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Protesters in Quetta call for release of activists

Dozens of women and children staged a sit-in outside the assembly building on Tuesday in protest against detention of Ali Asghar Bungulzai and other Baloch activists. The protesters chanted slogans against the government and intelligence agencies and called for immediate release of all illegally detained Baloch activists.

The protesters gathered in front of the assembly’s main gate where they were addressed by PPP parliamentary leader Nawab Aslam Raisani, MPA Akhtar Hussain Lango of BNP-Mengal and chairman of the Asghar release committee Nasrullah Khan.

Women MPAs of the BNP-Awami and MMA Farah Azim Shah, Samina Saeed and Amina Khanum expressed solidarity with the protesting women and children.

Speakers called upon the government to either release the illegally detained men or produce them before a court of law and prove the charges against them.

Members of the agriculture workers’ union led by Salim Baloch and Sher Muhammad Lodhi addressed the rally in the hunger strike camp adjacent to the press club and condemned the detention of Saeedur Rehman and Ali Asghar by intelligence agencies.

Representatives of the workers’ union said that Ali Asghar’s children had been on a token hunger strike for the last eight months but regretted that the government had not taken any notice of them. 5.4.06
Brother of Kohlu’s nazim ‘detained’

Ttribal elder Mir Kamal Khan Marri has condemned the arrest of the principal of the Elementary College of Kalat in Dera Ghazi Khan and called it an attempt to pressurize the district nazim of Kohlu.

Addressing a press conference at the press club on Friday, he claimed that the principal, Mir Misri Khan Marri, who is elder brother of district nazim, Engineer Ali Gul Marri, had been taken into custody on Thursday night.

He said that the government wanted to pressurise the Nazim of Kohlu into supporting the government action in the district but the Nazim was unwilling to do so.

Mir Kamal said that if, according to the Balochistan governor, a few persons were disturbing peace in Kohlu then what was the justification for targeting most of the area’s tribesmen.

He said that 250 tribesmen, including women and children, had been killed and over 250 suffered injuries in the shelling by security forces since the beginning of hostilities between paramilitary forces and tribesmen six weeks ago.

Mr Marri said that the District Nazim of Kohlu was a nominee of the chief of the tribe.

When asked if he demanded a ceasefire between his tribesmen and security forces in Kohlu, he responded in the negative and said that paramilitary forces had attacked the Marri tribe and they would not surrender. 4.2.06
Government urged to release Mir Asghar Marri

Some local government representatives of Kohlu district in Balochistan have demanded ‘release’ of their Marri tribe notable who, according to them, was ‘kidnapped’ by the government intelligence agencies in Dera Ghazi Khan.

Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, Mir Colonel Qadhafi said his brother Mir Asghar Khan, who is the head of Pirdadani sub-clan of the Marri tribe, was picked up in a joint action by the Dera police and some plainclothesmen on Jan 28 last when he, along with his seven-year-old son Rehan, was passing by the Fareedi Bazaar in Dera Ghazi Khan.

He said the men in civvies were perhaps the officials of some intelligence agencies. The police ruthlessly pushed Rehan to the ground to detach him from his father whom they bundled in an official van. “Rehan has not come to senses since he saw kidnapping of his father and suffered the police callous attitude,” he added.

Colonel Qadhafi said being an elder of his tribe, Mir Asghar had addressed a press conference in Multan a few days before his kidnap to express concern over the ongoing military operation in his native Kohlu district. He said Mir had pointed out human rights violations in the Marri area.

He said if the government had any allegation of criminal nature against Mir Asghar, he should be produced before a court of law so that he could exercise his right to defend himself.

In the meantime, they had filed a habeas corpus petition with the Multan bench of Lahore High Court. “We just want justice to prevail,” he said.

Colonel Qadhafi claimed that 4,000 people of Balochistan were languishing in illegal confinement in country’s various detention centres. “Their only sin is that they have raised voice for the rights of Balochistan and its people.”

He said students, intellectuals and political workers were among the illegally-confined Baloch people and ironically their families did not know about their whereabouts. By A Correspondent of Dawn.com 2.2.06

Appeal to Human rights commission and all nationalists

From the families of innocent jail Baloch detains:

We are the mothers, daughters and wives of six innocent Baloch who are facing extreme, awful and terrible life behind the bars with no connection in any criminal activity. Their sin is just that they were borne by the wombs of unfortunate Baloch mothers. Our beloveds are.

  • Muhammad Alam Pirkani Baloch
  • Abdul Nabi Bangulzai Baloch
  • Noor Mohammad Marri Baloch
  • Ali Baig Marri Baloch
  • Gul Hassan Marri Baloch
  • Khalid Zehri Baloch

 

Who are tolerating extreme torture and pain as the punishment of their innocence and sinless ness.

Those Baloch leaders, who claimed that they would focus the attention of International forums on the torture upon the Balochs, actually have forgotten these dark valleys in the capital city of shaal Quetta. Can’t the nationalist parties of Balochistan notice.

