That this is a trick to try and save his skin was admitted by Haqqani himself who reportedly said “he would use every legal tool available to him to defend himself”.

‘Uloo Ki Pathee!!!’ :)

• Future News: Nawaz Gets A Heart Transplant

and the followup discussion for all the details. That it was a fraud and that these fools cannot keep the story straight is obvious:

Shahbaz makes up a story…

And Nawaz admits it”s all b.s.:

It now appears their brother Zardari has taken a page from their playbook.

UPDATE: On second thought, I remember Zardari used the ‘bad heart’ excuse many times before to not come back to the country and to get away from his legal troubles:

In June 2005, he suffered a heart attack and was treated in the United Arab Emirates.^[52][53] A PPP spokesman stated he underwent angioplasty in the United States.^[53] In September 2005, he did not show up for a Rawalpindi hearing on corruption charges; the court issued an arrest warrant.^[53] His lawyers stated he could not come because he was recovering from his treatment.^[53] Following a request by the Rawalpindi court, Interpol issued a red notice in January 2006 against the couple which called on member nations to decide on the couple’s extradition.^[54][55]

First it was reported that Zardari had a checkup done at the army hospital and was given an “all clear” certificate. Curious thing was, his spokesperson Farhatullah Babar and his bitch babar Awan strongly denied that any such check-up took place and that “Zardari had been busy in his office all day long.” Now why would you deny such a “good” thing? Probably because showing Zardari in good health goes against the plan.

So it is very interesting that the very next day, the healthy Zardari suddenly leaves for Dubai “for medical checkup”. That this too is a fraud is obvious from all the stories making the rounds. Here is how it is playing out so far:

Interesting, eh?

Another VERY CURIOUS fact is the person accompanying him:

Farahnaz Ispahani, wife of Husain Haqqani, who was a journalist and had worked at the State Department-run Voice of America before joining Pakistan’s murky politics, is said to be accompanying Zardari.

Remember that although no one has picked up on this fact, Haqqani’s wife Farahnaz was as much a party to Memogate as Hussain Haqqani and Zardari (see the transcript of the Mansoor Ijaz’s BBMs). Why would she be picked, of all the people? This to me is confirmation that the guilty ones are being allowed to take the money and run. So once again, all TRAITORS/thieves are allowed to get away with it. And you and I both know Haqqani will be allowed to follow his wife back to U.S. and back to his old job at Boston University to write the book he promised (“HH: You get to write the book on how you changed US-Pak dynamic and won the war in A’tan (w/ some help from a Paki nerd) …. HH: We’ll make things happen and if we can’t, we’ll write a book about it“).

The Last BBM:

MI: It’s interesting (and heartening) to see that many of the proposals made in the memo are now being implemented in the bilateral relationship. Very good. 

Was the real purpose of the NATO strike to hurry along the implementation of the proposals made in Memogate? Was there a method to this madness???? IS THE REAL TREASON HAPPENING RIGHT NOW????

[BTW: Where is Mansoor ijaz? Could this trip be another of those secret meetings between Ijaz and Zardari to work out a deal between the two, you know, just like NRO between BB and Mush? Let's see what follows. If Zardari comes back and Mansoor Ijaz throws him a fig leaf in the days to come, you'll know!  If not then those stories about powers that be having decided to ditch Zardari were true. ]

Not all deaths are mourned the same

I was surprised thinking it was about not mourning civilian deaths by drone attacks and was glad someone in the mainstream media had published something on it and that too Dawn (who usually call for MORE drone strikes and ask for bringing IDF-style check posts to Pakistan).

Boy, was I wrong! The crocodile tears Dawn and one Murtaza Haider (“Ph.D. is the Associate Dean of research and graduate programs at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto”) are shedding are for the Hazara shia community in Balochistan 29 of whom died in back September.

Now how do they jump from NATO strike victims all the way to a sectarian thing far, far away is amazing. That at the same time they forget thousands of other victims of drone strikes — something that would be an automatic link — is beyond my comprehension. Another NATURAL link would be thousands of Balochis killed by security forces (read Pakistan Army), no matter what sect they belong to, reeks of hypocrisy of the extreme kind. One can only not forget about those intentionally and if one is following an agenda. This is not an oversight and is proven by the fact that they would not print any comment that mentions those killings (though they find every ridiculous comment agreeing with their bullshit story “Oh, poor Hazars…oh the humanity! Poor poor shias….”).

Hypocrisy Squared:

Here is an example. I tried to be as p.c. as I could be and thought about giving posting a comment a try. I wrote:

I am surprised no mention is made of the other victims of countless NATO strikes: the victims of drones. That would have been more RELEVANT. And using this incident to talk about sectarian/minority thing is dishonest at the very least and stinks of the author having an agenda.

Another interesting thing is that among all the killings going on in Balochistan, the author can only see those from the Haraza Shia community. He knows 435 Hazarans have been killed. Care to tell us how many thousands non-Hazarans were killed in the same period in Balochistan?

I guess “Not all deaths are same” after all

After sitting in moderation for a while, the comment was disappeared like a Baloch in Dera Bugti

Shame on you Murtaza Haider and Shame on you Dawn!!!

Agencies add: Defence Minister Ch Ahmed Mukhtar also said on Wednesday that Shamsi airbase would be evacuated on December 11 but added that no decision has been made regarding Shahbaz airbase as yet. (source)

Remember Shahbaz is the main airbase for drone strikes and logistic support to NATO/ISAF. Shamsi is just a stupid airstrip (and any drones that flew from there flew into Afghanistan; remember it is over 500 miles from where drone strikes are happening in Pakistan)…

On another question regarding drone attacks whether Pakistan would shoot down the spy planes, he said that Pakistan did not want war with the United States….

And still he added “and there would be no more drone strikes after December 11“

Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said on Wednesday that the supply routes for Nato troops will be restored only if Nato apologises for the “unprovoked attack” that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Express News reported. (source)

So ALL they are seeking is an apology….

Note: Of course we know no U.S. apology is EVER going to come from Washington, D.C. We also know they will open up the NATO supply lines sooner rather than later. Now only thing to wait for is how they spin it  and claim “U.S. has apologized” when in fact it hasn’t. Also interesting will be the “protests” by Pakistani government after the next drone strike (you know it will come soon) .

“But I told President Karzai that Afghan soil was being used against Pakistan and this is why Pakistan will not participate in that moot,” Gilani said.

The above I just added for the sheer stupid logic of this. ‘Pakistan’ has decided not to attend (meaningless) Bonn conference in protest but Gilani’s reasoning gave me the giggles. I would have asked him “Is Pakistan soil being used against Afghanistan?”

Now let’s move over to “our” Foreign Minister’s — whose only qualification is that she buys her purses and high-heels from foreign lands — offerings…

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said that the Nato attack on the Pakistani check post was not an accident and “only an apology would not be enough.”

But your Defense Minister said it would be!

“Pakistan cannot see its soldiers being killed by allied forces anymore.”

Now this is a VERY interesting statement. Notice she only mentioned soldiers. Not civilians. In other words, Pakistan has no issue with them killing civilians and what she is actually saying is “Pakistan CAN see its civilians being killed by allied forces forever but not it’s soldiers”

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar Wednesday said future cooperation with the United States would be in the form of written

Folks, here you have clear admission there are a lot of understandings between the two and they are NOT in any written form. And on Memogate she adds:

Khar said the Foreign Office had no record with reference to the alleged memo of Mansoor Ijaz, nor was any letter sent to Admiral Mike Mullen by the government. “This memo was fabricated and such concocted stories have been published against Pakistan in the past also,” she observed.

Bullsh!t. It has been proven and she knows it (does she forget why Haqqani was fired? Interestingly she added “She said the PM had taken the decision to remove Hussain Haqqani from his office of ambassador in the national interest.” Duh!)

Khar said Mansoor Ijaz had targeted the Pakistan army and ISI. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has assigned the inquiry into memogate to the parliamentary committee on national security, she pointed out.

Bullsh!t! Does she forget Haqqani too “had targeted the Pakistan army and ISI” many times in the past?

“Therefore, Hussain Haqqani returned to Pakistan and will clear himself of all questions that have been raised,” she said. “Haqqani has played a pivotal role for the protection of national interests.” (source)

Er…So she already knows Haqani “will clear himself of all questions”? How? And how pivotal a role Haqqani has played for the protection of national interests we all know. The only problem is it was for AMERICAN national interest!!!

She reportedly also “warned there could be a policy review with NATO cooperation if they do it again.”

WTF? So this means there will be no policy review for sure until the next attack and even then it would just be a “maybe”.

(AP)  WASHINGTON – NATO forces may have been lured into attacking friendly Pakistani border posts in a calculated maneuver by the Taliban, according to preliminary U.S. military reports on the deadliest friendly fire incident with Pakistan since the Afghanistan war began.

The NATO airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers over the weekend in an apparent case of mistaken identity, The Associated Press has learned.

A joint U.S.-Afghan patrol was attacked by the Taliban early Saturday morning. While pursuing the enemy in the poorly marked border area, the patrol seems to have mistaken one of the Pakistan troop outposts for a militant encampment and called in a NATO gunship and attack helicopters to open fire.

U.S. officials say the reports suggest the Taliban may have deliberately tried to provoke a cross-border firefight that would set back fragile partnerships between the U.S. and NATO forces and Pakistani soldiers at the ill-defined border. Officials described the records on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters.

Of course they too cannot lie straight! This talk of “poorly marked border area” and “the patrol seems to have mistaken one of the Pakistan troop outposts for a militant encampment” is utter BULL SHIT (see this where it  states “There are four Pakistan and Isaf Afghanistan joint coordination centres, and the attack took place despite procedures being in place, they said. They said there had been no violation by Pakistan on the Mohmand Agency border. Nato and Isaf were aware  of the border check posts in the area and had fired on them from 12:05am to 2:15am.“)

That this is all bullshit is also clear from the statement: “Officials described the records on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters”

BTW: In telling this lie, they for the first time admit it was a JOINT U.S.-AFGHAN patrol — so U.S. TROOPS WERE ON THE GROUND AT LEAST A MILE IN. And how does a foot patrol march that far in by mistake in that nasty mountain area at midnight is itself a mystery (actually it is not; here I believe the Pakistan Army that the attack was deliberate, no question about it. Why? Anyone’s guess!)

….They said Volcano was the first check post that was attacked and communication had been cut off right after. Soldiers at the Boulder check post fired 26 air bursts but did not go after the helicopters as the situation could have gotten bad….

‘Shamsi base is nice, but not crucial for drone attacks’

WASHINGTON: US drone raids targeting militants in Pakistan will not be jeopardized if Islamabad does indeed expel Americans from a key air base, officials and a former intelligence officer said Monday.

Angered over a Nato air attack on Saturday that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead, Islamabad has shut off supply routes to US-led forces in Afghanistan and ordered Americans out of the Shamsi air base used by the CIA’s fleet of unmanned aircraft.

Even if the Pakistanis make good on their threat over Shamsi, US officials and analysts say the move would be largely symbolic as Washington could fly Predator and Reaper drones out of air fields in neighboring Afghanistan.

[Here is the little lie/spin in this. Having admitted the threat over Shamsi is largely symbolic, they say Washington "COULD" fly drones out of Afghanistan. Remember "COULD" doesn't mean "WOULD". Remember, as previously shown, drones already DO NOT fly from Shamsi any more (hence described as 'symbolic') but from OTHER AIRBASES/AIRSTRIPS IN PAKISTAN and they "WOULD" CONTINUE as I stated earlier.]

“Shamsi is a nice thing to have, but it’s not critical to drone operations. They can be carried out from bases in Afghanistan,” said Bruce Reidel, a former CIA officer and fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank.

The remote Shamsi air base in the country’s southwest is particularly useful for flights hampered by poor weather conditions, he said.

[Again, read this carefully. Hidden here is the admission that MOSTLY DO NOT FLY FROM SHAMSI! Keep in mind another fact mentioned in my earlier post: Shamsi is over 500 miles away from North/South Waziristan where all of the drone strikes are taking place and to think they are flying all that way from Shamsi is plain ridiculous!]

A senior US official said the facility was not a make-or-break link for the robotic planes that have proved an effective weapon against Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists.

“The real issue isn’t Shamsi, it’s air space,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

[And NO ONE IS TALKING TAKING AWAY AIRSPACE (or the other real drone bases):]

So far there was no sign that Islamabad would bar the US aircraft from flying over Pakistan, and its announcement on Shamsi appeared designed to placate a domestic audience in Pakistan, officials said.

The Shamsi base reflects the contradictions in the uneasy partnership between the two countries, with Islamabad reluctant to publicly acknowledge its tacit cooperation with US counter-terror efforts, which many Pakistanis see as a violation of their country’s sovereignty.

[ALL Pakistanis (and foreigners) see it as violation of their country's sovereignty (except our military and civilian leadership; in fact THEY KNOW IT TOO, THAT IS WHY ALL THE LIES!) for IT IS THAT WITHOUT QUESTION]

“You have to have jet fuel delivered to Shamsi,” Reidel said. “The Pakistani public has the impression of a base that operates extraterritorially but in reality it operates because the Pakistani army helps it to operate.”

Shortly after Saturday’s air attack on the border by Nato forces, Pakistan’s cabinet ministers and military chiefs demanded the United States clear out of the Shamsi air field within 15 days.

Pakistan previously called for the Americans to leave the air base in June but later backed off.

Although President Barack Obama’s administration was working on a response to a number of demands from Pakistan, there were no plans to pull back on the drone raids, which intelligence officials have credited with weakening the Al-Qaeda network.

“Pakistan remains a critical counter-terrorism partner, and we do not anticipate significant changes in that relationship,” another US official said.

A more serious problem for the United States and Nato allies is Pakistan’s decision to close its border to convoys ferrying fuel and supplies to coalition troops in landlocked Afghanistan.

[Oh but you can be DAMN SURE that "closure" is ONLY TEMPORARY]

Nearly half of all cargo bound for Nato-led forces runs through Pakistan. Roughly 140,000 foreign troops, including about 97,000 Americans, rely on supplies from outside Afghanistan for the ten-year-old war effort.

Pakistan has shut off the border over previous incidents, partly to allay popular outrage, and US officials said they expected the latest closure would be temporary….

[Ah, so the US  agrees.... ]

Q.E.D.!

RELATED:

• Kiyani’s Endless Lies Continue Following NATO Attack
• Enemy Within: An Open Letter to Roedad Khan
• More NATO Attack Facts…

‘BHAIGHAIRAT/BAYSHARAM FAUJ’ MUST SEE:

• ISPR-wood….Updated

ISPR Spokesperson: "Drones? What Drones? Those Paki officers must have been photoshopped in!"

Shah Mehmood Qureshi Joins PTI

[I had this as a note (as Side Note 1 here) in another of the posts but feel the point is important enough that it deserves more attention]

The NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers lasted almost two hours and continued even after Pakistani commanders had pleaded with coalition forces to stop, the army claimed Monday in charges that could further inflame anger in Pakistan.

"Glorious Resolve received the Jury's Special award from the President of the Italian Senate," says ISPR

ISPR documentary bags first prize at International Film Festival

One other thing I can not comprehend is that though the story states “‘Glorious Resolve’ received first prize“, the ISPR release states it received a “Jury’s Special award” (so that “first prize” is bullshit; and we can well imagine how that Jury’s Special Award was acquired

Glorious Resolve is based on a true story about the infantry soldiers “who fought against all odds when 1500 miscreants raided one of the section level outpost of an Infantry Battalion in South Waziristan Agency on the night of 29 May 2009.”

