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Balochs of the Diaspora organized a manifestation in Canada a few days ago, in order to attract the attention of the world mass media, NGOs, Human Rights activists, international bodies, and democratic administrations to the abhorrent Human Rights violations that are daily taking place in the various parts of the divided Balochistan, and more particularly in Iran and Pakistan.
The Toronto manifestation issued a Press Release whereby the Baloch Diaspora categorically denounced the ongoing nuclear tests in the Chagai district of Balochistan that are devastating all life forms, including the livelihood of the nomadic Baloch tribesmen.
Baloch Human Rights activist Aziz Baloch published a comprehensive feature, summarizing the plight of the multi-divided and tyrannized Balochs. I re-publish here both, the Press Release and Mr. Baloch´s enlightening article.
Vancouver Rally Report
By Aziz Baloch
http://www.bso-na.org/Canada_Protest.html
On behalf of the Balochistan Human Rights Council of Canada, the Baloch community of Vancouver would like to inform the peace loving people of Canada gathered here today and the human rights organizations about the atrocities and human rights violations unleashed upon Baloch nation by the army, paramilitary units and fascist clerics in Pakistan and Iran.
This is not the first time that the Pakistani and Iranian governments have jointly conspired and conducted military operations against the Baloch people in the Iranian and Pakistani occupied Balochistan.
During the bloody military operation of 1973, Pakistani occupied Balochistan went through a phase of genocide with a loss of 5000 civilians including women and children. During this particular military operation, that lasted four years – 1973 – 1977, Iranian fighter jets and pilots were used to bomb the villages inside the Pakistani Balochistan territory.
While the Pakistan army's military operation is on full swing in the Pakistani Balochistan, Iranian fascist clerics are busy hanging Baloch youth on the streets in Iran. Thousands of Baloch youth have disappeared, tortured and killed and more than a million tribal Baloch families from Bugti and Marri areas have been displaced and their livelihood destroyed. According to an HRCP report that recently came out in the press, 1.5 million internally
displaced people are living in inhuman conditions in refugee camps on the very soil of their motherland.
Today a young Baloch, Gholam Haider Raisani is in a Quetta Jail (capital city of Pakistani Balochistan) and the present government of Pakistan wants to extradite him to Iran where he will be hanged publicly. He will face torture before being hung by Iranian regimes without a trial. Therefore Baloch people are sitting in a hunger strike in front of the press club in Quetta, to stop the extradition of Gholam Haider Raisani Baloch to fundamentalist regime of Iran. Hundreds of Baloch youth had been hung in public and thousands more are waiting for the orders of execution in Iranian jails.
In March 2005, Pakistani army officers in Sui, Balochistan raped Pakistani female physician Dr. Shazia Khalid by an army captain. A Baloch leader, a former governor and premier of Balochistan and powerful tribal chief of Bugti tribe, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti demanded that military that the officer should be brought to the court and justice should be served. But President Pervez Musharrraf (He is still president of Pakistan) himself acquitted the rapist army officer without any trial. Such undemocratic rulers, which forcefully occupied Balochistan in March 1948, are involved in oppressing the Baloch nation for the last 60 years.
General (retired) Pervez Musharrraf started the 5th military operation in Balochistan against the Baloch nation and the Pakistani generals used United States military aid, which was clearly meant to be used against "war on terror", but instead they were used against the Baloch people. Prominent Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, former governor / premier of Balochistan, and later Mir Balach Marri (former provincial assembly members of Balochistan) both were assassinated by the Pakistani army. From March 2005 till today more than 7000 political, social, and human rights activist have disappeared, been kidnapped, tortured and are being killed. Just recently in June 2008 Pakistani intelligences arrested 70 Bugti tribesmen in Chaman, Balochistan and 200 more Bugti tribesmen have disappeared since the 18 February 2008 general elections in Pakistan.
As I speak right now there are three hunger strike camps in front of Quetta Press Club in Balochistan demanding the release of their loved ones. The undemocratic state of Pakistan is exploiting the rich natural resources of Balochistan for the last sixty years at gunpoint. Baloch people are tired of living under such tyranny and atrocities; Balochistan is the most backward and deprived province of Pakistan. Therefore, a young Baloch senator Sanaullah Baloch last Friday June 2008 resigned from his post as member of senate due to the Pakistani government's continued oppression against its people.
In May 28, 1998 Pakistan tested its nuclear weapons in Chagai, Balochistan, a deadly nuclear test destroyed that region facing the worst draught there were no crops to be grown. Baloch families, particularly newborn babies, were born with serious health problems in those regions. Native Baloch tribesmen's were displaced without any compensation - they have lost their homes, livestock and lands.
