A
meeting with Mehran Baluch
Dr Shabir Choudhry 22 September 2014
I first met Mehran Baluch
many years ago in Geneva during the UN Human Rights session in Geneva. He was
young and energetic; and full of love for his people. He addressed a seminar, which I and Abbas
Butt also attended. One can disagree with contents of his speech; however his
speech was informative and brilliantly delivered. He had very good command of
English language, and he spoke with confidence and passion; and won sympathies
of his audience. Of course, there were some who hated him for what he said
because they thought he was ‘anti Pakistan’.
Pakistani establishment through
its consistent propaganda and power has strengthened this erroneous notion that
anyone who criticise policies of Pakistani government, or expose their wrong
doings is ‘anti Pakistan’ and either an ‘Indian agent’ or ‘agent’ of another
country that wants to destabilise Pakistan.
This weapon they have used very
effectively; and even in 2014 people who hate Pakistani policies be they are
related to Azad Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Jammu and Kashmir, Afghanistan,
India, Baluchistan, Iran, Israel etc are frightened to speak out their minds
because they know they will be castigated as ‘traitors’ and agents of some
country. Once a label is attached to their names, they will spend rest of their
lives giving clarifications and explaining that they are not agents of anyone.
Before the seminar, I was
advised not to go to the Baluchi seminar as it was ‘anti Pakistan’; and was
sponsored by India. That did not deter me, if anything, I was more determined
to attend this seminar and see for myself what Mehran Baluch had to say. I knew
how the Pakistani establishment works, and how they malign reputation of other
political activists by smear campaign. I have been victim of this nefarious and
shameful policy, many years before Mehran Baluch emerged on the political
scene.
I know many people don’t
like us to attend demonstrations and seminars of the Balochi people because
they think that is against Pakistan. I, however, have a different view on this.
As a student of history and politics, I think it is my duty to attend such
seminars to understand their grievances. Furthermore, the ruling elite want to
divide the suffering people by giving them different labels. Why we, the
suffering people, can’t be friends and well wishers of each other, and support
each other.
Whenever Mehran Baluch and
other leaders met me, they always extended full respect and honour to me. I
found him and other Baluchi people very friendly, hospitable and good hosts. I
together with other Kashmiri leaders met Mehran Baluch during the September
2014 UN Human Rights session, and congratulated him on becoming Chief of his
tribe. With smile and confidence he said, I am thankful to you all and the
people who trusted me; but all this means more responsibilities and more work
to safeguard lives, dignity and honour of the Baluchi people.
In reply to a question that Baluchistan
is a legal and constitutional part of Pakistan, so why don’t you work within
the framework of the constitution and struggle for your rights. He didn’t look
happy with this question. He said, even you educated and politically active
people are influenced by the propaganda of the Pakistani establishment. They
have fabricated evidence and told so many lies that people are confused. Fact
is that our Parliament unanimously rejected accession with Pakistan- both Upper
House and Lower House passed resolutions and rejected accession.
He said let me ask you a
question, ‘Is Gilgit Baltistan part of Pakistan or part of Jammu and Kashmir
State?’ After hearing that Gilgit Baltistan is part of the State of Jammu and
Kashmir, he said, ‘but practically Pakistan has annexed this large area and
people are denied of their fundamental human rights, I hear these things at
every UN session. What if Pakistan makes Gilgit Baltistan part of Pakistan and
provide some legal and constitutional cover to it, as they have done to
Chitral? After ten or twenty years many people may accept this change; but you
people who call yourselves Kashmiri nationalists, will you accept this so
called constitutional change or struggle against this?’
There was a lot of logic in
what Mehran Baluch said. I replied we will not accept this illegal occupation.
He laughed and said that is exactly what we are doing. He said, ‘You people
perhaps don’t know all the details how many times the Pakistani governments
have let us down, broken promises made on Quran, and attacked us. Our people
are systematically arrested, tortured and killed’.
He was clearly disturbed. He
said, ‘You don’t know what they do to our people. They are the worst occupiers
anyone can have in the world, much worse than the Israelis. Do you know they
capture our people, torture them, take organs from their bodies and sell them?
They have made a business out of this. Human organs are very expensive and they
are the biggest suppliers of these organs to other countries.’
He paused for a moment, and
said did you see my intervention in the UN on this topic. When I replied no, he
said, ‘This is the problem. We are crying for help and raising our voices, but
not many people listen. You people call yourselves human rights defenders - how
sad that you are selective even with the issue of human rights. When non Muslim
country kills Muslims you people cry out and hold demonstrations, seminars and
conferences, but when worst crimes are committed by a Muslim countries against
Muslims, you people remain quiet. True human rights activists should avoid this
hypocrisy’.
I replied by saying that we
have on many occasions spoken about human rights violations committed by
Pakistan and some other countries...’ Mehran Baluch got carried away with
emotions, something he normally doesn’t do, he interrupted me and said, ‘Dr
Sahib with all due respect, you and your party only speak about human rights
violations committed by Pakistan on the people of Jammu and Kashmir. You and
your party deliberately choose not to support suffering people of Baluchistan,
may be you are afraid that the Pakistani establishment and their agents will
target you. The only Kashmiri party that has openly supported rights of the people
of Baluchistan is Shaukat Kashmiri’s PNP. We are grateful to him for speaking
about our plight and supporting rights of the suffering people’.
He paused for a moment and
said, ‘You are older than me and more experienced than me in these matters, but
I just want to remind you that the suffering people and victims of the state
oppression remember who sided with them in their time of need; and who chose to
remain quiet. If you don’t want to help and support other nations under
occupation, and stand with the victims of the state terrorism, more than likely
when you are in real difficulty others will also ignore your plight’.
Angry Baluch leader said, ‘You
don’t know what Baluch people are going through. Tens of thousands of young Baluch
are missing, and you know what, when we find them, to our horror we find organs
of their dead bodies are missing. But over the past weeks and months we are
faced with another trauma; you may not believe it, but the fact is Pakistanis
are selling meat of our young people. I have said this in my intervention a few
days ago. We have found many bodies with no flesh on them’.
I was dismayed by this. I
said, one can understand there could be torture, oppressions, imprisonments and
killings which result in every conflict zone where gun in used, be it Baluchistan,
Kashmir, Palestine or Syria, but it is hard to believe that the Pakistani army
or Pakistani secret agencies are selling organs of Baluch people or selling
their meat’.
‘Trust me it is happening’,
Mehran Baluch interrupted me again. When Baluch people are picked up they are
normal fit men, but when we find their dead bodies, they are without vital
organs, where else could these organs go?’ He asked me.
He showed me a letter
addressed to the UN Human Rights Council by the Pakistani Mission in which they
accused Mehran Baluch of many things including fake accreditation and making
interventions with bogus papers. ‘You know no one can make intervention here
with fake papers. This is Pakistani diplomatic terrorism. They have accused
NGOs of conducting business in name of human rights. In the past those NGOs
which supported the Baluch cause, or supported those people who had grievances
against Pakistan were targeted and some lost their ECOSOC status; and others
also find themselves in hot water. This means in future, these NGOs will be
reluctant to help and supported those who have grievances against Pakistan.’
Writer is a political analyst and
author of many books and booklets. Also he is Director Institute of Kashmir
Affairs
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