1948, 1965, 1971, Kargil, Balochistan, FATA, PATA, Raymond Davis, DHAs, Musharraf, Zia, Yahya, Ayub, GHQ attack, Mehran Base attack, Abbotabad, NATO attacks, DAILY drones, NRO,…,…,…(and I don’t know how much more I am missing)

Its directed by Sarosh Kiyani who is the son of Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani

Glorious Resolve was the joint venture of ISPR and Mind[DOESN'T]works Media.Brigadier Syed Azmat Ali was the Executive Producer whereas Brig Syed Mujtaba Tirmizi was the Executive Director of the film. Lieutenant Colonel Irfan Aziz was the project director and the writer of this film which was amicably directed by Sarosh Kayani. Dr Hassan Waqas Rana of Mind[DOESN'T]works Media was the producer whereas Bilal Lashari was the Director of Photography.

The NATO airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers lasted almost two hours and continued even after Pakistani commanders had pleaded with coalition forces to stop, the army claimed Monday in charges that could further inflame anger in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s greatest enemy today is the enemy within. “Ameer,” Quaid-e-Azam told Raja Sahib of Mahmudabad in 1948, “You have no idea of the situation here. I am surrounded by traitors”. The situation we face today is much worse. Traitors and foreign agents have captured political power with foreign support.

BUT there are a few things I’d like to mention where I don’t think you are going far enough. Good that you mention Zardari and that takes no rocket science to figure out he is one of the main problems. But how did he manage to become the President? Was it not Gen Kiyani negotiated NRO that made his return possible? Was it not your parliamentarians (PPP and “opposition”) voting unanimously to make him President? Has he not had the unwavering support of Gen. Kayani and Nawaz league that has kept him in office? Let’s not forget here that had it not been for the manipulations of both Nawaz and Kayani and Aitzaz Ahsan & Co. he would have been dragged out of the presidency had the Long March made it to Islamabad. We have “Tragedy aplenty: no drinking water, no electricity, no gas, no jobs, no cash, rampant corruption, no hope, and Zardari” because all have colluded to make it so and picking on Zardari is simplistic (let’s not forget the role bureaucracy and “free” judiciary itself has played in getting us here; they are EQUALLY as guilty).

Coming to Memogate, you state:

And to cap it all, the Memogate scandal: a dark, sinister, high-level conspiracy directed at the armed forces, a dastardly, cowardly, despicable criminal conspiracy designed to emasculate and destroy the army as a fighting force, the only shield we have against foreign aggression and the only glue that is keeping the federation together. It was an unsuccessful attempt to undermine the army’s much cherished independence and make significant changes in its decision-making system. The plan was to sweep away the existing system of command and raft of unpalatable generals and merge political and military power.

Agreed it was “a dark, sinister, high-level conspiracy directed at the armed forces, a dastardly, cowardly, despicable criminal conspiracy designed to emasculate and destroy the army as a fighting force” but tell me how is it any different from Haqqani’s previous acts? For an example, how is it any different from what he tried in Kerry-Lugar? Why wasn’t he fired right then and there? And even Kerry-Lugar was no surprise having followed his writings before he was installed Ambassador so I was baffled when the army raised no bones about that appointment. Of course I am sure you are also well aware of the visa-to-foreign-agents-without-background-checks scandal that brought here people like Raymond Davis (and care to tell me WHO was instrumental/which parties were instrumental in getting him out of jail, paying off the families of the victims and disappearing them, and putting him on a plane to US?). Let’s also not forget here the attempt made by Rehman Malik to put ISI under him. Did his head roll?

The talk of “army’s cherished independence” is of course laughable. “Independent” only if you ignore the Mullens, the Panettas, the Hillarys, the Panettas, the Holbrookes, the Pattersons, the Powells, the Munters, the Negrapontes, etc., etc., etc. And did you really forget about that phone call to Gen Musharraf back in 2001 that has directly let us here? And who was it that gave Mush a Guard of Honor and a send-off fit for a king? Isn’t it your army and the government that then covers up for them by claiming all the dead were militants (or ‘miscreants’ — Mushy’s term still popular with your independent army)? Is it not true they told every possible lie they could invent about Shamsi and are doing the same EVEN TODAY? Is it not true they told the “This is our war” lie and used to attack and kill thousands of their fellow citizens (don’t tell me you believe most of the dead are “foreign fighters”)? Have they not been constantly lying about there being “no military operation in Balochistan”?

"Indepent" head of an "independent" army, the "most powerful guy in Pakistan"

While on the subject, let’s not forget the latest calamity to befall your independent army: the NATO attack from a couple of days ago that killed some 28 soldiers. I really fail to understand what is the big deal there. Pakistanis get killed by NATO attacks EVERY DAY and no one sheds a tear. What is so special about these 28? Are they not made of the same ‘khak’(earth)? Is wearing khaki somehow turns them into some special form of humans?

Is it not a FACT that it is your independent army that provides the bases, the logistical support INCLUDING providing intelligence and targets to NATO/ISAF as to where to bomb? Is it not a FACT that the helicopters that strafed them, the fuel they burned, the bullets, the bombs, the missiles they fired, the pilots that flew them, ALL came through or flew over Karachi with the blessings of that very independent army? Is it not a FACT that the top echelon of your Army is whetted by the powers that be in U.S. and guys like Kayani would never make general (let alone COAS) if they don’t get approval from abroad? Isn’t it time we cut the bullshit and pick-and-choose “truths” we want to tell? Aren’t the biggest of lies told by telling half-truths? So either “speak up” the whole truth or shut up “since keeping silent” — and worse — telling half-truths makes you as much an “accomplice” in this sorry state we find ourselves in.

So I hope you understand why this gave me the giggles:

For people would have to speak up, since keeping silent would make them accomplices.

Ah, the irony of it all! But the sad thing is that was not the only thing. You added:

I realise what storms it is going to stir up, but truth and justice are sovereign over all else, for they alone make a nation great.

Reminded me of the oft-repeated “Let justice be done, may the heavens fall” that is popular with our supreme court justices. Well the heavens have been falling but there has been no sign of justice anywhere. CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry is happy prancing around in his bullet-proof BMW (so what if it costs people their lives) and the VVIP protocol he so much desired. Justice Ramday is happy breaking law, acquiring extensions and plots in Islamabad and is visiting Dehli right now (funny thing is the only “plot” he sees is the “plot to malign judges”. Justice Javaid Iqbal promised decision on “Missing Persons in two weeks” but that was like TWO YEARS AGO! He has since retired and that promised decision has gone missing too (but retired is a misnomer for no one ever leaves does he? He feels no shame in now getting himself installed as the head of the “Judicial Commission for the Recovery of Missing Persons” and feels no shame in stating “Number of missing persons on the rise“, that too after having stated in January that “2011 to be the year of missing persons’ recovery” (His honesty can be well gaged from the fact that before being installed to head this commission, his name was proposed by Zardari to head NAB and it was only the objection of PML-N that it did not happen. (Side Note: Interesting too is the fact that the bench comprising Justice Javaid Iqbal was the one that “disqualified the appointment of Deedar Hussain Shah as the NAB chairman” — maybe he wanted the job for himself ). And let’s not forget about “Hai, Bhagwandas!” (though “retired” too, I am sure he has been “adjusted” somewhere too. Could be he is still the FPSC chief)

Regards!

Pakistan blocks U.S. supplies, orders drone base closed after NATO raid

Supposedly Kiyani has ordered “effective response” to the attack , meaning he has got ALL the thieves known as the Defense Committee of Cabinet (DCC) together and supposedly they have decided to provide “No More Support in  Terror War”. Of course the jewel in this crown is the announcement that “US Must Vacate Shamsi Airbase in 15 Days” that people are going gaga over.

While Pakistanis beat their chests with pride at this, let me tell you why I am laughing at their STUPIDITY: They are being had once again!!!

Remember Shamsi story and the fact that drones were flying from it is nothing new and all sorts of stupid lies have been told by this government and Kiyani & Co. to cover up this fact )including the classic “drones land here but do not take off” by our honorable Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar. Below are some headlines in chronological order (some with excerpts where necessary) to try and show what I mean:

February 2009: US Confirms Using Shamsi Air Base

WASHINGTON – The United States has been using Shamsi airbase in Pakistanâ’s Balochistan province to station unmanned Predator drones that have been used to attack terrorist targets inside the country’s tribal areas, an unnamed senior US official told an American television network on Thursday.

The confirmation contradicts a stream of previous denials from officials and comes after the Times of London published a Google Earth image apparently showing three US drones at the airbase as early as 2006.

The senior US official told Fox News that the US was in fact launching Predator UAV strikes from at least one base in Pakistan, confirming a statement made by US Senate intelligence committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein last week. The California Democrat riled intelligence circles when she seemed to reveal sensitive information about such a Pakistan-based staging ground during a hearing. The official said that slip led to the initial denials from other officials that the US was using Pakistani bases.

The Times also obtained a copy of the Google Earth image, whose coordinates confirm that it is the Shamsi airfield, also known as Bandari, about 200 miles southwest of Quetta, the report said. US special forces used the airbase during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but the Pakistani government said in 2006 that the Americans had left and both sides have since denied repeatedly that Washington was using Pakistani bases.

Monitoring Desk adds: The US and other NATO member countries have had a quiet, unwritten agreement for the past three to five years to allow the CIA to fly unmanned drones out of remote airstrips in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, a senior military official from a NATO country confirmed to CBS News on Thursday.

In the past week, speculation has mounted over the extent to which Pakistan was aware of such flights, amid evidence that at least some of the drones were being launched from airstrips in remote Pakistani regions.

 The issue is potentially explosive for Pakistan – a country that has been an ally to the US in Washington’s fight against extremism, but has routinely protested the drone strikes on suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan’s border region, which have also caused numerous civilian casualties.

On Tuesday, The Times newspaper of London reported that the drone flights were originating from an airstrip known as Shamsi in Balochistan.

On Thursday, the Islamabad-based NATO military official, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said the US, Pakistan and NATO had all collaborated in the use of remote locations in Pakistan and Afghanistan to operate the drones.

“There is no single site you can name. We are looking at different locations both in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” said the official. “If the Shamsi base has been found to be a home for the drones, that is not the only location.”

A NATO country diplomat stationed in Islamabad, who also spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, confirmed the information given by the military official. “There is no one location. The locations keep on changing in both countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan). But yes, there are drones flying from locations in both these countries,” said the diplomat.

However, a Pakistani government minister told CBS News on Thursday there was no question of ending Islamabad’s support for Washington, especially given Pakistan’s weak economy which, has made it rely on the US for badly needed financial aid.

“The US holds a vital lifeline for Pakistan. How can we move to cut that off ourselves,” asked the minister, who also asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter.

December 2009: Pak Finally Admits US Using Shamsi Airbase in Balochistan

Islamabad, Dec. 13 : Pakistan, for the first time, has admitted that the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan is being used by the US forces for logistical purposes.

Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said the US is using the Shamsi airbase, but the government is not satisfied with payments for its use, The Dawn reports.

It may be noted that the US forces were also operating from the Jacobabad and Pasni airbases for carrying out operations in Afghanistan.

Mukhtar’s statements comes a day after he admitted the presence of ‘Quetta Shura’ in Pakistan, a fact which was being vehemently denied by Islamabad so far.

March 2011: Pakistan army chief Kayani in US drone outburst

Pakistan’s army chief has condemned the latest raid by US unmanned drones as “intolerable and unjustified”.

In a strongly worded statement, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said the attack, which killed about 40 people, was “in complete violation of human rights”.

Most of the victims were believed to be civilians attending a tribal meeting near North Waziristan’s regional capital, Miranshah.

After Raymond Davis Case and hundreds of Civilian Deaths in US Drone Strikes in Pakistani Tribal areas the relation between Pakistan and United States have became worse.

Pakistan has demanded US to stop Drone Attacks in its Tribal Areas and also asked its CIA Agents to leave the Country. According to Media reports Pakistan has also taken its  Shamsi Airbase back From America  that was present in Balochistan Province.

There where over 150 Americans present in Shamsi Airbase who have left it now. According to some reports CIA was using this Airbase for doing Drone Attacks in Pakistani Tribal Areas. This base was under US Control from 9/11 and it was also used for attack on Afghanistan in 2001.

The revelation by Barries raises a lot of questions for the Pakistani military–which has apparently been complicit in the bombing. The Wikileaks provided ample evidence that the highest echelons of the government was involved in the drones bombings. Shafqat Mahmoud writing for the news says “The drone attacks have been going on for a long time. There is sufficient evidence that successive Pakistani governments have acquiesced, if not facilitated them. Claims are even made that Pakistani airbases are used for them, obviously with the approval of our defence establishment. Why have these attacks now become such a big issue?”.

Those who allow the drones attacks to continue are guilty of treason and should be tried as traitors to the country.  The murder of every civilian that has died in drone attacks can be attributed to the compliant acquiescence of the head of the Army, the ISI and those that live in the president house.

The New America Foundation reveals that there have been 234 drone strikes (250-knot Reaper and the 100-knot Predator) in northwest Pakistan since 2004, which have “killed approximately between 1,439 and 2,290 individuals, of whom around 1,149 to 1,829 were described as militants in reliable press accounts.”

General Kayani, you have blood on your hands–the blood of Pakistanis. Stop the drones!

May 2011: Air Base Under UAE Control: Air Chief

June 2011: Pakistan to Take Control Shamsi Air Base from UAE

Dr. Subhash Kapila

Shamsi Air Base is deep within Balochistan in Pakistan’s western frontier regions. Shamsi Air Base has been and is being used by the United States for launching its ‘drone operations’ against Al Qaeda and Taliban elements ensconced in Pakistani areas bordering Afghanistan from where they have been launching attacks against US Forces.

In the last few days one is being treated to the spectacle where the Pakistani Defence Minister ostensibly under directions from the Pakistan Army Chief has been making public statements that Pakistan had asked the United States to halt drone strikes from there and that the United States vacate the Shamsi Air Base. The United States has refused to vacate Shamsi Air Base and therein lay, a double deception inflicted by the Pakistan Army on its own people.

Media reports and web-sites in Pakistan reveal that the United States is technically right as the Shamsi Air Base stands leased out to the United Arab Emirates a long time back and apparently the United States is making use of the Air Base with kind courtesy of the UAE and the tacit permissiveness of Pakistan. Hence it is only the UAE technically which can request the United States to cease drone strikes from the Shamsi Air Base.

Earlier Wikileaks reports attributed to the US Ambassador in Pakistan indicated that the present Pakistan Army Chief, General Kayani had in discussions indicated that the United States keep continuing its drone operations in the war against the militants’ hideouts in Pakistan’s frontier regions. 

So there we have two sets of deceptions being inflicted upon the Pakistani peoples. The first being that the Pakistani peoples are being led to believe by the public posturing of its Army Chief that he is very much against US drone strikes in Pakistan’s frontier regions and that too from Pakistani territory using Pakistani Air Bases. Further to show that the Pakistani Army Chief can stand up to the United States on the issue, public statements are issued giving directions to the United States to vacate Pakistani Air Base fully well knowing that the Pakistan Army can do pretty little against the United States in case it refuses to do so. 

The second major deception is that the fact has been hidden for long from the Pakistani peoples is that the Shamsi Air Base had been leased out by Pakistan to some Gulf potentates and that they had further sub-let it to the United States.

Obviously, even if that be so, the question that arises is that whether Pakistan and the Pakistan Army responsible for the security of such a volatile area as Balochistan were all not privy to the arrangements and the use by the United States of the Shamsi Air Base all along. Of course the Pakistan Army was fully aware of all that had taken place and was a party to it. What the Pakistan Army is now trying to demonstrate to the people of Pakistan is that it is in control of the situation and is in a position to order the United States to vacate the Shamsi Air Base.

With the United States refusing to vacate the Shamsi Air Base, the Pakistan Army stands caught up inextricably in its double-deception deceit from which there are no easy ways out. This is yet another major irritant in US-Pak relations which can sour relations between the erstwhile strategic partners.

