Vol. 73/No. 16      April 27, 2009

The Baloch are an oppressed nationality residing in some of the least developed areas in Pakistan and Iran. The majority live in southwest Pakistan, where nearly half subsist on incomes below the poverty level as defined by the government. Several hundred thousand also live in southern Afghanistan.

The three killed were Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, president of the Baloch National Movement (BNM); Lala Munir, also of the BNM; and Sher Mohammad Baloch of the Baloch Republican Party. Their bodies were found in the village of Pedarak in the mountainous region of southwest Baluchistan.

The three were abducted by force from their lawyer’s office April 3 after appearing in court where, according to the Pakistani daily Dawn, a judge had dismissed charges against them for “sparking political unrest in Quetta and Karachi in relation to the Baloch nationalist movement and the increasing number of missing persons cases.”

Ghulam Mohammad Baloch was a member of a committee investigating more than 1,000 reports of missing people. Baloch politicians and activists allege that Baloch nationalists have been abducted by government agents.

The lawyer who represented the three, Kachkol Ali, said Pakistani police prevented him from filing a criminal complaint against the government’s intelligence bureaus and its paramilitary Frontier Corps following the abduction of the three.

Evidence indicates the three were tortured and shot in the head shortly after they were kidnapped. Their bodies were found late in the day April 8.

Protests broke out early April 10 across Baluchistan. Demonstrations were coupled with a three-day general strike, road barricades, and a boycott of courts by lawyers. Businesses were shuttered. All universities and schools closed down for five days.

A total shutdown was reported in Quetta, the provincial capital, as well as two dozen major cities and towns throughout the province. Baloch also demonstrated in Karachi, the capital of adjacent Sindh province.

Demonstrators burned tires, as well as some banks, vehicles, and government buildings. Police responded with tear gas in several cities.

Gun battles and bombings took place in a number of cities across the province as well as in Karachi. Dawn reported 16 deaths on April 11, including six coal miners. By April 13 protests had begun to subside. One cop and three workers were killed that day.

Washington has been discussing expanding its aerial drone strikes in northwest Pakistan to Baluchistan province, according to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. U.S. officials say they believe the former head of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammad Omar, currently operates in or around Quetta.

President Asif Zardari said April 9 that he was assured by the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Washington would not conduct aerial drone strikes in Baluchistan.

The Pakistani government has waged a constant fight against the Baloch struggle for national rights and has put down five Baloch insurgencies since the country was founded in 1947.

Following the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Taliban established a base among the newly arrived, massive Afghan refugee population in Baluchistan. The Pakistani government propped up the Taliban there to counter the secular nationalist Baluchi movement, including rigging elections in favor of pro-Taliban parties.

In an attempt to stem growing unrest in Baluchistan, Zardari has promised concessions, including greater autonomy as well as more control and benefits from the province’s rich oil and gas resources.

“The intelligence agencies have decided that the only way to deal with Baluchis is with the gun,” BNP leader and Senator Hasil Bizenjo said. “We warn them that the reaction will be severe.”

Also in Baluchistan at least 14 coal miners were killed and 19 others injured March 5 when an underground methane gas explosion occurred in a mine in Sorenge, about 20 miles east of Quetta.  
 
 
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