The situation is similar in Iranian occupied Balochistan. Since 1928 till today Baloch genocide is going on at all levels – cultural, economic, and political and of human lives because their cultural, social, religious, economic, and political rights are being denied. There is a systematic discrimination against Baloch and other minorities such as Kurds, Azaris, Arabs, Bahais, Christians, Jews and other minorities in Iran. Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan and military generals are clearly involved in transferring nuclear weapons technology to Iran where after Pakistan; the second Islamic nuclear bomb is secretly being built to further erode the peace and stability in the region.
According to Amnesty International reports an eye witness saw Roya Sarani, (innocent Baloch girl) aged 11 being shot dead on the streets of Zahedan at about 05:30 pm on 16, May 2007 after leaving for a school examination by the Law enforcement force (LEF). Ladies and gentlemen here is the picture of the innocent 11-year-old girl. The second story is about a young Baloch human rights activist from "Voice of Justice of Young People's Society"… Yaqub Mehrnehad, who was arrested on May 2007 after attending a meeting at a provincial office of culture and Islamic guidance where governor of Zahedan himself was present. Today Yaqub Mehrnehad is facing the death sentence in an Iranian jail.
Both the Islamic states of Iran and Pakistan are collaborating with each other, suppressing the Baloch in both the occupied parts of Balochistan. Baloch people are appealing to the international community to take a notice of these atrocities and oppression, they have been ruling Balochistan from the barrel of the gun, treating Balochistan as their colony where Baloch nation is treated as a third class citizen on their own native soil.
Behalf of the Balochistan Human Rights Council of Canada we appeal to our democratic government of Canada, the honorable Prime Minister Mr. Stephen Harper, human rights organizations and the United Nations to intervene and save the Baloch nation from genocide and annihilation in Pakistan and Iran. Help us by stopping military aid to Pakistan and putting an end to Iran's nuclear weapons program, which we believe will be used against Baloch civilians, and neighboring countries.
Press Release
Canada: May 30, 2008 -- Toronto: Baluch families in Canada on Wednesday demonstrated in Toronto against the nuclear tests in Occupied Baluchistan ten years ago and demanded of the international community to bring the Pakistan Army to justice. The aggrieved families distributed pamphlets explaining the plight of the Baloch people in Pakistan and Iran. "The Islamic fundamentalists and their uniformed brethren, the Pakistani army, rejoiced the testing of the first Islamic bomb", said Zafar Baloch, a leader of the Baluch Human Rights Council of Canada.
"The foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran sent his greetings to the Pakistani government of the time while the world leaders were shocked and pleaded for sanctions against Pakistan", he said. Imtiaz Baloch, another activist said the tragic event was followed by further tests in the Chagai district of Balochistan devastating all life forms, including the livelihood of the nomadic Baloch tribesmen. He said tens of thousands of Baluch tribemsmen who were forced by the army to leave their ancestral pastoral lands and migrate to other areas. "In the last ten years, Baluchistan has become Pakistan´s frontline testing ground for advance nuclear warhead carrying missile technology borrowed from China and North Korea", Imtiaz Baloch said. Zafar Baloch was of the view that the WMDs being developed in Pakistan today are part of the Chinese hegemonic design of expansionism in the region to control the energy centers, which include the Deep Sea Port Development of Gwadar in Balochistan, the gateway to oil and gas reserves in Central Asia and the Middle East.
"The local inhabitants of Balochistan are being forcefully displaced and slaughtered through a brutal military operation so that their resources and land stays in the hands of the Pakistan Army for exploitation and military adventures", said Imtiaz Baloch. The Baluch families in Toronto were carrying the pictures of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, former chief minister and governor of Baluchistan, who was killed in an army operation as he protested the exploitation of Baluch resources at the hands of the dominant Punjabi. The families raised slogans against nuclear radiation and demanded that father of the so-called Islamic Bomb, A.Q. Khan be brought to justice.
The Toronto Baluch protesters also condemned the unspoken Berlin Wall that divides Baluch families living in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Jay Askani said the situation in the Iranian occupied Balochistan is getting worse where public hanging of Baloch youth has become a common practice of the Islamic regime. "Iran´s nuclear program is based on the technology that was secretly passed on to them by Pakistani military generals and A.
Q. Khan", Askani said. Canadian citizens showed a keen interest in the goings-on in Baluchistan and the local Omni TV covered the protest in its news. "The rally was aimed to save the world from terrorism and nuclear catastrophe", Imtiaz Baluch said. Similar protests were held in Washington DC, Quetta, Karachi, Gwadur, Chagai. In contrast to the Baluch protests the ruling Punjabis, once again celebrated the event as Yom-Takbir or Great Day. Pakistan's former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who is believed to be close to Bin Laden led the celebrations in the military stronghold of Punjab.