Shamsi Airbase on 11/26/2010

You can clearly see that most of the drone-related stuff is GONE — striped/torn down — and there are no drones to be found. Again remember this was a full year ago so NO DRONES HAVE BEEN TAKING OFF FROM THERE!!!

Drone Strikes WILL Continue and drones WILL continue to fly from Pakistani Territory:

The US and other NATO member countries have had a quiet, unwritten agreement for the past three to five years to allow the CIA to fly unmanned drones out of remote airstrips in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, a senior military official from a NATO country confirmed to CBS News on Thursday.

…

Pakistan was aware of such flights, amid evidence that at least some of the drones were being launched from airstrips in remote Pakistani regions.

…

The official said that slip led to the initial denials from other officials that the US was using Pakistani bases.

…

Pakistani peoples are being led to believe by the public posturing of its Army Chief that he is very much against US drone strikes in Pakistan’s frontier regions and that too from Pakistani territory using Pakistani Air Bases. 

Other Lies That Continue To Be Told:

Drone Victim "Terrorist/Militant" Sameeda Gul, Age 6

ISPR: "These WERE HARDENED CRIMINAL TERRORISTS!"

Well I was not disappointed:

SC grants interim bail to Malik Riaz, his son

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC), while hearing the Bahria Town 1,400 kanals land scam case, on Friday accepted the interim bail of Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz and his son for three weeks. A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani also rejected the plea for exempting Malik Riaz and his son from the appearance before the court. During the hearing, the counsel for Bahria Town, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan appeared before the bench and stated that his client had settled the matter with the affectees of Bahria Town land scam. He also submitted to the court to exempt Riaz and his son from the appearance before the court during the hearing of this case. Anti Corruption Department’s Director Legal Sadqat Hussain said that both the accused were involved in a criminal case, therefore they could not be exempted from appearance. The court accepting his stance rejected the plea of Riaz and his son regarding the matter and adjourned the hearing for three weeks. staff report

Oh, so again the brilliant argument here is no argument at all (in fact admitting the guilt once again). Now don’t you think any $2 lawyer could have argued that? Wonder how many millions Aitzaz made for this brilliant argument (his minimum fee couple of years ago was Rs. 20 Million but that was two years ago and with inflation the way it is, and the size of the pockets of the client, the sky’s the limit)

But it get’s better. Another story tells of the tricks he tried, having failed at selling the out-of-court settlement mojo:

…On October 26, the Anti-Corruption Court, Rawalpindi issued arrest warrants for Hussain, his son Ali Riaz and five accomplices.

On November 4, Hussain approached the LHC and filed a petition claiming that they were not the beneficiaries and that they were the victims as the fraud was committed against them.

On November 14, the LHC once again directed all the accused to appear before the court in person on November 23.

However, two days before the hearing, NAB authorities issued a notification for the transfer of the case. The NAB notification addressed to ACE was issued with the approval of DG NAB and said: “The competent authority has directed to transfer the case from ACE to NAB, and the relevant record of the case be handed over to the officers of NAB.”

Yesterday, Justice Ijaz Ahmed though resumed hearing of the petition even though Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel for Malik Riaz Hussain and co, told the court that after the NAB notification he is withdrawing the petition.

On part of the Punjab government, Sadaqat Ali Khan, the additional advocate general (AAG), opposed the withdrawal of the petition and told the court that since the accused were fugitives, they could not be considered for any concession unless they surrendered themselves in the court as the trial court has issued their arrest warrants.

Furthermore, the AAG told the court that the notification was issued in violation of the court order.

In response to a question by Dawn, Sadaqat Ali Khan said that the ACE will file a petition in the LHC against the transfer of the case.

“Under the law, ACE and NAB have separate jurisdictions and NAB cannot issue such a notification without solid grounds. The notification did not mention any tangible reason for transfer of case,” he contended.

He added: “The Supreme Court of Pakistan in the same case accepted the bail applications of Hussain and his son and directed them to deposit a surety of Rs. 50,000 each in the trial court but instead of complying with the court orders, they withdrew their petition and got their case transferred to NAB.”

So let’s break it down:

First Aitzaz tries to ‘settle’ it but fails.

Next he tries to claim his well known fraudster clients are in fact the victims of fraud. I am sure the justices were rolling over with laughter but could not show it. So this trick too fails.

Then he goes and most certainly bribes DG NAB and gets him to issue an ILLEGAL order to transfer the case out of ACE and to NAB. Note too that NAB demands the “relevant records” (so they can be disappeared).

Now thinking that his move has been successful, Aitzaz tries to withdraw the petition (claiming Malik Riaz and Co. are “victims” and having accepted it as the right court by petitioning for bail — both BLUNDERS now in light of the latest moves by Aitzaz) because having that in court means the case stays in that court.

Good thing is the court has not let this move work — so far.

On a not so related story, did Aitzaz not convict his master and client in the NRO case? I am talking his statement after the appeal against SC’s NRO decision was rejected. Right after stating government will implement NRO, he stated:

Replying to a question he said that the office of President enjoyed constitutional immunity and the proceedings against president can not be started in any Court of law.

(And talking about presidential immunity and Aitzaz, DO read this: Lawyers being lawyers and Aitzaz being Aitzaz)

Another funny statement was his following claim:

Talking to media in Supreme Court Aitzaz said that the government had implemented all the judicial verdicts, though there may be delay somewhere due to certain reasons, adding that there should be no ambiguity that government would not implement verdict on annulled National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) 2007.

Right, Aitzaz. And wonder why we are still in court over NRO….

 Side Note: This reminds me of the other brilliant lawyer and buddy Babar Awan who unsuccessfully argued before the SC in the appeal against NRO decision that since the court had  used the concept of shariat in it’s decision, SC was not the competent authority to hear the case as it belonged in Shariat Court. Babar Awan of course lost that argument (and the appeal)

Related:
Everything you always wanted to know about Aitzaz but were afraid to ask

Land scam: Realtor moves court to block probe report

Kiyani’s Army: Operation Lightening or Operation Déjà Vu?

Well, looks like the TERRORISTS still have the upper hand:

Pakistan halts supplies after Nato kills 28 troops

Speaking of déjà vu, of course there are the usual “strong protests” and the usual “halted NATO supplies” reaction (For how long? 24 hours? 48? I am sure a “please don’t mind us — we have to do this for the bloody locals” message has been conveyed through back channels — that’s a LOADED ‘back’, mind you — and I am sure Chaman border is still open <wink><wink>)

ONE THING I don’t understand is WHY is this BIG DEAL? Scores of Pakistanis get every day by drones (thanks to logistics and ‘intelligence’ support by the Pakistani troops) . Is it because the dead this time happen to be “soldiers” and not bloody civilians? Rhetorical question of course. I forget they are the ‘Chosen Ones‘ and the civis the Palestinians…so of course this is a big deal

BTW: Here are two interesting bits from the accompany story:

Two military officials said that up to 28 troops had been killed and 11 wounded in the attack on the Salala checkpoint, about 2.5 kilometres from the Afghan border….

About 40 Pakistani army troops were stationed at the outpost, military sources said.

Meaning EVERYONE at the post was either killed or maimed, and the post being more that a mile inside the border, this was no mistake.

Sorry but this bit made me laugh:

Nato helicopters attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing up to 28 troops and prompting Pakistan to shut the vital supply route for Nato troops fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said….

No, this is not the funny bit. The funny bit comes latter which exposes this lie (that they are pissed/protesting):

Another official said the supplies had been stopped for security reasons.

“There is possibility of attacks on Nato supplies passing through the volatile Khyber tribal region, therefore we sent them back towards Peshawar to remain safe,” he said.

So the bastards are still more worried about NATO supplies — the very supplies that made it possible for NATO to kill their brethren — and making sure they come to no harm.

Aik Sala General….Aik General Sala….

Mohmand Agency

“It’s déjà vu all over again!” — Yogi Berra

A couple of days ago I saw this headline and had a sense of déjà vu and I laughed out loud:
Sept 01, 2011: Army claims 80 per cent of Mohmand cleared

Then today, early in the morning, I saw this headline staring at me:
Sept 03, 2011: 85pc of Mohmand Agency cleared: corps commander

PESHAWAR: Corps Commander Peshawar Lt Gen Asif Yasin Malik has said that most of Mohmand Agency had been cleared of militants and terrorists after the successful military operation restored the writ of the government there.

Talking to journalists at Mamadgat in Mohmand Agency, he said, the army had reclaimed 80 to 85 percent area of Mohmand Agency after the successful military operation Brekhna (lightning) in which 72 soldiers, including three officers, embraced martyrdom and around 150 other soldiers were injured.

The corps commander said that the major action in Mohmand Agency had been completed and now only search and cordon operation was being carried out in a few pockets….

And I went “Wow! Kiyani’s ‘men’ have managed to clear 5% of Mohmand in only TWO DAYS so we should be 100% clear in another six! Man these ‘guys’ are good!!!“

Of course I was being cynical.

Let me not say another thing and let the headlines/timeline do the talking:

• Sept 16, 2009: 80pc of Mohmand Agency cleared
• Jan 5, 2010: 80 per cent of Mohmand Agency cleared, say Army sources
• In early 2010, the Pakistani military claimed they had cleared Mohmand Agency in FATA. These claims were undermined by Taliban-led attacks in the agency as early as July 2010, which killed over 100 civilians. The Taliban once again controlled the Mohmand agency in 2011, which forced the Pakistan military to again conduct major operations there in February 2011. These operations displaced 25,000 people.
• Aug 2010: Army claims 80 per cent of Mohmand cleared
• Feb 2011: Pakistani Military Steps It Up In Mohmand Agency – 22,000 Civilians Clear the Hell Out
• Feb 16, 2011: 90pc area of Mohmand Agency cleared of militants: Pakistan Army
• April 22, 2011: Phase II for Operation Brekhna Launched in Mohmand Agency
• May 2011: Peace returns to Mohmand Agency
• July 16, 2011: Over 1,500 militants surrender in Mohmand Agency

You know what is even funnier? Here are two pics released by ISPR on the Mohmand Agency operations:

Kiyani and his girls in Mohmand Agency April 21, 2010

Kiyani and his girls in Mohmand Agency on July 13, 2011

Yes, it’s déjà vu all over again!, eh Yogi!

Mohmand Agency IDPs

(P.S. Looking at this last picture, ask yourself “Are these ladies wearing ‘burqas’ because the bad old Taliban forced them to?”)

NTC Dum Leader Jalil Admits Tripoli Fake Video on TV, NATO Crimes In Libya

[End Update]

BUSTED INDEED!

Look at the faces, the hats, and the clothing! — They’re not even using the right props — Look carefully at the flags— & the picture that is held up by some one in the “Libyan” crowd! What were these Indians, waving Indian flags, really demonstrating about?

For those who don’t know:

Indian flag:

Libyan ‘Rebel’ flag:

Almost similar, eh??

Of course Fox News can’t be far behind:
Busted! FAKE Fox News Broadcast about Libya!

Breaking Story: Libya Falls (Exclusive Rebel Statement – Latest Videos)

Of course I challenged him on it and he came back with abuses and threats and nothing else. When I exposed some more of his bullshit, he resorted to deleting my comments. Luckily I DID manage to save some so here are our exchanges:

• Gordon Duff

  August 21, 2011 – 7:56 pm

  I do love this, Gaddafi, whose family vacations with the Rothschilds in Montenegro, are suddenly victims of a vast Jewish conspiracy.
  Good luck with that one.

  Reply

  • Brian

    August 21, 2011 – 8:06 pm

    Gordon, our 81 congressmen are going to have a wonderful, free vacation in Israel and we are supposed to believe these congressmen and the country they represent are victims of a Jewish Zionist conspiracy; well yes.

    Reply

    • Truth Seeker

      August 22, 2011 – 8:10 am

      What do think Isntreal is? Do a little research, many call it Rothchild”s land.

      Reply

  • nota

    August 21, 2011 – 8:46 pm

    Ah, so Gaddafi was “bad” for having “family vacations with the Rothschilds in Montenegro” BUT the Rothchilds taking over the central bank of Libya is “good” — so VT/GD is on the same side as gaddafi isn’t it? Oops, soory I forgot — Gordon and family have the added star of having weekend bar-b-cues with Tenent and family…

    What utter B.S. You are such a shill and exposing too much of the hand that feed you   “Dissent” my @ss! “Manufactured Dissent”? Bingo!

    Reply

    • nota

      August 21, 2011 – 8:55 pm

      ^^^
      “Tenent” should be “Tenet”, as in George Tenet…

      Reply

    • Gordon Duff

      August 21, 2011 – 9:18 pm

      The central bank of libya is a partnership between a number of banks, some rothschild controlled, some US and a high percentage ownership by gaddafi himself.

      You lose, MF, your Zionist shill and his boys are out on their ass along with the liars and thugs. The people of libya, the ones you said were going to rise against the rebels turned on gaddafi.

      Time for you to bend over and kiss your own ass goodbye. You are, officially, too stupid to live.

      Reply

      • nota

        August 22, 2011 – 12:48 am

        ROTFLMAO. Getting NASTY are we, old goat who probably got shot in the butt running away
        Seems I hit a nerve — and the right one!

        Funny to see a dog that feeds at the crumbs of the elite fools himself into thinking he is one of them. More later….

        BTW: Funny to see a Zionist shill calling another that … really funny

DELETED!

…

See, you are blowing Gordon Duff’s cover…Gordon is salivating for this supposed victory of the “Zionist World Order” and pretending to be uber-anti-Zionist, trying to twist it by blaming Qaddafi to be in bed with Zionists…He wants us to believe NATO is ther to fight Zionist (now that includes Gaddafi, according to Gordon) plans.

Are the vets really this dumb to buy this sh!t for Tenet’s pet d*g??

DELETED!

…

• Gordon Duff

  August 24, 2011 – 6:48 am

  very true, al jaz is a disinformation site….like the folks defending gaddafi

• nota

  August 24, 2011 – 7:49 am

  Not only is Al Jazeera “a disinformation site” (like VT?), it is NOT owned by the Emir of Qatar, as the popularly believed disinfo goes. It is only based in Qatar and the Sheikh “The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, provided a loan of QAR 500 million ($137 million) to sustain Aljazeera through its first five years, as Hugh Miles detailed in his book Aljazeera The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West. Shares were held by private investors as well as the Qatar government.”

  Yes, it has “private” investors and you can be sure who those are

  As about Qatar, you know who owns the Emir’s @ss. He is the one who built a new base for US to attack Iraq and today his forces and Jordon’s are the only one’s outside of NATO fighting along with the rebels (so I am sure Gordon is in love with the Emir of Qatar and that other puppet, King of Jordan)….
  See http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/24/libya.foreign.forces

DELETED!

(Now this one is specially interesting. Why would Gordon delete this one?? Hmmmm…..)

…

Running out of ideas, Gordon?? Again, please explain to me why getting rid of “Gaddafi, the Rothschild son” is something to soooo look forward to (the connotation being “Rothschilds are BAD”, with which I agree) but whole of Libya falling into the hands of Rothschilds is something you are all giddy over??

This only proves if anyone is Rothschild’s son, it’s YOU (b@stard one, of course)!!!

DELETED!

…

Gordon: I didn’t know you were just mouthing McCain (another vet like you)

FLASHBACK FROM 2 DAYS AGO – McCain: Gadhafi Will Be Gone In a ‘Matter of Hours’

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/Explosions-GunfireRockTripoliasRebelsAdvance/2011/08/20/id/408043?s=al&promo_code=CE1D-1

Man, these are LLOOONNNGGG HOURS!!

In other news:

Libya: NATO Psy-Op Collapses – Qaddafi Prevails Again

http://theintelhub.com/2011/08/23/libya-nato-psy-op-collapses-%E2%80%93-qaddafi-prevails-again/

Tony Cartalucci writes:

“Once again a defiant Qaddafi has prevailed against the full might of NATO aggression including a murderous bombing campaign followed by NATO special forces on the ground supporting mobs of US/UK/French/Qatari backed Al Qaeda thugs which swarmed Tripoli over the weekend.