What they did to my innocent son Alam pirkani

The police after cutting his arms with sharp edge blades filled the wound with red chili powder and tied it up with stripes of clothes just to give intolerable pain for recording the desirable statements to support the false allegations made on our beloveds.

The mental and physical condition of Abdul Nabi Bangulzai has been totally damaged after cruel and continuous torture of three months.

Even they (the nationalist parties of Balochistan) didn’t observe the paralyzed body of Noor Mohammad Marri about whom the doctors said that; He is a living dead body, but after such remarks the courts of the state didn’t refer him to the proper hospital for treatment. Before the arrest my son was healthy and strong but now his body’s right side has been paralyzed while the left side is gradually paralyzing.

 While Ali Baig Marri Baloch, Khalid Zehri Baloch and Gul Hassan Marri Baloch are the live examples of police torture. Due to the severe and harsh treatment of police they became victim of several diseases of kidney and stomach. With out any medical treatment they are presently suffering from continues pain.

This is the newspaper statements by all nationalist parties JWP, BNM, BNM, NP and BSO’s leaders that Justice Nawaz Marri murder case is action of agencies and the arrested persons are innocent. But with the passage of time it has been vanished from your political agenda.

We are from the very poor families; our sons have been caught when they are on their routine jobs or at homes but still facing such malicious allegation, these cruel and brutal policemen snatched the son of a mother among us named as Ghulam Sarwer by killing him in Police custody.

They want to repeat the same again as evident from the condition of Noor Mohammad Marri Baloch. Who is seriously sick but didn’t get any medical treatment as per jail manual. We the poor and hopeless mothers of the illegal detainees ask that whether isn’t this a torture to awake our sons for 2/3 days continuously, fill red chili in the wounds, break the bones beating with wet rubber strips with out cloths until and unless they became unconscious, giving electric shocks on sexual parts of the body, if these are vicious acts than please raise voice against such inhuman and illegal acts of police, if any one of our beloved face the same destiny like Gulam Serwar due to your voiceless act than we the mothers, sisters, wives and daughters of the dittanies will include you as killers of our nearer and dearer because the voice on your political forums could save them. 2004
Arrest and detention of Haji Abdul Rehman Shahwani under blasphemy law

Washington; Abdul Waheed Baloch Former Speaker of Balochistan Provincial Assembly, senior member of Balochistan National Party and cousin of Haji Abdul Rehman Shahwani in a statement from USA strongly condemned the arrest and detention of Haji Abdul Rehman Shahwani under blasphemy law on May,28,2001 from his home village killi Habib, sariab, Quetta. He said that we are not bound to any one regarding our faith in Allah as Muslims.

He said this is a new and dangerous trend that is being promoted in Balochistan by the present illigitimate, unconstitutional and undemocratic military regime, to keep its exploitation of the natural resources oppression of the Baloch People, involving political and nationalist Baloch leaders in murder cases (like Nawab Khair Bukhsh Marri ), just declaring political and nationalist persons against Islam to create sectarian hatred and trible conflicts among Baloch tribes to prolong its rule.

He said Haji Abdul Rehman who is seventy (70) year old man and belongs to a respectable tribe Shahwani and a senior Baloch nationalist, who spent eight years in exile in Afghanistan during General Ayub Khan Military rule in sixties and later on his return to Pakistan he was arrested and sentenced life imprisonment. But fortunately after the General elections in 1970, in which National Awami Party won the elections in Balochistan and formed the Government under the veteran Baloch Nationalist Leader Sardar Athaullah Mengal, he was released after spending two and half year in famous MACH JAIL (prison).

It is strange that a person who fought his whole life against the injustices and discriminative behavior of the Punjabi rulers against innocent and deprived people of Balochistan, how can he do any thing against Islam.
The book which he had written three years before, there is no word in it against Islam. It is just a Tafseer of some SURATS and this is not any crime if you write a TAFSEER, as there are many Tafseers from different writers.

He said this is a conspiracy against his family as being a nationalist and belonging to the most vocal party, the Balochistan National Party. He said that this conspiracy was prepared after a protest rally was organized by Balochs and Sindhis in front of Pakistani Embassy in Washington D.C, in which government’s discriminative and oppressive policies towards Balochs and Sindhis were strongly condemned by me and other speakers and a memorandum was also handed over to the ambassador.

It seems that this is the instant and cowardly reaction of the Government against my family. He Said after failing in its conspiracies through military actions and bribing the people now the government want to create hatred among the Balochs in the name of Islam blaming and accusing noble, respected and baloch nationalists of blasphemy. He warned the government and the concerned authorities that if some thing went wrong with Haji Abdul Rehman all of them will be responsible for the consequences.


He appealed to all the human right organizations that Haji Abdul Rehman Shahwani’s case needs immediate concerns, as he is a prisoner of conscious.

He is a senior political leader, intlectual and belongs to a respected political family in Balochistan. Now Government has consciously put his life on stake. He also appealed to all nationalists, democratic political organizations of Balochistan to take strong stance on this unique matter otherwise any one who opposes the Government will be declared un-Islamic. June 2001

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