Further reading: http://www.bso-na.org
The Toronto manifestation issued a Press Release whereby the Baloch Diaspora categorically denounced the ongoing nuclear tests in the Chagai district of Balochistan that are devastating all life forms, including the livelihood of the nomadic Baloch tribesmen.
Baloch Human Rights activist Aziz Baloch published a comprehensive feature, summarizing the plight of the multi-divided and tyrannized Balochs. I re-publish here both, the Press Release and Mr. Baloch´s enlightening article.
Vancouver Rally Report
By Aziz Baloch
http://www.bso-na.org/Canada_Protest.html
On behalf of the Balochistan Human Rights Council of Canada, the Baloch community of Vancouver would like to inform the peace loving people of Canada gathered here today and the human rights organizations about the atrocities and human rights violations unleashed upon Baloch nation by the army, paramilitary units and fascist clerics in Pakistan and Iran.
This is not the first time that the Pakistani and Iranian governments have jointly conspired and conducted military operations against the Baloch people in the Iranian and Pakistani occupied Balochistan.
During the bloody military operation of 1973, Pakistani occupied Balochistan went through a phase of genocide with a loss of 5000 civilians including women and children. During this particular military operation, that lasted four years – 1973 – 1977, Iranian fighter jets and pilots were used to bomb the villages inside the Pakistani Balochistan territory.
While the Pakistan army's military operation is on full swing in the Pakistani Balochistan, Iranian fascist clerics are busy hanging Baloch youth on the streets in Iran. Thousands of Baloch youth have disappeared, tortured and killed and more than a million tribal Baloch families from Bugti and Marri areas have been displaced and their livelihood destroyed. According to an HRCP report that recently came out in the press, 1.5 million internally
displaced people are living in inhuman conditions in refugee camps on the very soil of their motherland.
Today a young Baloch, Gholam Haider Raisani is in a Quetta Jail (capital city of Pakistani Balochistan) and the present government of Pakistan wants to extradite him to Iran where he will be hanged publicly. He will face torture before being hung by Iranian regimes without a trial. Therefore Baloch people are sitting in a hunger strike in front of the press club in Quetta, to stop the extradition of Gholam Haider Raisani Baloch to fundamentalist regime of Iran. Hundreds of Baloch youth had been hung in public and thousands more are waiting for the orders of execution in Iranian jails.
In March 2005, Pakistani army officers in Sui, Balochistan raped Pakistani female physician Dr. Shazia Khalid by an army captain. A Baloch leader, a former governor and premier of Balochistan and powerful tribal chief of Bugti tribe, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti demanded that military that the officer should be brought to the court and justice should be served. But President Pervez Musharrraf (He is still president of Pakistan) himself acquitted the rapist army officer without any trial. Such undemocratic rulers, which forcefully occupied Balochistan in March 1948, are involved in oppressing the Baloch nation for the last 60 years.
General (retired) Pervez Musharrraf started the 5th military operation in Balochistan against the Baloch nation and the Pakistani generals used United States military aid, which was clearly meant to be used against "war on terror", but instead they were used against the Baloch people. Prominent Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, former governor / premier of Balochistan, and later Mir Balach Marri (former provincial assembly members of Balochistan) both were assassinated by the Pakistani army. From March 2005 till today more than 7000 political, social, and human rights activist have disappeared, been kidnapped, tortured and are being killed. Just recently in June 2008 Pakistani intelligences arrested 70 Bugti tribesmen in Chaman, Balochistan and 200 more Bugti tribesmen have disappeared since the 18 February 2008 general elections in Pakistan.
As I speak right now there are three hunger strike camps in front of Quetta Press Club in Balochistan demanding the release of their loved ones. The undemocratic state of Pakistan is exploiting the rich natural resources of Balochistan for the last sixty years at gunpoint. Baloch people are tired of living under such tyranny and atrocities; Balochistan is the most backward and deprived province of Pakistan. Therefore, a young Baloch senator Sanaullah Baloch last Friday June 2008 resigned from his post as member of senate due to the Pakistani government's continued oppression against its people.
In May 28, 1998 Pakistan tested its nuclear weapons in Chagai, Balochistan, a deadly nuclear test destroyed that region facing the worst draught there were no crops to be grown. Baloch families, particularly newborn babies, were born with serious health problems in those regions. Native Baloch tribesmen's were displaced without any compensation - they have lost their homes, livestock and lands.