“Illustrious” news agencies from the Qatari government’s AlJazeera, to the now exposed frauds at CNN, BBC, Reuters, AP, AFP [AND VETERANS TODAY ] have been caught perpetuating a concerted war propaganda campaign in order to break the will of both Libya and in particular Tripoli….

Libya rebels lose territory as battle for Tripoli deepens

http://www.uruknet.info?p=80733

By Ariel Zirulnick,

Two days after rebels exulted in their swift takeover of Tripoli, signaling the endgame for Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, the capital has become a stage for a potentially protracted battle between rebels and loyalists.

The rebels expected a decisive victory after entering the city easily this weekend, Bloomberg reports, but they are still locked in battle with Mr. Qaddafi’s fighters inside and outside Tripoli.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the rebels pulled back from much of the territory in the city that they took earlier in the week and seemed to be in control of only a “slice of land leading from the western edge to near the city center.” Qaddafi gunmen have staked out several neighborhoods and Green Square, where rebel supporters celebrated Sunday night, is now a “no-man’s land.”…

So up yours!

Interestingly not yet deleted! I am sure it is an oversight

…

1. nota

   August 24, 2011 – 7:59 am

   BTW: Forgot to mention this but I DO want to ask one more question. Gordon has put up this B.S. statement in BOLD and in RED to really highlight it is a “FACT”:

   Rebels: “The Americans have given us absolutely nothing, zero, zilch.not a bullet nor has any other NATO member”

   Is anyone here dumb enough to believe that BIG LIE????

2. Dave Mann

   August 24, 2011 – 8:18 am

   What I sincerely just don´t understand about the Duff and Dean line is how they can consider the fall of the regime – and we still have hope that that may not even be the fate of Libya – but how they can construe that, if it does happen, as confirmation of their position – ie, cruel tyrant who has lost support of the people, etc. Air war bombing at will, 42 nation military coalition, economic “sanctions” and confiscations, world media psy-war, mercenary “rebel” army, and more, against a desert country of 6 million. Oh, but VT headlines “Rebels – We haven´t received one single bullet from the US or Nato” – who do they think they are fooling ?!? VT even swallowed whole the obvious psy-war “report” about the Mossad coming to the rescue of the Gaddafi regime – a psy-war report directed principly to a mid-east audience – but taken by VT as good coin !!

   Really, we´ve all made mistakes before. This is a hell of a blunder. How does VT live this down so it can go on with it´s vital work of exposing the Fake War on Terror and thus help avert WW3….

   • nota

     August 24, 2011 – 9:36 am

     “How does VT live this down so it can go on with it´s vital work of exposing the Fake War on Terror and thus help avert WW3….”

     Dave, sorry but it CAN’T! It is not a unintentional “blunder” by any means. This is what Gordon Duff is selling. You won’t hear any “oops!” but more of the same (and we have already seen more crap like it appear on these pages from Gordy).

     Gordon has just dropped his pants to show the wold the tattos on his bvtt — He is a cheerleader waving his pom-poms for that very “Fake War on Terror”. No laser surgery will help remove them

   • nota

     August 24, 2011 – 9:51 am

     Just want to add:

     I only mentioned the “one single bullet” thing. Do you buy any of the other high-lighted “facts” up top:

     1. Rebels Greeted As Liberators, Fighting Ends

     ——————————-

     2. Sons ‘Were’ in Custody, Confirmed by International Criminal Court

     ——————————-

     3. Few as 200 Rebel Fighters Take Tripoli

     ——————————-

     4. Pro-Israeli CNN”s Wolf Blizer Makes Last Ditch Appeal for Gaddafi Support

     ——————————-

     I say they are ALL BVLLSH!T! Pure lies!!

     P.S. What is even funnier is the fact that that “The Americans have given us absolutely nothing, zero, zilch.not a bullet nor has any other NATO member” crap is accompanied by a photo with the hilarious caption:

     “A WESTERN CORRESPONDENT [yea, right!] WITH WEAPON/FACE OBSCURED FOR SAFETY) WITH MILITA (sic) THAT JOINED REBEL FIGHTERS”

     LMAO!!!!

DELETED! This comment was followed by a brief one to Dave Mann saying something like “Gordon just proved my point” and a link to the

…

I know there were some others too but I have no record of them…

Now having his @ss banged, Gordon forgot about Libya for a while and switch the subject and put up this laugher:

Ft. Hood Shooting, America’s Breivik

In this he digs up the old Ft. Hood affair and tries to re-brand Hasan as Breivik and gives whole lot of crazy history of Hasan like he is trying to prove Hasan was recruited to do what he did when he was just a lad. Interestingly, one of my comments still survives:

Of course ALL of the above have been deleted as well

Note: As mentioned by “Dave Mann” in one of the comments above, it is not just Gordon but another “Featured Columnist” of VT, Jim W. Dean, who is taking this stupid line. Now what this does for the credibility of Veterans Today and ALL it’s contributing columnists of VT you can well imagine…

Now get this: Yesterday they put out a news release (and put some effort into publicizing it as it appeared in a lot of places) proudly proclaiming they “intended to hire services (of an outside firm) for the conversion of their existing website into a world-class web portal that would facilitate the students, teachers, alumni and the administrative staff.” They added:

The main objective of this web portal is to have a world class recognition that will reflect the international standing of NUST with respect to Academics, Research and University Industry relationship through a complete web-solution having user-friendly interface and navigation.

[How does a company named E-Solutions-Pakistan with CEO Ahsan Ahmed end up being an "offshore" firm is beyond me Probably this Ahsan fella is the some of some crooked politician or crooked general]
ESOLPK (Pvt.) Ltd. an offshore software and web development outscoring firm in Islamabad has performed study on the existing websites of NUST and its constituent institutes, colleges, schools and centers and has proposed the best possible architecture for the University Web Portal.

[Observe the advert for Microsoft:]
The technical team at ESOLPK proposed the MS SharePoint technology to proceed with the Portal development. For a
university as large as NUST, with several institutes, colleges, schools and centers, which provide unique educational services to students, a technology as established as SharePint promises best results with options to enhance in future.
[End advert]

This portal will ensure thee[sic] impressive projection of NUST through web as well as attract new students & research scholars in Pakistan and worldwide.

Did not a single MORON scientist or big techie at NUST realize HOW FREAKING STUPID THIS IS? Instead of announcing it proudly, they should be hiding their faces in SHAME (better yet, committing collective harakiri) for what what they are admitting to is that with ALL their faculty with PhD’s in technical fields and their whole science and technology student body (remember this place offers PhDs in Engineering & IT, Medical Sciences, Business Administration, and Mathematics and Physics too besides Undergraduate and Masters degrees) CAN NOT BUILD A SIMPLE FREAKING WEB PORTAL!!!

Now that’s “thee[sic] impressive projection of NUST through web” that I have ever seen and I am sure it will “attract new students & research scholars in Pakistan and worldwide”

Here is a BBC story that lifts the veil from this sordid affair and is presented in full below (My independent info told me he was arrested May 6, which is confirmed by this story too) :

23 June 2011 Last updated at 09:00 GMT

Brigadier Ali Khan: Pakistan’s dissenting army officer

Brig Khan has a long and distinguished record

Brigadier Ali Khan, the Pakistani officer detained for his alleged links with the banned extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, had been highly critical of the Pakistan army’s high command over its relationship with the US, reports BBC Urdu’s Asif Farooqi.

Brig Ali Khan had been exerting strong pressure on the top echelons of Pakistan’s military to stop co-operating with American forces in the fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents, army officers who served with the brigadier during his 32-year career told the BBC.

But Pakistan’s military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said that there was compelling evidence against the brigadier because of his contacts with the banned group. [Of course this is a LIE!]

Hailing from a humble background in Punjab province, Brig Ali joined the army in 1979.

Colleagues – who did not want to be named because they are still in service – say he was a gold medallist with a distinguished career who was consistently promoted.

But his career hit a roadblock when he openly criticised Gen Pervez Musharraf when he was still army chief of staff.

Passed over

At an army course at a prestigious military college in Quetta, Brig Ali asked Gen Musharraf why he would not divulge the details of an agreement with the US to the Pakistani public.

Brig Ali wanted the army to be less co-operative with the US

The brigadier also said the “limits” of co-operation with the US on “the war on terror” should be clearly defined.

A senior military officer who was present at the occasion told the BBC that Gen Musharraf was clearly unhappy with the questions, and had asked around about the officer.

A few weeks later, the army promotion board held its regular meeting under Gen Musharraf. Brig Ali, who had been tipped for promotion to major general, was passed over.

Successive promotion boards rejected Brig Ali while his colleagues and subordinates continued to rise up the promotion ladder, overtaking him. Indeed, to date, Brig Ali is the oldest brigadier in the Pakistani army.

His colleagues thought he would be unable to withstand a career going nowhere and would seek early retirement. But they were soon proved wrong. The brigadier told his colleagues he had more to accomplish in his job.

It soon became clear what he meant by that.

“The army is a cult in itself, so it’s intolerant towards any other cult within.”
— Maj Gen Athar Abbas

Brig Ali started writing letters to army generals, some of whom were his former colleagues, with suggestions on how to become “self reliant” and “to purge the army of the American influence”.

He told senior officers such as Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani that Pakistan’s “unconditional” support to the Americans was causing resentment in the lower ranks of the army.

He said that “growing” American involvement in Pakistan – especially in its military affairs – was negatively affecting the morale of the armed forces.

An officer who received one of these letters said that after coming to know that Gen Kayani wanted this sort of correspondence to end, he spoke with his former colleague and politely told him to refrain from annoying the senior leadership.

“But Ali wouldn’t listen to us. He thought his input was necessary to save the institution he was serving and loved,” the officer said.

Anger vented

Brig Ali even wrote to the President Asif Ali Zardari suggesting ways to make Pakistan economically self-reliant by freeing the country of American aid.

After the US Special Forces raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound on 2 May, Brig Ali finally got the opportunity to vent his anger.

On 5 May, he was invited to a meeting by his former student and now his boss, Lieutenant General Javed Iqbal at the army headquarters.

The question that officers were asked at this meeting was how to pursue an inquiry into the 2 May raid.

Gen Kayani THE PIG's attitude towards the US was criticised by Brig Khan

One officer present in the meeting said all had been going well until it was Brig Ali’s turn to speak. In his opinion, the culprits who had hidden Bin Laden and allowed the Americans to get away with breaching Pakistan’s sovereignty were to be found within the army.

Gen Javed Iqbal was furious at the end of the meeting. As it turned out, Brig Ali’s views were not those of a lone wolf – he had managed to persuade some of his fellow officers of the veracity of his case.

Gen Iqbal promptly told the corps commanders what had happened the following day at a meeting chaired by Gen Kayani. That same evening Brig Ali was arrested.

Army officers who have worked with the brigadier say that nobody who knows him seriously believes that he has been involved in anything illegal.

“But the problem is that his anti-American views and [opinions on] self reliance were getting popular with middle and lower ranking officers,” one remarked.

In an interview with the BBC’s Urdu service Maj Gen Athar Abbas commented: “The army is a cult in itself, so it’s intolerant towards any other cult within”.

It looks as is Brig Ali’s cult was growing too rapidly and too dangerously.

Don’t you just love it? So Brig. Ali Khan has been RIGHT about everything and that is what bugged Kiyani so much. He 1s 100% correct in saying:

•  stop co-operating with American forces in the fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents
•  he openly criticised Gen Pervez Musharraf when he was still army chief of staff.
•  asked Gen Musharraf why he would not divulge the details of an agreement with the US to the Pakistani public.
• the “limits” of co-operation with the US on “the war on terror” should be clearly defined.
• writing letters to army generals, some of whom were his former colleagues, with suggestions on how to become “self reliant” and “to purge the army of the American influence”.
• told senior officers such as Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani that Pakistan’s “unconditional” support to the Americans was causing resentment in the lower ranks of the army.
• thought his input was necessary to save the institution he was serving and loved
• wrote to the President Asif Ali Zardari suggesting ways to make Pakistan economically self-reliant by freeing the country of American aid.
• the culprits who had hidden Bin Laden and allowed the Americans to get away with breaching Pakistan’s sovereignty were to be found within the army.

Interestingly, all these points are what the current command pretends to be raising with it’s public face BUT we know that is all it is. And now no one should have any doubts for if they meant what they were saying, the’d have no issues with Brig. Ali.

BTW I just loved this bit:

“But the problem is that his anti-American views and [opinions on] self reliance were getting popular with middle and lower ranking officers,” one remarked.

(especially the use of the word “problem”)

Sort of related joke (though it is no joke):

Headline from last week:

CIA, ISI cooperation terminated: Gillani

Headline from today:

Embassy issues 67 visas for CIA staff

Bet Kiyani is proud of both Gilani and Haqqani

Surgeon Dr Baqar Shah Journalist Jamal Tarakai

Look at what the BASTARDS did: They beat up the doctor who performed the autopsies and told the truth about the cause of death (56 bullets and not “bomb” as in the official version) AND have arrested the journalist who shot the video….(some reports state he too was tortured).

Of course no surprise they are also continuing to tamper with the evidence.

And yet the Corps Commanders whine that there is a “conspiracy” to put a gulf between the people and the army and point their fingers at the media. Read the hilarious ISPR Press Release of June 09, 2011 after the Corps Commanders’ meeting, made even more hilarious as it came out the day after the Karachi daylight murder of a kid citizen at their hands…

But what was curious was his focusing in on the laws against consuming alcohol (Historical Note: Though Zia did in fact introduce some twisted ”Islamic rules”, it was Z A Bhutto who banned alcohol; Note also that the party Mr. Ayaz Amir belongs to WAS created by Zia himself):

But what remained the highlight of today’s performance was the unique suggestion of the chairman of Senate’s standing committee on Finance and Revenue, Senator Ahmed Ali of MQM. Though till the very last moment it remained unclear whether he was supportive of Attiqa Odho or criticizing the judiciary for taking suo-motto notice of her carrying merely two bottles of banned beverages, yet he flabbergasted not only the committee members but also the chairman of FBR Salman Siddique by asking him that how much taxes state would be able to earn if ban on these hard beverages is lifted? Upon finding Salman shying away by just blushing and staring at his own files, Senator asked in more definitive and substantive terms that would it be over Rs 70 billion? Then Salman had to hesitatingly and in his inaudible tone say that may be more than that. (source)

 Yes friends, the sleeping lion (who slept through corruption and injustice of every possible kind for three years, in fact supporting those with the excuse used by every scoundrel that ‘Democracy must be protected at every cost”) jumped out of his slumber howling because Mushy’s chick and central-office bearer of his (Mushy’s) party Atiqa Odho got caught at the airport with two bottles of the good stuff and was let go which did not sit well with SC that demanded to investigate how she slipped away.

That can ONLY MEAN ONE THING: Ayaz Amir is banging the old hag. Simply, there can be no other explanation for it and everyone can see through this (see suggestion of Senator Ahmed Ali abouve).

That Ayaz himself realized that he had dropped his pants in public is clear from his backtracking (“what I meant was….”)

