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Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti
‘I have been a Baloch for several centuries. I have been a muslim for 1400 years. I have been a Pakistani for just over fifty’ (Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti).
In 2005, Bugti sahib presented 15 point agenda and demanded justice for the Sindhi female doctor raped by an officer of the Pakistani army near Sui. Mushraff refused to pursue the case and instead launched an operation in which twenty innocent Bugti villagers were killed.
On 26 August 2006, Pakistan army launched another operation against Bugtis. They bombarded the mountain with chemical weapons. Nawab Bugti and his many comrades died in the operation.
The protest across Baluchistan occurred after the incident. The anti-terrorism court in Sibi, Baluchistan issued arrest warrant of Mushraff for his involvement in Bhugti’s murder. Later, he was granted bail due to his poor health. These days he is enjoying the bail in Dubai.
In the following years, Abdul Ghaffar Lango the Bloach rights activist, Saba Dashtyari- the professor at the Baluchistan University, Hanif Baloch, Mehrab Azam, the activists of Balouch student organization (Azad) spoke for the rights and independence of Baluchistan. They were abducted by the men in civil dress and later killed.
The Lango’s family filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, suspecting the intelligence Burea. The court ordered for an investigation. When the investigation was very close to find the suspects, Lango’s dead body was found in Lesbela district of Balouchistan. That was nothing new.
Since 1947, the Balochs struggle for rights is dealt with bullets. In 1947, the Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmad Yar Khan declared independence. A year later, Pakistan army marched on Kalat and, eventually, the Khan signed an agreement of accession. The Khan’s brother Abdul Karim, responded violently but he was also suppressed.
Ten years later, Baloch objected to the One Unit plan, which they saw as a centralist measure to curb provincial rights. It led to another confrontation between the army and the Balochs. The army emerged victorious over the rebel after killing many of them. The Baloch still didn’t give up. The fighting continued until the one unit was abolished.
Zulifikar Ali Bhutto also crushed the Baluchistan movement by calling the rebels as ‘miscreants’ who
Junaid Zahid
want to dismember Pakistan. He dismissed the Baluchistan government and employed troops to suppress the insurgency.
In all the subsequent goverments, the Baloch movement was supressed with bullets by the centralist ‘patriotic’ Pakistanis. But they forget that the bullets have never been a solution, not will ever be..
By Junaid Zahid, Lahore