The situation is similar in Iranian occupied Balochistan. Since 1928 till today Baloch genocide is going on at all levels – cultural, economic, and political and of human lives because their cultural, social, religious, economic, and political rights are being denied. There is a systematic discrimination against Baloch and other minorities such as Kurds, Azaris, Arabs, Bahais, Christians, Jews and other minorities in Iran. Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan and military generals are clearly involved in transferring nuclear weapons technology to Iran where after Pakistan; the second Islamic nuclear bomb is secretly being built to further erode the peace and stability in the region.
According to Amnesty International reports an eye witness saw Roya Sarani, (innocent Baloch girl) aged 11 being shot dead on the streets of Zahedan at about 05:30 pm on 16, May 2007 after leaving for a school examination by the Law enforcement force (LEF). Ladies and gentlemen here is the picture of the innocent 11-year-old girl. The second story is about a young Baloch human rights activist from "Voice of Justice of Young People's Society"… Yaqub Mehrnehad, who was arrested on May 2007 after attending a meeting at a provincial office of culture and Islamic guidance where governor of Zahedan himself was present. Today Yaqub Mehrnehad is facing the death sentence in an Iranian jail.
Both the Islamic states of Iran and Pakistan are collaborating with each other, suppressing the Baloch in both the occupied parts of Balochistan. Baloch people are appealing to the international community to take a notice of these atrocities and oppression, they have been ruling Balochistan from the barrel of the gun, treating Balochistan as their colony where Baloch nation is treated as a third class citizen on their own native soil.
Behalf of the Balochistan Human Rights Council of Canada we appeal to our democratic government of Canada, the honorable Prime Minister Mr. Stephen Harper, human rights organizations and the United Nations to intervene and save the Baloch nation from genocide and annihilation in Pakistan and Iran. Help us by stopping military aid to Pakistan and putting an end to Iran's nuclear weapons program, which we believe will be used against Baloch civilians, and neighboring countries.
Press Release
Canada: May 30, 2008 -- Toronto: Baluch families in Canada on Wednesday demonstrated in Toronto against the nuclear tests in Occupied Baluchistan ten years ago and demanded of the international community to bring the Pakistan Army to justice. The aggrieved families distributed pamphlets explaining the plight of the Baloch people in Pakistan and Iran. "The Islamic fundamentalists and their uniformed brethren, the Pakistani army, rejoiced the testing of the first Islamic bomb", said Zafar Baloch, a leader of the Baluch Human Rights Council of Canada.
"The foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran sent his greetings to the Pakistani government of the time while the world leaders were shocked and pleaded for sanctions against Pakistan", he said. Imtiaz Baloch, another activist said the tragic event was followed by further tests in the Chagai district of Balochistan devastating all life forms, including the livelihood of the nomadic Baloch tribesmen. He said tens of thousands of Baluch tribemsmen who were forced by the army to leave their ancestral pastoral lands and migrate to other areas. "In the last ten years, Baluchistan has become Pakistan´s frontline testing ground for advance nuclear warhead carrying missile technology borrowed from China and North Korea", Imtiaz Baloch said. Zafar Baloch was of the view that the WMDs being developed in Pakistan today are part of the Chinese hegemonic design of expansionism in the region to control the energy centers, which include the Deep Sea Port Development of Gwadar in Balochistan, the gateway to oil and gas reserves in Central Asia and the Middle East.
"The local inhabitants of Balochistan are being forcefully displaced and slaughtered through a brutal military operation so that their resources and land stays in the hands of the Pakistan Army for exploitation and military adventures", said Imtiaz Baloch. The Baluch families in Toronto were carrying the pictures of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, former chief minister and governor of Baluchistan, who was killed in an army operation as he protested the exploitation of Baluch resources at the hands of the dominant Punjabi. The families raised slogans against nuclear radiation and demanded that father of the so-called Islamic Bomb, A.Q. Khan be brought to justice.
The Toronto Baluch protesters also condemned the unspoken Berlin Wall that divides Baluch families living in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Jay Askani said the situation in the Iranian occupied Balochistan is getting worse where public hanging of Baloch youth has become a common practice of the Islamic regime. "Iran´s nuclear program is based on the technology that was secretly passed on to them by Pakistani military generals and A.
Q. Khan", Askani said. Canadian citizens showed a keen interest in the goings-on in Baluchistan and the local Omni TV covered the protest in its news. "The rally was aimed to save the world from terrorism and nuclear catastrophe", Imtiaz Baluch said. Similar protests were held in Washington DC, Quetta, Karachi, Gwadur, Chagai. In contrast to the Baluch protests the ruling Punjabis, once again celebrated the event as Yom-Takbir or Great Day. Pakistan's former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who is believed to be close to Bin Laden led the celebrations in the military stronghold of Punjab.
Further reading: http://www.bso-na.org
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