Too late, Ayaz! The cat is out of the bag

]]> http://fkpolitics.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/omg-ayaz-amir-must-be-doing-atiqa-odho/feed/ 0 nota Ayaz_Amir AtiqaOdho http://fkpolitics.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/follow-up-slaughter-of-chechens-in-quetta/ http://fkpolitics.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/follow-up-slaughter-of-chechens-in-quetta/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:13:17 +0000 nota http://fkpolitics.wordpress.com/?p=2224 ]]> Follow-up to Another Cold-Blooded Murder In Quetta — This time it’s Chechens

Exactly what happened has become pretty clear. Below are two accounts, one from the papers and one through a friend who knows someone who was there. But do watch these short videos first:

Few days back, the killing of five Chechens by security personnel has shaken up every Pakistani. After the postmortem report and the accounts of eyewitnesses, majority of people are unwilling to accept that this unfortunate members of a single family were terrorists and suicide attackers. According to those in the know sources, these five were Chechens and members of a single Muslim family — a husband, his wife, their two daughters and a son — who were traveling from Kachlak to Quetta on a rented Suzuki. Their destination was Iran and their Russian passports had Iranian visas stamped on them. The police at the Kachlak check post let them through after receiving the demanded bribe and informed the police at the Balili check post. When this family reached Balili check post, the police personnel present also demanded their ‘bhatta’ (bribe) and let the family through after receiving it. The Balili officers too informed the next check post — the one belonging to airport police station — of the approaching ‘opportunity’. By the time the family got to the airport police check post, they had run out of money to pay the bhatta to make it through. Upon hearing the family had no money to pay the bribe, the eyes of the police fell upon the jewelry of the women and demanded that as payment, which the family was not willing to do. The police continued to hold them and mounted pressure on them to give up their jewelry.

After making it through [How? Did they give up some item of jewelry? It is not mentioned], when this unfortunate family proceeded further, they inquired from the local people about the location of the Federal Constabulary (FC) post so that they could file a complaint against the attitude/actions of the police. When they started proceeding towards the FC post down the road, the police who were following them got alarmed that their doings would exposed so they informed the FC people that some foreign suicide terrorists were heading to their post laced with suicide jackets with intent to blow up the FC post. The family members proceeded towards the FC post saying kalma and “Allah-hu-Akbar” to save themselves from the police and to show the FC personnel that they were in fact Muslims (meaning they meant no harm to them) but upon hearing the cries of “Allah-hu-Akbar”, the FC personnel thought them to be suicide bombers and opened indiscriminate fire upon them as a result of which they all fell injured close to the check post. Despite being seriously injured, the women kept waving their hands appealing to them to stop the shooting but the FC personnel continued the firing resulting in the death of all five family members. After the killing of the family, police officials claimed to the media that the dead were foreign suicide terrorists who were laced with advanced weaponry and that suicide jackets were also recovered from them. Police and FC personnel, to please the Americans, for self-promotion and to get awards (prize money) declared these people to be suicide bombers and this a successful operation against terrorism when in fact no suicide jackets nor any other weapons were recovered from the victims. The police and FC personnel were close to getting their awards and promotions when the postmortem report and the accounts of eyewitnesses proved the innocence of the victims. Later it was revealed that one of the dead women was seven-months pregnant. After the killing, one of the police officers present at the scene stole the expensive necklace from the neck of one of the dead women and pocketed it but this [utterly disgraceful] act was not hidden from the eye on the camera [see video below]. This reminded me of the heinous murder of Pakistanis in Macedonia a few years back. Macedonian security forces had shot dead some Pakistanis in a police ‘encounter’. Macedonia’s Interior Minister had claimed that their security forces had killed seven people “with links to Al-Qaida”. This whole operation was shown on all international TV channels. It was possible that that story too got buried with time but Wall Street Journal exposed the real facts of the matter and informed us that these poor Pakistanis had gone to Macedonia so that they could slip into Greece to look for work. Same kind of spin was applied to the incident in Quetta. It is sad that in our security forces their are such black sheep who — blinded by chance of promotions and cash rewards — see nothing wrong in spilling the blood of innocents to get that. Whatever happened to this family, the pain is being felt by me and every Pakistani. Few years back, an FC person in Khybar-Pakhtoonkhwa had taken a university professor off of a bus and really mistreated him of which General Kiyani had himself taken notice and action was taken against those responsible. Because FC, which is an arm of the military, is being blamed in this Quetta incident along with the police, the Army Chief and the Chief Justice of Pakistan should take notice of this incident and hold an independent inquiry so that the truth is revealed and the culprits are acted against. If today eyes are closed against this incident, this will encourage the criminal minded in the security forces and incidents like this will continue to occur.
Source: Istiaq Baig, Jang Daily, May 25, 2011

Here is the video of the police stealing the necklace:

Here I must greatly admire the three eyewitnesses featured in the above video who held a press conference at the Quetta Press Club challenging the “official” version. For all we know, it would be no surprise they have been “disappeared” by now. This video also features the lies of Khanzir Col Sohail (more on that below).

Of course there are some problems with this story, specifically the role of the FC which it tries to cover up some. As can be seen from the picures of the incident, it is clear that the five were in fact rounded up inside the barbed wire fence surrounding the heavy machine gun barrack — a place they could not have gotten to themselves. That the FC felt no threat from them is also very clear by the calm way the FC personal stood close by shooting at them with out a care in the world. If they thought the five were wearing suicide belts, FC guys wouls never have gotten so close and risked shooting them to have the explosive explode and get them too. This was plain coldblooded murder. No question about it. Here is the other account that fills in some blanks:

I have some personal friends who actually are based where the whole incident happened. Basically these guys were traveling and they were stopped at 2 different check posts where they were forced to bribe.

On the third (Police) check post the police stopped them and asked for a hefty amount in foreign currency. After an argument, these people were arrested and their hands were tied with some rope???

During all this incident, one of the woman ran towards a near by army/rangers check post while her hands were partly tied with a rope and started shouting for help.

On this the Police man started abusing and hitting the remaining people. During this tussle, the others also started running towards the check post while the cops started shouting that they are terrorists. These people managed to get behind that partial war/barracked and were lying on the floor and crying for help/mercy.

The Army Officer took his time, gathered his Jawaans and than without asking them to surrender (He did not ask them to surrender even once) sprayed them with bullets.

At the time of the death even one of the dead person (a woman?) was chained and that chain was taken off by a cop who was apparently filmed by a TV Crew/Taken pictures by surrounding people/journalists) That Cop is missing since this incident and although the police officer is just suspended, the army officer is still not arrested.

Pak Army Zindabad!
(Source)

The army officer being talked about is Col Sohail who has been proven to be a liar — he claimed the victims died of their own bomb going off but he was caught on tape taking part in the slaughter; see video below — but NO action was taken against him and is still at the same post enjoying the same position (I am sure a promotion is on the way).

Related videos and links:
Kharota Abad Scandal: Chechen Woman Photo Killed by FC Balochistan

…certainly NOT this bozo who came out to investigate what was going on after hearing explosions and got his ass fried (12 others died too who probably were killed in action but were ordinary soldiers and not sexy enough). Sure they are trying this exercise to create our own Jessica Lynch myth (or did he die like Pat Tillman from friendly fire?), our own Rambo, and cover their asses and trying to pretend their was some bravery shown by our armed forces (and FC and Police and Rangers who all combined to “fight” the six attackers and yet managed to kill only four, letting two escape. Yes, with hundreds of “soldiers” from four of your top security forces working jointly were engaged by the six attackers for OVER 16 HOURS and two of them still managed to escape.

So of course the choice as to who deserves the medals is simple really. I nominate for Nishad-e-Haider the four attackers who got killed and I nominate for Hilal-i-Ju’rat the two who got away.

But of course that won’t happen…Yes, that bozo WILL get the Nisha-e-Haider for army has been exposed once again as being good at only taking it up their rectom and loving it and no matter how exposed these emperors are, pretenses must be kept. Time is ripe for them to create another Rashid Minhas….

Official Stories:
Oh what a joke they have been…The Naval Chief’s press conference was hilarious. He not only stated “This was not a security failure” but tried his behind in a novel way by singing songs of praise for the attackers and their excellent training and how successful the security forces were in limiting damage (it was only Rs. 8 Billion’s worth of damamge and destroying Pakistan’s 80% anti-sub, anti-mining capability).

In another one, the Air Force blamed the navy for the lapse (that wasn’t there according to the Naval Chief) and the Navy guy blamed the Air Force (remember this base is run by both Air Force and Navy).

Rehman Malik of course had his clown hat on as usual and proudly proclaimed they got four of the six so no worries. He of course blamed every one — Taliban, Al-Qaida, foreign forces, etc. and excused the intrusion because “there was a 35-degree blind spot in the security camera coverage which the attackers used to trespas” (Hmmm….if they knew there was a such a HUGE blindspot, why didn’t they cover it with another camera? Hardly would have made a dent in the monstrous defense budget that easily pays for a Rs 85 million bulletproof BMW for the naval chief).

Interesting, seeing that the nuber of attackers being only six looks really bad, they have tried to divert blame by now raising that number to twelve (that’s the number they put in the FIR) as if that justifies the failure of the base security. Hardly. In fact it makes them look even worse because that means not two but eight attackers got away. Wht bloody morons!

What the Army/FC/Police/Rangers are good at:
Shooting unarmed citizens….Please watch EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE. You owe it to the victims….











And one just to expose another lie:

One of the victims raises her hand in a peace sign, hoping to stop the shooting. In response, our brave sholdiers returned another wally of automatic fire from close range (see pic down below)..

Fucking BASTARDS!

How the media first played it:

Truth Trickles Out:

And yet:

Murdering MOTHERFUCKER Dawood Junejo, CCPO Quetta

Yet the son of a whore lying piece of shit motherfucker CCPO Quetta Dawood Junejo holds a press conference claiming no shots were fired (now the same bastard had claimed on the day of the incident that hand grenades, guns and detonators were found on them) and the Chechens died from their own hand grenade (of course their bodies have been confirmed to have just bullet holes and no shrapnel wounds. See ‘Chechens died of bullets wounds’). Of course this after it has already been confirmed the five had not even a razor blade, let alone hand grenades, guns and detonators. Elaborate tales were told about the encounter and fire-fights. ALL LIES. The poor souls were able to pass three check posts and at each they were demanded bribes which they paid. By this fourth check post, these poor souls had run out of money to stick up these pigs rectums and were dealt with this way for that BIGGEST of crimes i.e. lack of bribe-money.

One of the ridiculous claim is that an FC man died after being shot. I can guarantee you these incompetent bastards killed him with ‘friendly fire’.  He probably was the bastard in the bunker manning the big machine gun when his buddies opened indiscriminate fire right towards him:

The FC Bastard who got killed was most likely manning this machine gun in the bunker...(see next picture)

...See what I am talking about? Also watch the video above to get a better picture.

Some snuff-porn:

FC, Police, Army proudly display their "victory" over "terrorists" and the media complies (click for a bigger image)

Bodies being hauled away...Of course no FC, Police, Army men helping, probably too busy celebrating this huge 'victory'

RELATED:
Chechen ‘terrorist’ was 7-months pregnant when shot dead

Update/More later….

[I am not sure if I have done the first article justice by adding links to it (thought it might help those who are not aware of certain things). Just want to say it should be read -- at least on the first go -- without clicking any of them as it explains plainly what is going on.]

Arrogance Of A Banker

I am a banker. I gave mortgages to people I knew couldn’t pay me back and made billions of dollar. The mortgages were worthless and could not legally be sold. I packaged the loans into bonds. I sold some of the mortgages five times over. Mere mortals go to jail for selling a home five times but I didn’t. I bought a new type of unregulated insurance called a Credit Default Swap (CDS) which had been invented by my friend Blythe Masters at JP Morgan while she was still back in England.[Note: She is One of the Key Architects of Carbon Derivatives, Which Would Be at the Very CENTER of Cap and Trade]

These Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) could not pass scrutiny but there was none. The rating agencies charged me a small fee, only looked at the unregulated CDS insurance and gave the bonds a AAA rating. I then went back to the people at AIG and bought a CDS against the bonds I knew to be worthless so I could collect when the bonds went belly up.

So far I had made fees on the mortgages from the home buyers. Some of these people were illegal aliens and we had to help them fill out bogus applications claiming they made $70,000 a year as a babysitter. They couldn’t afford the payments so I had to loan them money to pay my fees and to make the mortgage payments.

I got my money back for the mortgages when I sold the bonds to the pensioners. I knew the pensioners were going to lose their investments in the bonds I sold. I also knew they were going to need their pensions as I had helped to pass the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) in 1994 knowing the workers would all lose their jobs and really need their pensions.

When the bonds did start going bad, I collected on my CDS from AIG so I got paid again for the mortgages. In 2008 my friend Hank Paulson from Goldman Sachs was Treasury Secretary. He told the House and the Senate that the banks would pull the plug on the economy if they didn’t bail out the banks and restore liquidity. Paulson threatened the nation with martial law. The people called Washington and said No Bailout.

But there was no contest. We got our Bailout. It was supposed to be limited to 700 billion dollars. But it grew to more than 27 trillion dollars. That is when the real fun began. The first thing I did was to collect a third time on those bad mortgages. Some spoil sport at the Treasury wanted to have me and my friends take a haircut on the Bailout meaning he wanted me to only get most of the money due me rather than all. But my friend Timothy Geithner, the new Treasury Secretary, intervened and said I was to get 100%. That is only fair.

I knew Geithner from the old days when he was the New York Federal Reserve President. He says he remembers me when we were both starting our careers and he was working for my friend Henry Kissinger at Kissinger Associates. I always liked Geithner but I don’t remember that first meeting. He is a good man. Kissinger hired Geithner because he knew Chinese. I think I will hire him as soon as he resigns his position as Treasury Secretary. I need someone who understands money and Chinese. All my investments are over there now. I can’t invest in America any more. Look what terrible shape the country is in.

In 2008 I was involved with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan in another Bailout program that never made the papers. I never met Ben Bernanke even though he is a Harvard man. We went to school different years. Nevertheless, I did get a 17 billion dollar loan at 0.078% interest in 2008. Some other banks played it safe and loaned the money back to the government for a small profit. Not me.

What our three banks did was join together to buy oil in the futures market in 2008. We bought every barrel of oil 27 times and raised the price each time until gasoline was $5.00 a gallon. We made another fortune. We did this again just recently but I digress.

I have to tell you that I do not own Wells Fargo and I had nothing to do with the laundering of Mexican drug cartel money. You might have read that Wells Fargo owned five planes which they leased to the cartel so they could take the drugs over the American border. This is something I would never do. What I do is to require my drug clients to make their cash deposits in my offshore bank centers. I get a percentage of the trillion dollars a year in drug money plus the 400 billion in illegal weapons and the 500 billion a year in bribe money. Of course I have to pay bribes to keep this part of my business running. And I must tell you that the bribes I pay to fix your government are not tax deductible. But then I am tax exempt so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

My wife recently almost made it into the papers. Matt Taibbi wrote about my friend John Mack from Morgan Stanley and his wife. My wife is ten years younger, very attractive, from a good school and is what poor men refer to as high maintenance. By that the common men mean that a woman costs a lot to support. But my friend Ben created a special program to help The program is called Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility or TALF. What Ben did was make a loan program where you or rather someone like my wife could walk into the FED and get a loan. To qualify all you had to do was to take the FED loan and buy a dead security. Hand the security over to the FED as collateral. Mt wife invested in bad student loans. The loans that were repaid went to her. The loans that went into default were given to the Federal reserve. It was a great program. Taibbi wrote about Mrs Mack but not my wife because John’s wife had borrowed 37 million dollars more than all the others involved. As I said, it was a great program and bought my wife a new Paris wardrobe and quite a few jewels.

The Bailout is continuing. My friend Blythe Masters is VP for Global Commodities at JP Morgan. She, I and Goldman Sachs are back in the futures market. We are taking that Bailout money you gave us and investing in commodities and oil. To date we have driven up the price of food and oil.

I heard a joke the other day. I am terrible at telling jokes but it is so funny I have to share it. A man was wondering how come he saw prices going up even though the inflation rate released by the federal government is still below one per cent. His friend was market savvy and said. Well what they do is to take their monthly survey and then subtract Tim Geithner’s shoe size. I thought that was funny when I first heard it.

