January 8.

“No law permits custodial killing and no law-enforcement agency is above the law and entitled to award death sentence to citizens who are in their custody. The Government should act according to constitutional requirements and uphold rule of law to ensure protection of fundamental rights of the people. If those arrested in Dera Bugti were involved in illegal activities, they should be presented before courts for trial."

A war like situation existed in Dera Bugti "where Government offices are empty, the district coordination officer has shifted his office to Sui, schools are not functioning and vehicles not plying and the bazaar has been closed."

"A majority of the residents of Dera Bugti town have migrated. Only two persons out of the 250 members of the local Hindu community are still living in the town."

He had seen regular troops taking positions on both sides of the mountains along the 35-km route between Sui and Dera Bugti town.

13. Addressing a Press conference at the Karachi Press Club on January 15, 2006, Nawab Akbar Bugti, the chief of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) of Balochistan and the legendary leader of the Bugti tribe, said that he would welcome the United Nations if the world body played a role against what he called “the genocide in Balochistan”. He added: “If you (the government) become an aggressor, the United Nations is the sole international body to stop you.” He drew the attention of the international community to the similarities between the genocide in African countries and the situation in Balochistan. “We welcome whoever supports us. This was my statement,” he said when asked if he had welcomed India’s support.

14. He added: “They (armed forces) started an operation on March 17 last year. Then came the ruling PML (Pakistan Muslim League) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and General Secretary Mushahid Hussain, to hold talks. Both sides withdrew from their positions as a result of the talks. A new series of attacks started. On December 17 last year, the armed forces re-occupied old posts and claimed new positions as well. Air force fighter aircrafts and gunship helicopters bombarded areas of the Marri tribe, while army tanks were also used. The Bugtis’ areas were targeted after that. The military operation was conducted on the pretext that it was against “miscreants”. Eighty to eighty-five per cent of the dead and injured victims of the military operation were women and children, and a majority of them non-combatants. Kahan, an area of the Marri tribe, is being hit now. Some mortar rounds have been fired on Dera Bugti to warn the Bugti tribe and eight to 10 houses of a sub-tribe have been razed. The fort of the Marri tribal chief was also damaged. Three or four army personnel were killed in the area. In retaliation, the military took away around a dozen people and killed them in reprisal."

15. After 9/11, the US has supplied to the Pakistan Army a large number of helicopter gunships, telecommunication equipment and arms and ammunition for use for counter-terrorism purposes against the remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, who have taken shelter in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and from there have stepped up acts of terrorism in the Afghan territory. These remnants are also orchestrating acts of terrorism in other parts of the world. South Waziristan has practically become the "liberated area" of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

16. Instead of using the helicopter gunships and other equipment given by the US for counter-terrorism operations against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Musharraf has diverted a large quantity of them for use against the Baloch nationalists fighting for their independence. He has set up his own Guantanamo Bays in the remote and uninhabited areas of Balochistan, where the arrested Baloch freedom-fighters are being detained and tortured without access to lawyers and human rights activists and without trial.

16. The Government of India should draw the attention of the US to the bloodshed in Balochistan and impress upon it the need to raise this issue with Mr. Shaukat Aziz. Baloch nationalists, including their activists in their diaspora, should also draw the attention of US officials and Congressmen to bleeding Balochistan. Carrying the details of the situation, including dramatic pictures, on their web sites, as they are already doing, is important and they should continue to do it, but that alone is not sufficient for educating the international community. More pro-active initiatives are called for such as constantly keeping policy-makers, parliamentarians and Congressmen and opinion-moulders in different countries informed and seeking their initiative in raising this issue with Pakistan and its military dictatorship.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: itschen36@gmail.com)

[Ray]

He held the army responsible for the tragedy of East Pakistan and said, “If the army’s role in national politics is not eliminated, it may lead to another tragedy such as the East Pakistan one. And if it happens, the army will be solely responsible,” he contended.

This is a very dangerous statement from a Balochi leader.

Instability in Pakistan is a dangerous thing since to whip up support elsewhere in Pakistan, the anti India card will be used and the situation will become awful!

[indianguy4u]

12 Bugtis Killed By Firing Squad By Pakistan

12 Bugtis Killed By Firing Squad: Bridge on Karachi Quetta Highway Blown

By Abbas Kassar

HYDERABAD: 12 armed Bugtis out of 20 arrested from official residence of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti from Sui were killed after binding their hands and eyes at Pathar Nala 45 kilo meters away from Sui on Eid day through firing squad by Pakistan’s security forces on Eid day. They were killed as according to Frontier Constabulary (FC) they were wanted in attack on FC vehicle in which 4 FC men were killed. The women relatives of 12 Bugtis killed by forces came to receive dead bodies they were asked to send their men.

However later the FC took dead bodies to 12 persons to Loop police station in Dera Bugti where their bodies were lying since Thursday evening. Shahid Bugti secretary of Jamhoori Watan Party has confirmed that all the 12 were among 20 arrested from Buglwo of Nawab Akbar Bugti DCO Dera Bugti Samad Lasi said that the killed 12 persons were miscreants and wanted in attack on FC vehicle in which 4 FC men had killed. A large number of women held protest demonstration in Sui against killing of 12 arrested men. Police and FC dispersed protesting women by baton charge in which 5 women were injured. The injured were identified as Sahat Khatoon, Hasina, Alia, Zakia and Allah Rakhi.