In 2009 Ben Bernanke had a secret Bailout program that unfortunately was made public by a meddlesome lawsuit. I can tell you that the Journalist who sued us has died. The Europeans who had bought those fraudulent MBS from me and my friends threatened a run on the banks if we did not buy back the fraudulent notes. They actually would have sent me to jail with common criminals. But Ben Bernanke had a plan. He created 12.3 trillion dollars almost overnight. He used 6.3 trillion to buy our worthless notes. This kept me and my friends out of jail. All it did to you was to raise the price of your food and gas.

Well by this time next year the Bailouts should just about be completed. By that I mean when prices for food and gasoline double and you won’t be able to pay me any more money. I haven’t decided what I will do about you when I don’t need you any more. I might allow some of you to live past 2012. I would expect you to be on your best behavior. I am tax exempt so I don’t have to pay for your Food Stamps and your Social Security but I do not like people who complain. Just suck it up and pay for those Bailouts in silence.

I really despise people who demand I be arrested and be sent to prison. Don’t they realize the bankers own their government? I never met Eric Holder, the Attorney General, but he has done a good job spiking those investigations and indictments at the Department of Justice. I never met Janet Napolitano over at DHS but she is doing an excellent job and has a special list of men and women who have demanded bankers be arrested.

Just wait until 2012. Then you will learn what I really think about you, I despise you, your family and your damn friends. Get this through your head. You do not matter. Your family does not matter. Your friends do not matter. You are not a banker. You were born to pay me fees and interest. When you can no longer pay the vigorish, you will be of no use to anyone.

The Counterfeiters

Suppose you were a counterfeiter and were given the right to print all money in the United States with the sole proviso that you could not directly buy anything. You were only allowed to pass it onto an unsuspecting public by loaning it at interest to them or to their government. Your only source of income would be the interest you collected on all of the loans in America.

This means you would be given the same license to print money that the bankers gave themselves in 1913 when they created the Federal Reserve. You could transfer all wealth from those poor devils who had to work for a living to yourself because you had a license to print money.

Money is a commodity that measures the value of all other commodities and goods and services for sale. Prices are a ratio of money to everything for sale. For example, if we doubled the money supply but did not increase our output of goods and services, we might expect prices to also double.

Please note that when I say money I am not just talking about Federal Reserve Notes. The total money supply also includes checking account money which bankers create when you ask for a loan. If you get a loan for ten thousand dollars, the bank is not loaning you money from an old lady’s deposits. They are adding ten thousand dollars to the money supply by creating that amount of credit in your checking account. They are counterfeiting money.

Fractional reserve banking allows the bank to loan out money up to ten dollars for every dollar they have on deposit.

This is no longer quite true. JP Morgan allows $2,000 in risk for every dollar in capital. This has been allowed since the repeal of Glass Steagall in 1999. There are a couple of people in the House who want to re-instate Glass Steagall to no longer allow commercial banks to take the risks of investment banks. Those risks were covered by 27 trillion dollars in taxpayer bailouts to date. But the bankers own your government and your press so there is no risk to them of this bill passing the Congress and surviving a veto.

I need to point out one great flaw in this money making scheme. When you borrowed ten thousand dollars, the banker created an entry in his books and gave you a deposit of that amount in your checking account. At the end of the year he expects you to repay him the $10,000 plus say a thousand dollars in interest. The problem is that he only created enough money so you could pay him the principal and not the thousand dollars in interest. So where do you get the money to pay the interest? You don’t. The banker does.

What has to happen for everyone to be able to make their payments, is that the banker must create enough new money over the next year to pay the interest on all of the new loans made nationwide. And the following year they will have to do the same. Eventually, you will see just about everyone including the government facing a mountain of unpayable debt. This is what I call the Debt Bomb.

It is just as deadly as a nuclear weapon. When the Debt Bomb detonates, hundreds of millions of people worldwide are foreclosed, bankrupted, sent into unemployment and dire poverty.

At this point you might have a few questions: What kind of people would wreak such harm on humanity? Why wasn’t I told about this in school? Why haven’t our political leaders done anything to protect us? How have we gotten out of Debt Bombs in the past?

To answer these question I will begin by explaining to you why I chose the title The Counterfeiters for this essay. I borrowed the title from Andre Gide’s novel Les Faux Monnayeurs (The Counterfeiters.) In his novel Gide was not just talking about counterfeit money but more importantly about counterfeit human beings.

The people (Warburgs and Rothschilds) who created the Federal Reserve patterned it after the English and German central banks who both borrowed it from the Dutch. It seems that in 1348 the Italian banks failed from which we get the modern word bankruptcy. This is from the Italian for the rupture or breaking of the bench where the banker did business. The bankers would accept deposits in gold and made out checking account loans many times that amount. This lasted until the bankers became too greedy. and made too many loans. The bankers could not cover their deposits so the mobs chased them out of Italy. They settled in Holland where their evil system infected the modern world.

From time to time you might hear of the Black Nobility. They are called black because their deeds are evil not because they are from Africa. They also often wear the black robes of the Catholic church to whom they have been a burden. They trace their ancestry in part to Byzantine Emperor Leo IV whose mother was the Jewish Khazar princess Irene. The Black nobility also trace their origins to Venice and their failed banking systems. In 1348 they took refuge in Holland where centuries later they met the Rothschilds. The latter took control of the Bank of England in 1815 at the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars and in 1827 became bankers to the Vatican.

I would be remiss in not mentioning Jacob Frank, the satanic rabbi who declared himself to be a reincarnation of King David. He taught the doctrine of purification through transgression. Wife swapping (Festival of the Lambs) was a fundamental part of his doctrines and practices. He had many Jewish followers but was excommunicated for his acceptance of Christian writings. He was a satanist and was very poor until he reached Frankfurt, the banking capital of Germany.

The Black Nobility, which today includes most European royal families, the banking elite and others has in some way hijacked modern Judaism or rather Zionism to form what can only be described as a counterfeit ideology and culture. These are the Counterfeiters. They are a mixed multitude and are not all Jewish . Nor do all people of Jewish descent support the Counterfeiters.

I have said in the past that Jewish people must now side either with America or with Israel. Israel declared war against Americans on September 11, 2001. Israel did 911 as well as assassinate John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Martin Luther King. If you doubt me, leave a comment.

I will devote the remainder of this essay to describing how these Counterfeiters have in the past solved the banking and economic problems they created.

First, there is the Debt Bomb to solve. Unpaid interest accumulates exponentially until all commerce freezes and the economy grinds to a halt with tens of millions dying of starvation. The Counterfeiters have solved this problem in the past by canceling the debts through either inflation (1923 Weimar Republic) or deflation (1933 America.) There is a third alternative of debt cancellation developed by the Babylonians which has been described in detail by Michael Hudson. But it does not involve the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich and the infliction of suffering upon billions of people so it has been rejected by the Counterfeiters and the media they own. The Babylonians specifically noted the compound interest growth of debt and canceled them after a period of years. This was copied by the Bible writers who called it the Jubilee.

In the 19th century American bankers were caught circulating a letter which instructed all banks to stop making loans and to demand repayment on a specific day. This was intended to cause a financial panic and allow the bankers to buy America for pennies on the dollar.

Whether we have a super inflation in America or a drastic deflation to cancel the Debt Bomb, it will transfer all wealth from us to them. I have described this process before in the essay Blythe Masters Blows Up The World. http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/videos-blythe-maters-blows-up-the-world/

I revealed other means the bankers use to steal from us in my essay Stealing Money By The Trillions. http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/stealing-money-by-the-trillons/

The Counterfeiters know that the collapse of the dollar and mass starvation will lead to nationwide riots. These problems have been solved many times in the past. You can see the techniques they use to create a National Security State and to mire the world in perpetual war in my essays Zionism Undone http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/zionism-undone/
and Zionism Undone Part II http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/zionism-undone-part-ii/

I have proven Israel did 911. I said in order to eliminate all freedom in America, to exterminate all Muslims who object to Israeli occupation and war crimes and to launch World War III which the Counterfeiters hope America will lose. They do not want you to be able to demand the return of the tens of trillions of dollars the bankers stole from us.

I have written about 911 in the essays The Lies Reach Critical Mass.

http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/the-lies-reach-critical-mass/

It is no secret that the dollar is collapsing in value daily and I would say by design though it is happening faster than the Counterfeiters would like. They think they need to stay in control as they lead us to World War III.

Our opponents are counterfeit people and lack humanity. This makes them cunning and vicious but also makes them easily detected by normal human beings during times of stress like war and economic collapse.

I believe we will win the upcoming struggle.

Hammer away these points.

Israel did 911.

Our banking system was designed to collapse with a Debt Bomb so all of our wealth could be taken by the bankers.

Israel and the bankers want America to launch WW III by attacking Iran.

Israel and the bankers want America to lose World War III after the USA has exterminated the Muslims and Israel has taken their oil.

By 1990s, these were the only countries remaining that did not have privately-controlled Central Banks

The Rothschild/Soros/Banking/THEFT Connection:

ROTHSCHILDS FINISH OFF GADDAFI

Libya: All About Oil, or All About Banking?

Regime Change Libya: Privatization of their Central Bank and the Theft of their Nationalized Oil Profits

GLOBALIST TARGET: Central Bank of Libya is 100% State Owned

The US Attacked Libya! Here’s why…

Wow That Was Fast! Libyan Rebels Have Already Established A New Central Bank Of Libya

(Another “Wow That Was Fast” : BP set to begin oil drilling off Libya )

How the trap was set:

Why is the Federal Reserve Propping Up the Bank of Libya?

The Trap: US Fed loaned Libya-backed bank billions

Libya-Owned Bank Got 73 Loans From Fed Window After Lehman Fell

Libya: It’s Not About Oil, It’s About Currency and Loans

Financial Heist of the Century: Confiscating Libya’s Sovereign Wealth Funds (SFW)

See the above in the light of this story:

Libya Has $70 Billion to Invest—and No Takers

(Well, not anymore )

More Robbing & Stealing by US Government: Treasury Says Libyan Sanctions Blocked $30 Billion

PNAC: A NOMINALLY AMERICAN CONSPIRACY

Kissinger Calls For US Ground Invasion Of Libya

Establishment Puppet Brzezinski Speaks On Regime Change In Libya, Gaddafi Must Not Stick Around For Long

The Libyan War, American Power and the Decline of the Petrodollar System

Libya and the Imperial Re-Division of Africa The Imperialist Powers’ Odyssey of “Return” into Africa

Libyan Rebels Fighting the Globalists’ War

Obama executes final leg of Neo-Conservative imperialism

Globalists Coming Full Circle: Obama executes final leg of Neo-Conservative imperialism

Operation Adyssey Dawn: Libya to get the “Kosovo Treatment”

Speculators, Cartels and Myths of Scarcity: How War Pushes up the Price of Oil

Oil Rises On Market Speculation Over Globalist War in Libya

Exposed: The US-Saudi Libya deal

Libya’s Blood For Oil: The Vampire War

Bottom Line, Libya Will Remain a Transnational Oil Fiefdom

De los Santos: American imperialism (1st column)

Libya: The Zionist Dragon and The Drums of War – Part 1

Libya: The Zionist Dragon and The Drums of War – Part 2

Libya: The Zionist Dragon and The Drums of War – Part 3

There’s no business like war business

AFRICOM and the Libya War

Kucinich Exposes the Entire Libya Agenda on The House Floor

Leading French Zionist Pushed for War with Libya

Libya: another neocon war

The Surprising PNAC Connection to Libya

Neocon Foreign Policy

LIBYA AND THE NEW US STRATEGIC DOCTRINE

Three Amigos: Barack and Buddies Pledge the West to Open-Ended War of Aggression

The Colonial “Axis of Evil” prepares for the invasion of Libya

NATO: America’s Imperial Tool

“Bad, Bad Gaddafi”:

Libya’s Great Man-Made River Project

ELOQUENT FACTS OF THE SOCIALIST LIBYA:

* GDP per capita – $ 14,192.
* Unemployment benefit – $ 730.
* Each family member subsidized by the state gets annually $ 1.000
* Salary for nurses – $ 1.000.
* For every newborn is paid $ 7.000.
* The bride and groom receive a $ 64 thousand to purchase flats.
* Major taxes and levies prohibited.
* To open a personal business a one-time financial assistance of $ 20.000
* Education and medicine are free.
* Educ.Internships abroad – at government expense.
* Stores for large families with symbolic prices for basic foodstuffs.
* Part of pharmacies – with free dispensing.
* Loans for buying a car and an apartment – no interest.
* Real estate services are prohibited

FLASHBACK – Libya to buy laptops for all nation’s kids

Ghaddafi a hero for African rights and liberation

FLASHBACK:Operation Ajax (1953)

Reason for war? Gaddafi wanted to nationalise oil

The Lies:

The lies behind the West’s war on Libya

THIERRY MEYSSAN: LIES ABOUT THE WAR ON LIBYA

The clashes between Gaddafi’s supporters and the insurrection have certainly been bloody, but never in the purported proportions. There has never been a systematic repression against civilian population.

Britain, the Traitor Nation: Media Disinformation and Crimes against Humanity in Libya

Libya: The Objective of “Humanitarian Bombing” is Death and Destruction

When War Games Go Live: “Staging” a “Humanitarian War” against “SOUTHLAND”

“Wag the Dog” Playing in the Middle East and North Africa Now

Reasons and False Pretexts: Why are They Making War on Libya?

Libyan War Gets Weird; Defending the Indefensible

What a Strange Way to Protect Civilians: Depleted Uranium and Libya

“Humanitarian Intervention” in Libya – A Cloaked War of Choice

Putting Out the Fire in Libya with Gasoline

‘No sign Gaddafi bombed Tripoli – NATO wages war on false claims’

Assassinate Qaddafi?

Tripoli officials: NATO tried to take out Gadhafi

‘Give up now or we’ll kill you,’ Liam Fox warns Gaddafi as he starts talks with U.S. on widening scope of airstrikes

Putin slams ‘double standards’ over Libya

West in “mediaeval crusade” on Gaddafi, Putin says

Medvedev, Putin clash over Libya in rare moment of public discord

World powers gather for Libya brainstorming – without Russia

Pure Propaganda: Al Jazeera’s “10,000? Dead Civilians and Cluster Bombs

Pathetic Propaganda: Gates: Gadhafi placing bodies at sites of coalition attacks

Obama lied about Gaddafi’s bloodbath?

Obama’s Women Pushed War Against Libya

(And they say give women power….)

FACT CHECK: How Obama’s Libya claims fit the facts

Bombs for peace? ‘UN completely disgraced in Libya’

Libya and disinformation

Libya: A Pig in a Poke?

Obama: No U.S. Forces on the Ground in Libya… Except For Those Guys.

War Games and Phony UN Resolution Indicate Pre-Planned Attack of Libya

US orchestrates regime change in Libya, using social media

American Media Silent on CIA Ties to Libya Rebel Commander

Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links

Can you say al-CIA-da? And looking way back:

The CIA’s Libya Rebels: 2007 West Point Study Shows Benghazi-Darnah-Tobruk Area was a World Leader in Al Qaeda Suicide Bomber Recruitment

The CIA is behind the Rebellion: The Euro-American Attack on Libya

CIA Ground Forces Operating in Libya for ‘Several Weeks’

MCCAIN, OIL COMPANIES AND WESTERN INTERVENTION IN LIBYA

Libya False Flag Part 2: Cui Bono?

Libya letter by Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy: Full text

Libya future with Kadhafi ‘unthinkable’: Britain, France, US

NYT Demands Libyan War Escalation

Arming Libya rebels not allowed by UN resolutions, legal experts warn US

Liberal Hypocrisy on Libya

FBI: US ‘On Guard’ for Terror Attacks From Libya

UK profits out of dictatorships by selling weapons that kill people who want democracy

In Libya, West showcases new weapons for sale

Former CIA Analyst schools CNN About the Fraud in Libya

Gaddaffi’s African “Mercenary” Story is a Disinformation Ploy by the CIA

The War in Libya: It’s Really About Broccoli

Libya Rebels Execute, Behead, Mutilate Gaddafi Army who Surrender! Where is CNN now?

(**WAR CRIMES EVIDENCE**
GRAPHIC AT END – And the WEST is arming these rebels who carried out this war crime!!! )

The “Body Snatching Gadhafi” Propaganda Rises from the Dead

Typical Patheric Propaganda: Here We Go Again (Sadam No 2): “Gaddafi’s KNOWN Chemical Weapons”

Typical Pathetic Propaganda: Woman cries for help, says abused by Gaddafi men

More of the same:

Libyan Woman claims Qaddafi’s men raped and beat her, She was Detained At Gunpoint By Government Forces

“A distressed Libyan woman made a desperate plea for help on Saturday, slipping into a Tripoli hotel full of foreign journalists to show bruises and scars she said had been inflicted on her by Muammar Gaddafi’s militiamen.

The woman, Iman al-Obeidi, said forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi detained her at a checkpoint in the Libyan capital and raped her.”

(Reminds me of this golden one from Bahrain)

Here is another typical one. Comes with the title “The aftermath of Al-Saeed Children’s Hospital Bombed by Libyan forces 23.03.2011 “

(Left unsaid is “WHICH” Libyan forces…)

And up next? Syria….:

Media Distorts Truth To Propagandize For NATO-Backed War On Syria

AL-JAZEERA BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF GHASSAN BEN JEDDO RESIGNS

Globalists Hit in Syria

Globalist War Machine Fixates on Syria

Syria & Yemen: Tying up Globalist Loose Ends

"You have the right to be kidnapped, bound, tortured, gagged, you heart and kidneys drilled, shot through the head, your body dumped for wild animals to feed on..."

Two articles….

The Height of Barbarity

I.A.Rehman (Dawn)
March 31, 2011

THE Pakistani establishment’s love of the grotesque is apparently incurable. Instead of talking to the people of Balochistan about their raw wounds it is raising the matter with the Indian security people. Meanwhile, the dirge from the luckless province is getting more and more bitter.

Take, for instance, this SMS received a few days ago.

‘Zulm ki inteha. Do din qabl Quetta say agencies k hathon aghwa honay walay BSO Azad k sabiq rehnuma Hameed Shaheen ko kal shaheed kar dia gaya aur us k kidney, dil aur seenay per drill k nishan. Kis Islam nay asay zulm ki ijazat di hay? Shaid asay zulm Kashmir aur Palestine may be na hoon. Wah Islami mamlikat.’

(It’s the limit of tyranny. The former BSO Azad leader, Hameed Shaheen, who had been abducted by the agencies from Quetta two days ago, was martyred yesterday. His kidney, heart and chest bore marks of drilling. Which Islam has sanctioned such barbarity? Such deeds are perhaps unheard of (even) in Kashmir or Palestine. Bravo Islamic state!)

The effect of the message on the people, particularly those belonging to Balochistan, can easily be imagined. The author of this message might have been carried away by his feelings of shock and anger, but instead of taking exception to his language or with the reproduction of his protest in these columns, it will be better to comprehend the intensity of the pain caused to him.

The facts mentioned by him cannot be disputed. Hameed Shaheen was indeed a Pakistan national, holding a genuine CNIC, and had formerly held the office of chairman of the Baloch Students Organisation (Azad). On March 20 last, he boarded a bus for Karachi where he was going for a medical check-up. The bus was stopped and he was abducted by persons allegedly belonging to government agencies. His bullet-riddled body was found two days later.

This story should not surprise anyone who has been watching the appearance of bodies of tortured men in Balochistan and the
recent spurt in such incidents. Since this trend has developed after months of limelight on cases of involuntary disappearances in Balochistan and in many cases the victims had earlier been declared as missing, the people cannot be blamed for concluding that extra-legal killing is being adopted as a means to avoid accounting for illegally detained persons.

The most distressing part of the matter is the fact that all this is happening about 10 weeks after the judicial commission on disappearances submitted its report to the government and the Supreme Court. The commission closed the possibility of speculation on the key aspects of the matter and made concrete proposals to deal with incidents of disappearance and compensate the victims. The salient features of the commission’s report were:

i) The incidence of involuntary disappearance continued during the eight months (in 2010) the commission carried out its mission; about 25 new cases were reported every month. These fresh incidents exceeded the number of cases the commission had been asked to probe.

ii) The intelligence agencies were censured for their role in the disappearance and illegal detention of quite a few missing persons and also for their lack of interest in and appreciation of the commission’s work.

iii) The government was asked to pay compensation to more than 100 victims and a fair scale of payments was presented.

A few sentences from the commission’s report as published in the press especially deserve consideration:

“In order to put an end to the issue of enforced disappearances/missing persons, the intelligence agencies should be restrained from arbitrarily arresting and detaining anyone without due process of law. Generally, it would be appropriate if the government evolves a mechanism for intelligence agencies to share information and leave it to the police to make arrest and proceed under relevant law…..

“Appropriate legislation needs to be made to provide specific powers of arrest & detention to the army and law-enforcement agencies for a limited period under special circumstances in order to curb anti-state activities. Only such legal provisions can put an end to new cases of enforced disappearance.

“In order to continue the pace of recovery/tracing of missing persons and to implement the recommendations of this commission, a person not less than the rank of a sitting/retired high court judge may be appointed as Commissioner for Missing Persons”.

It is not necessary to elaborate on the extent of the accommodation the commission offered the security establishment.

The persistently battered people of Balochistan have every right to ask as to what steps have been taken in the light of this commission’s report. A report on Jan 17 last said the federal government had set up a committee, headed by the attorney general, to draft the legislation required to assuage the Balochistan people’s outrage. Has anything been done in this regard?

From now on the intelligence agencies alone will not be charged with abduction, arbitrary detention and wanton killing; the state as a whole will be in the dock and the entire nation will bear the consequences.

It is time all organs of the state realised that nothing will be gained by the government agencies’ persistence in the state of denial. The possibility that some of the cases of abduction/disappearance/killing could be the work of non-state actors cannot be denied but this can no longer be said about all incidents. Even in cases in which the state employees cannot be blamed the government’s duty to track down the culprits and bring them to justice cannot be disregarded.

Although involuntary disappearances is only one of the many symptoms of the malaise that is consuming the people of Balochistan, a sincere and meaningful effort to get this problem out of the way will contribute to the creation of a climate conducive to discussion on other issues, such as denial of the people’s right to be masters of their resources and their destiny.

Guardian: Pakistan’s secret dirty war

In Balochistan, mutilated corpses bearing the signs of torture keep turning up, among them lawyers, students and farm workers. Why is no one investigating and what have they got to do with the bloody battle for Pakistan’s largest province?
Declan Walsh
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 March 2011

Lala Bibi with her father and son Saeed Ahmed – and photographs of her murdered son Najibullah and his cousin, who was also abducted. Photograph: Declan Walsh for the Guardian

The bodies surface quietly, like corks bobbing up in the dark. They come in twos and threes, a few times a week, dumped on desolate mountains or empty city roads, bearing the scars of great cruelty. Arms and legs are snapped; faces are bruised and swollen. Flesh is sliced with knives or punctured with drills; genitals are singed with electric prods. In some cases the bodies are unrecognisable, sprinkled with lime or chewed by wild animals. All have a gunshot wound in the head.

This gruesome parade of corpses has been surfacing in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, since last July. Several human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accounted for more than 100 bodies – lawyers, students, taxi drivers, farm workers. Most have been tortured. The last three were discovered on Sunday.

If you have not heard of this epic killing spree, though, don’t worry: neither have most Pakistanis. Newspaper reports from Balochistan are buried quietly on the inside pages, cloaked in euphemisms or, quite often, not published at all.

The forces of law and order also seem to be curiously indifferent to the plight of the dead men. Not a single person has been arrested or prosecuted; in fact, police investigators openly admit they are not even looking for anyone. The stunning lack of interest in Pakistan’s greatest murder mystery in decades becomes more understandable, however, when it emerges that the prime suspect is not some shady gang of sadistic serial killers, but the country’s powerful military and its unaccountable intelligence men.

This is Pakistan’s dirty little war. While foreign attention is focused on the Taliban, a deadly secondary conflict is bubbling in Balochistan, a sprawling, mineral-rich province along the western borders with Afghanistan and Iran. On one side is a scrappy coalition of guerrillas fighting for independence from Pakistan; on the other is a powerful army that seeks to quash their insurgency with maximum prejudice. The revolt, which has been rumbling for more than six years, is spiced by foreign interests and intrigues – US spy bases, Chinese business, vast underground reserves of copper, oil and gold.

And in recent months it has grown dramatically worse. At the airport in Quetta, the provincial capital, a brusque man in a cheap suit marches up to my taxi with a rattle of questions. “Who is this? What’s he doing here? Where is he staying?” he asks the driver, jerking a thumb towards me. Scribbling the answers, he waves us on. “Intelligence,” says the driver.

The city itself is tense, ringed by jagged, snow-dusted hills and crowded with military checkposts manned by the Frontier Corps (FC), a paramilitary force in charge of security. Schools have recently raised their walls; sand-filled Hesco barricades, like the ones used in Kabul and Baghdad, surround the FC headquarters. In a restaurant the waiter apologises: tandoori meat is off the menu because the nationalists blew up the city’s gas pipeline a day earlier. The gas company had plugged the hole that morning, he explains, but then the rebels blew it up again.

The home secretary, Akbar Hussain Durrani, a neatly suited, well-spoken man, sits in a dark and chilly office. Pens, staplers and telephones are neatly laid on the wide desk before him, but his computer is blank. The rebels have blown up a main pylon, he explains, so the power is off. Still, he insists, things are fine. “The government agencies are operating in concert, everyone is acting in the best public interest,” he says. “This is just a . . . political problem.” As we speak, a smiling young man walks in and starts to take my photo; I later learn he works for the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency.

We cut across the city, twisting through the backstreets, my guide glancing nervously out the rear window. The car halts before a tall gate that snaps shut behind us. Inside, a 55-year-old woman named Lal Bibi is waiting, wrapped in a shawl that betrays only her eyes, trembling as she holds forth a picture of her dead son Najibullah. The 20-year-old, who ran a shop selling motorbike parts, went missing last April after being arrested at an FC checkpost, she says. His body turned up three months later, dumped in a public park on the edge of Quetta, badly tortured. “He had just two teeth in his mouth,” she says in a voice crackling with pain. She turns to her father, a turbaned old man sitting beside her, and leans into his shoulder. He grimaces.

Suspected members of the Baloch Liberation Army are paraded by Pakistani police. Photograph: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images

Bibi says her family was probably targeted for its nationalist ties – Najibullah’s older brother, now dead, had joined the “men in the mountains” years earlier, she says. Now a nephew, 28-year-old Maqbool, is missing. She prays for him, regularly calling the hospitals for any sign of him and, occasionally, the city morgues.

Over a week of interviews in Karachi and Quetta, I meet the relatives of seven dead men and nine “disappeared” – men presumed to have been abducted by the security forces. One man produces a mobile phone picture of the body of his 22-year-old cousin, Mumtaz Ali Kurd, his eyes black with swelling and his shirt drenched in blood. A relative of Zaman Khan, one of three lawyers killed in the past nine months, produces court papers. A third trembles as he describes finding his brother’s body in an orchard near Quetta.

Patterns emerge. The victims were generally men between 20 and 40 years old – nationalist politicians, students, shopkeepers, labourers. In many cases they were abducted in broad daylight – dragged off buses, marched out of shops, detained at FC checkposts – by a combination of uniformed soldiers and plain-clothes intelligence men. Others just vanished. They re-emerge, dead, with an eerie tempo – approximately 15 bodies every month, although the average was disturbed last Saturday when eight bodies were found in three locations across Balochistan.

Activists have little doubt who is behind the atrocities. Human Rights Watch says “indisputable” evidence points to the hand of the FC, the ISI and its sister agency, Military Intelligence. A local group, Voice for Missing Persons, says the body count has surpassed 110. “This is becoming a state of terror,” says its chairman, Naseerullah Baloch.

The army denies the charges, saying its good name is being blemished by impersonators. “Militants are using FC uniforms to kidnap people and malign our good name,” says Major General Obaid Ullah Khan Niazi, commander of the 46,000 FC troops stationed in Balochistan. “Our job is to enforce the law, not to break it.”

Despairing relatives feel cornered. Abdul Rahim, a farmer wearing a jewelled skullcap, is from Khuzdar, a hotbed of insurgent violence. He produces court papers detailing the abduction of his son Saadullah in 2009. First he went to the courts but then his lawyer was shot dead. Then he went to the media but the local press club president was killed. Now, Rahim says, “nobody will help in case they are targeted too. We are hopeless.”

Balochistan has long been an edgy place. Its vast, empty deserts and long borders are a magnet for provocateurs of every stripe. Taliban fighters slip back and forth along the 800-mile Afghan border; Iranian dissidents hide inside the 570-mile frontier with Iran. Drug criminals cross the border from Helmand, the world’s largest source of heroin, on their way to Iran or lonely beaches on the Arabian Sea. Wealthy Arab sheikhs fly into remote airstrips on hunting expeditions for the houbara bustard, a bird they believe improves their lovemaking. At Shamsi, a secretive airbase in a remote valley in the centre of the province, CIA operatives launch drones that attack Islamists in the tribal belt.

The US spies appreciate the lack of neighbours – Balochistan covers 44% of Pakistan yet has half the population of Karachi. The province’s other big draw is its natural wealth. At Reko Diq, 70 miles from the Afghan border, a Canadian-Chilean mining consortium has struck gold, big-time. The Tethyan company has discovered 4bn tonnes of mineable ore that will produce an estimated 200,000 tonnes of copper and 250,000 ounces of gold per year, making it one of the largest such mines in the world. The project is currently stalled by a tangled legal dispute, but offers a tantalising taste of Balochistan’s vast mineral riches, which also includes oil, gas, platinum and coal. So far it is largely untapped, though, and what mining exists is scrappy and dangerous. On 21 March, 50 coal workers perished in horrific circumstances when methane gas flooded their mine near Quetta, then catastrophically exploded.

Two conflicts are rocking the province. North of Quetta, in a belt of land adjoining the Afghan border, is the ethnic Pashtun belt. Here, Afghan Taliban insurgents shelter in hardline madrasas and lawless refugee camps, taking rest in between bouts of battle with western soldiers in Afghanistan. It is home to the infamous “Quetta shura”, the Taliban war council, and western officials say the ISI is assisting them. Some locals agree. “It’s an open secret,” an elder from Kuchlak tells me. “The ISI gave a fleet of motorbikes to local elders, who distributed them to the fighters crossing the border. Nobody can stop them.”

The other conflict is unfolding south of Quetta, in a vast sweep that stretches from the Quetta suburbs to the Arabian Sea, in the ethnic Baloch and Brahui area, whose people have always been reluctant Pakistanis. The first Baloch revolt erupted in 1948, barely six months after Pakistan was born; this is the fifth. The rebels are splintered into several factions, the largest of which is the Balochistan Liberation Army. They use classic guerrilla tactics – ambushing military convoys, bombing gas pipelines, occasionally lobbing rockets into Quetta city. Casualties are relatively low: 152 FC soldiers died between 2007 and 2010, according to official figures, compared with more than 8,000 soldiers and rebels in the 1970s conflagration.

But this insurgency seems to have spread deeper into Baloch society than ever before. Anti-Pakistani fervour has gripped the province. Baloch schoolchildren refuse to sing the national anthem or fly its flag; women, traditionally secluded, have joined the struggle. Universities have become hotbeds of nationalist sentiment. “This is not just the usual suspects,” says Rashed Rahman, editor of the Daily Times, one of few papers that regularly covers the conflict.