FC have arrested 8 more Bugtis from Sui and Dera Bugti area as operation was in full swing in Balochistan.The shelling by gunship helicopter continued on Thursday in Sui, Dera Bugti, Sangsila, Choroo Ther and other areas. Rocket and mortars were fired in Kohlu, Sibi, Karmoon, Harnai, Dadhar and Mashkaf.

On Thursday morning the bridge connecting Karachi to Quetta on National Highway at Tarkh near Khuzdar was blown up causing suspension of vehicular traffic on National Highway which has been diverted via Sibi and Jaccobabad to Quetta.

Few homes of local people were burnt in rocket attack by security forces in Kashk area. The fighting was reported in Machh area between armed Balochis and Bhambhor Rifles.

[lemontree]

12 Bugtis Killed By Firing Squad: Bridge on Karachi Quetta Highway Blown

In contrast the in Kashmir the captured terrorists are sent to jail - and still some people outside India feel that we are carrying out genocide.

[indianguy4u]

Well if pakjabis doesnt mend their ways & stop haressment of minorities like balochi, sindhis, paktuns & seraikis then in few yrs their will be 4-5 different independent countries instead of todays pakjab.

Here is the statement of SERAIKI NATIONAL PARTY & their PoV.

Seraiki nationalism

Seraikis’ Punjabi plunder

Kalabagh dam project is not a technical issue at all but a political issue raised with totally political motives. After dissociation of the Bengalis from Pakistan on account of the Punjabi dominance, Pukhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan became inter dependent for irrigation water, electricity, natural gas, seaport, etc. Punjab has been dominant through out even in the new configuration.

That is because the Punjab has the mighty army which has prevailed through out the history of Pakistan as a political force. This political force is now being used for the construction of the Kalabagh dam on river Indus which flows on Pushtoon, Seraiki and Sindhi lands.

The desperation of the Punjabis is plain for every one to see that Kalabagh dam must start during the present military rule or it would politically be impossible to build. Sindhi, Baluch and Pushtoon assemblies have already rejected this project not once but thrice. Punjab will lose political hegemony if it does not hold sway over irrigation water and electricity of the other naturally resourceful but politically oppressed nations of Pakistan.

The past history of the country shows that decisions are always made by Punjab in the name of Pakistan. And Punjab never cares about immense losses to the other components of the federation if it can wring out some benefit from the proposed controversial projects. Kalabagh dam is a barrage besides being a water reservoir that has been politically planned to give full benefits to Punjab. It should be looked upon in two dimensions. River Indus on which this controversial dam *** barrage is to be constructed flows on Pakhtoon, Seraiki and Sindhi lands.

Kalabagh town is a part of the Seraiki belt where Indus enters from Pakhtoon area. The river Indus here has nothing to do with Punjab. The dam is purely a conspiracy to strengthen the prevailing colonization of the Seraiki belt which comprises 75% area of the present Punjab. It will be helpful to note that after the division of the present Punjab on Punjabi and non-Punjabi basis, the actual Punjabi area will be no more than a belt from Kasur to Sialkot. It is through the blessing of usurpation that Punjabis today have vast areas of Pothohar and Seraikistan under their occupation. Seraikis are struggling for the revival of the Multan State of 1818 and former autonomous and sovereign State of Bahawalpur. By constructing a mega project like Kalabagh dam on the Seraiki area, Punjabis are confident that struggle for Seraikistan will be weakened.

The second dimension of the issue is far more important and is about the violation of basic human rights internationally guaranteed to Seraikis who are 60% in population of Pothohar and Punjab.

More area and less population means that above mentioned Seraiki State held hundreds of millions of acres of fertile land which has now become the state property under the control of the Punjab government. Punjab has allotted all of this land to the army. In our former province of Bahawalpur in Pakistan, which held two third of the total area of Cholistan, Punjab has allotted vast tracts of lands to the army generals for peanuts.

Kalabagh dam will supply irrigation water to these lands at the price of inundating Pukhtoons and Seraikis and by causing a drought over Seraikis and Sindhis of the lower riparian area. There is every argument that Kalabagh dam project is going to be beneficial only for the Punjabis while Seraikis are to be harmed from every direction.

Their lands will be water logged in Kalabagh, Mianwali and many adjacent areas dislodging hundreds of thousands of Seraikis from their homeland. The Kalabagh barrage will do the harm of imposing droughts on the lower riparian which comprises of Seraikis and Sindhis.

The additional, and absolutely irreparable loss which awaits Seraikis is the millions of acres of fertile land which has already been allotted to the Punjabi military. It may cause dislodgment of millions of Seraikis from their centuries old habitat and would be the beginning of a new era of their enslavement to Punjab. -SERAIKI NATIONAL PARTY, via e-mail, December 25.