At a Quetta safehouse I meet Asad Baloch, a wiry, talkative 22-year-old activist with the Baloch Students’ Organisation (Azad). “We provide moral and political support to the fighters,” he says. “We are making people aware. When they are aware, they act.” It is a risky business: about one-third of all “kill and dump” victims were members of the BSO.

Baloch anger is rooted in poverty. Despite its vast natural wealth, Balochistan is desperately poor – barely 25% of the population is literate (the national average is 47%), around 30% are unemployed and just 7% have access to tap water. And while Balochistan provides one-third of Pakistan’s natural gas, only a handful of towns are hooked up to the supply grid.

The insurgents are demanding immediate control of the natural resources and, ultimately, independence. “We are not part of Pakistan,” says Baloch.

Well-armed Baloch insurgents in the contested region south of the capital Quetta. Photograph: Banaras Khan/AFP

His phone rings. News comes through that another two bodies have been discovered near the coast. One, Abdul Qayuum, was a BSO activist. Days later, videos posted on YouTube show an angry crowd carrying his bloodied corpse into a mortuary. He had been shot in the head.

The FC commander, Maj Gen Niazi, wearing a sharp, dark suit and with neatly combed hair (he has just come from a conference) says he has little time for the rebel demand. “The Baloch are being manipulated by their leaders,” he says, noting that the scions of the main nationalist groups live in exile abroad – Hyrbyair Marri in London; Brahamdagh Bugti in Geneva. “They are enjoying the life in Europe while their people suffer in the mountains,” he says with a sigh.

Worse again, he adds, they were supported by India. The Punjabi general offers no proof for his claim, but US and British intelligence broadly agree, according to the recent WikiLeaks cables. India sees Balochistan as payback for Pakistani meddling in Kashmir – which explains why Pakistani generals despise the nationalists so much. “Paid killers,” says Niazi. He vehemently denies involvement in human rights violations. “To us, each and every citizen of Balochistan is equally dear,” he says.

Civilian officials in the province, however, have another story. Last November, the provincial chief minister, Aslam Raisani, told the BBC that the security forces were “definitely” guilty of some killings; earlier this month, the province’s top lawyer, Salahuddin Mengal, told the supreme court the FC was “lifting people at will”. He resigned a week later.

However, gross human rights abuses are not limited to the army. As the conflict drags on, the insurgents have become increasingly brutal and ruthless. In the past two years, militants have kidnapped aid workers, killed at least four journalists and, most disturbingly, started to target “settlers” – unarmed civilians, mostly from neighbouring Punjab, many of whom have lived in Balochistan for decades. Some 113 settlers were killed in cold blood last year, according to government figures – civil servants, shopkeepers, miners. On 21 March, militants riding motorbikes sprayed gunfire into a camp of construction workers near Gwadar, killing 11; the Baloch Liberation Front claimed responsibility. Most grotesque, perhaps, are the attacks on education: 22 school teachers, university lecturers and education officials have been assassinated since January 2008, causing another 200 to flee their jobs.

As attitudes harden, the middle ground is being swept away in tide of bloodshed. “Our politicians have been silenced,” says Habib Tahir, a human rights lawyer in Quetta. “They are afraid of the young.” I ask a student in Quetta to defend the killing of teachers. “They are not teachers, they work for the intelligence agencies,” one student tells me. “They are like thieves coming into our homes. They must go.”

The Islamabad government seems helpless to halt Balochistan’s slide into chaos. Two years ago, President Asif Ali Zardari announced a sweeping package of measures intended to assuage Baloch grievances, including thousands of jobs, a ban on new military garrisons and payment of $1.4bn (£800m) in overdue natural gas royalties. But violence has hijacked politics, the plan is largely untouched, and anaemic press coverage means there is little outside pressure for action.

Pakistan’s foreign allies, obsessed with hunting Islamists, have ignored the problem. “We are the most secular people in the region, and still we are being ignored,” says Noordin Mengal, who represents Balochistan on the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

In this information vacuum, the powerful do as they please. Lawyer Kachkol Ali witnessed security forces drag three men from his office in April 2009. Their bodies turned up five days later, dead and decomposed. After telling his story to the press, Ali was harassed by military intelligence, who warned him his life was in danger. He fled the country. “In Pakistan, there is only rule of the jungle,” he says by phone from Lørenskog, a small Norwegian town where he won asylum last summer. “Our security agencies pick people up and treat them like war criminals,” he says. “They don’t even respect the dead.”

Balochistan’s dirty little war pales beside Pakistan’s larger problems – the Taliban, al-Qaida, political upheaval. But it highlights a very fundamental danger – the ability of Pakistanis to live together in a country that, under its Islamic cloak, is a patchwork of ethnicities and cultures. “Balochistan is a warning of the real battle for Pakistan, which is about power and resources,” says Haris Gazdar, a Karachi-based researcher. “And if we don’t get it right, we’re headed for a major conflict.”

Before leaving Quetta I meet Faiza Mir, a 36-year-old lecturer in international relations at Quetta’s Balochistan University. Militants have murdered four of her colleagues in the past three years, all because they were “Punjabi”. Driving on to the campus, she points out the spots where they were killed, knowing she could be next.

“I can’t leave,” says Mir, a sparky woman with an irrepressible smile. “This is my home too.” And so she engages in debate with students, sympathising with their concerns. “I try to make them understand that talk is better than war,” she says.

But some compromises are impossible. Earlier on, students had asked Mir to remove a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father, from her office wall. Mir politely refused, and Jinnah – an austere lawyer in a Savile Row suit – still stares down from her wall.

But how long will he stay there? “That’s difficult to say,” she answers.

Read More and See More:
A Balochistan Reader
(Don’t miss the comments section that contains these and many more articles and videos)

"We interrupt this REVOLUTION ™ to bring you a message from our sponsors..."

Movements.org: “What we see is not a foundation from which all activists can work from, but a foundation that has a very selective group of activists working on “problem spots” the US State Department would like to see “changed.” Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Eastern Europe, Venezuela, and even Thailand - where ever protesters and movements are working to undermine governments non-conducive to corporate America’s agenda, you will find Movements.org supporting their efforts. … It is color revolution 2.0, run directly out of the US State Department with the support of corporate America.”

Last but not least, think for a moment: What kind of revolution claims success when a military dictator is overthrown and the power handed to — the army? Duh! Remember it is the same “army that imposed the will of that despicable tyrant for 30 years is now in charge and the Egyptian army is not only controlled by the US, it is funded by massive American military ‘aid’ – second only in scale to Israel” So you wanna “Walk Like an Egyptian”? Thanks, but I’ll pass! This one’s “dead, stillborn.” Below are the links that will tell you all you need to know:

1. There has been NO REVOLUTION so far
2. Wael Ghonim of Google plays an integral part in ElBaradei’s bid to seize power
3. Google’s Revolution Factory; Alliance of Youth Movements: Color Revolution 2.0
4. The Events in Egypt: A Cautionary Tale on the History of US Foreign Policy Tactics

P.S. Let’s also keep in mind the NeoCons and their plans to “Reshape the Middle East“:

“In the Middle East, impending ‘regime change’ in Iraq is just the first step in a wholesale reordering of the entire region, according to neoconservatives – who’ve begun almost gleefully referring to themselves as a ‘cabal.’ Like dominoes, the regimes in the region – first Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, then Lebanon and the PLO, and finally Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia – are slated to capitulate, collapse or face US military action. To those states, says cabal ringleader Richard Perle, ‘We could deliver a short message, a two-word message: ‘You’re next.’”

And there’s more:

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, who had been named as a possible candidate for a key position in the reconstruction of a postwar Iraq, said:

“… the US is engaged in World War IV (WWIII having been the Cold War), and that it could continue for years… He said the new war is actually against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the ‘fascists’ of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda… that all three enemies have waged war against the US for several years but the US has just ‘finally noticed.‘”

He singled out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi Arabia when he said:

“We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you — the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family — most fear: We’re on the side of your own people.”

With Mubarak gone, bet the Saudis are pretty nervous right about now…
RELATED:
[Thanks Zahir for the following two must-reads...]

Naming Names: Your Real Government: When dark deeds unfold, point the finger in this direction. by Tony Cartalucci

(Rothschild-V connection:)
V for Zionism by Keith Johnson

A Clean Break: a New Strategy for the Realm
Project for a New American Century
Rebuilding America’s Defenses – Project for the New American Century

UPDATE:
See the latest by Tony Cartalucci:
It’s Official: “Arab Spring” Subversion is US Funded

Balochistan: Pakistan’s broken mirror

Baloch children hold up nationalist posters. Photographs by Asim Hafeez for The National

Islamabad’s brutal attempts to crush ethnic Baloch nationalism have met with fierce, escalating resistance – and have laid bare the strains that threaten the founding idea of Pakistan. Madiha R Tahir reports from the rallies, homes and hospital rooms of the fifth Baloch rebellion.

A child is fiddling with a poster of a mustachioed man, a missing political worker who may be his father or his uncle, and who is in all likelihood, dead. He draws my immediate attention, this child, because out of the thousands seated around him in row upon neat row inside the open-air tent, he is the only one not focused on the stage, the blazing lights, the young man holding forth in angry punctuated bellows.

“I am not a friend of Pakistan!” Zahid Baloch bangs the podium to emphasise his point, his countenance flushed, severe. “I am not a friend of the People’s Party!” He bangs the podium again, and the evening air swells with the ferocious stillness of his audience, tense and alert like a taut muscle.

Two days earlier, on January 15, the Pakistan army’s Frontier Corps had opened fire on a student protest in south-eastern Balochistan, killing two students and injuring four more – the latest casualties in an escalating war between the state of Pakistan and nationalists in Balochistan, the country’s largest and most sparsely populated province, where the fifth sustained rebellion against Islamabad since 1948 is seething.

A motorcyclist rides past graffiti in a Baloch neighbourhood in Karachi, Pakistan. A famous quote from Nawab Khair Baksh Marri, it reads: “Freedom needs patriots instead of voters”

Zahid is the secretary-general of the largest student movement in Balochistan, a fierce opponent of the central government and the more mainstream Baloch parties. At this twilight gathering in Lyari, home to a sizeable Baloch community, he delivers a verbal blow to the waffling nationalist parties. “The Baloch are the enemy of the National Party! The Baloch are the enemy of the BNP-Mengal!” The crowd has heard itself affirmed. Wild applause erupts, a release.

The next speaker is Abdul Wahab Baloch, the scruffy and soft-spoken, white-bearded head of the Baloch Rights Council. Midway through his talk, he switches abruptly from Balochi into Urdu. “Tonight, we have a foreign journalist among us who is here to report the Baloch cause, and we welcome her.”

I turn around to hunt for a foreign face, eager to find another female journalist – and find the crowd watching me. The realisation blooms. Oh. You mean me. Here in Karachi, the city of my birth, I am suddenly a foreigner. I wave nervously, unsure of how to respond. How many among the crowd will talk to me when they realise I am a Punjabi, the politically and numerically dominant group in Pakistan, and the eternal target of Baloch nationalist ire?
Karachi residents sit near a wall painted with the Balochistan Liberation Army flag and a poster of the assassinated nationalist and tribal leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

A caterwauling rises up from the semidarkness, and then a rallying cry. “Pakistan murdabad!” “Die Pakistan!”

Outside, my taxi driver has been waiting uncomfortably, ringing my phone every so often as darkness descends in a plea to hurry it up. He is an ethnic Pashtun: the two groups have an uneasy peace, and Lyari, a large ghetto with a million residents, is nowhere to be after dark. As I get into the car, he asks, “Everything done?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” He sounds relieved that I will not be directing him elsewhere. “Let’s get out of here.”

Nearly half of Pakistan’s land mass, Balochistan is a voluminous desert, a bone-dry expanse unfurling into sinuous cliffs set on a rilled desert floor. In the south along the Makran coast, weathered Baloch fishermen extract their livelihood from the coruscating waters of the Arabian Sea. Further inward, sheer bluffs give way to date palm groves and patches of green farm.
***********
A portrait of Nawab Khair Baksh Marri adorns a wall in Karachi’s Baloch district.

To the west and north, the province is bounded by Afghanistan and Iran, each of which has its own Baloch population; the Pashtuns who predominate in the northern part of the province also spill across international borders. The province’s location at this explosive geopolitical crossroads – as well as its vast mineral resources and valuable coastline – have focused the anxieties of international powers near and far, suggesting that a new Great Game may take Balochistan as its target. Tehran worries about what conflicts in Balochistan will mean for its own Sistan-Balochistan province, whose Baloch population has been brutally suppressed by the state. The Americans are concerned about the Taliban who have taken refuge in the province’s Pashtun belt and the leaders of the Afghan Taliban long believed to be operating out of Quetta. Washington is also concerned about China’s increasing involvement in the area, most visibly the deep-water port at Gwadar, built with Chinese investment and intended to provide an Indian Ocean foothold for Beijing.

But for the government of Pakistan – and particularly for its army – Balochistan is first and foremost the epicentre of a stubbornly secular Baloch national rebellion whose endurance poses a threat to the state’s ideological and geographical coherence.

Balochistan is a looking glass for Pakistan today, reflecting the tortuous struggle to imagine a national community. How the state handles the rising tide of Baloch nationalism will also determine the future of Pakistan’s nationalist project.
Posters of martyred Baloch leaders on display in a local electrical repair store.

So far the tidings are poor. Over the course of six decades Islamabad has failed to come to terms with Baloch nationalism; the province has almost always been under the effective control of the army or the intelligence services. During the 1970s and the 1980s, the threat of secular Baloch nationalism provided one rationale for the Islamicisation policies of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Zia ul Haq, who hoped that a resurgence of Islamist-nationalist sentiment would undermine the appeal of Baloch nationalism. Ironically, the government routinely attempts to discredit the Baloch separatists internationally by associating them with the Taliban. More recent reports have alleged that American funds intended for use against the Taliban have been diverted to the war on Balochistan’s secular militants.

Before its accession to Pakistan, parts of modern-day Balochistan were ruled by the British; other parts comprised the princely state of Kalat. As Pakistani nationalism crystallised around the idea of a homeland for a religious minority, Baloch nationalists stressed their ethnic identity as the basis for an independent state. They cast Pakistani nationalism, underwritten by religion, as a ruse for Punjabi dominance, but under pressure, the Khan of Kalat acceded in March 1948, triggering the “first rebellion”, which was quickly put down by the army. Two more rebellions rose up in the 1950s and 1960s, paving the way for the bloody confrontation that stretched from 1973 to 1977, pitting some 55,000 Baloch against more than 80,000 Pakistani troops. Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and 5,000 Baloch died before the insurgency was finally suppressed. One of its initial leaders was the militant nationalist and sardar, Nawab Khair Baksh Marri.

When I go to meet Marri in his Karachi home, a man carrying the most enormous brown rooster swings the gate open and tells me to wait. As we head down the garden path, I hear more roosters crowing; Marri is well-known as a lover of cockfighting. A line of men sit in the neat garden, huddled in quiet conversation. Marri is seated in the veranda wearing an impeccable Baloch-styled peach salwaar kameez and Baloch cap listening attentively to a man with a bright turquoise ring and a peak cap. They’re speaking in Balochi flecked with English; the occasional word or phrase can be overheard: “ideology”, “human rights”, “NGOs”.

Marri was an apolitical youth, but he was radicalised by the army’s merciless campaign to put down the “second rebellion” in 1958; he emerged from several prison stints as a Marxist-Leninist and a hardline nationalist who rejected Baloch participation in parliamentary politics. “The rules are theirs, so you can’t win a match,” he tells me. In his telling, the very structure of the state is illegitimate: “We were Muslims already,” he says. “We were Baloch already. The British grouped all the conquered people together [into Pakistan]. That’s not a justification: grouping people together just for being Muslims.”

Marri has been linked to the ongoing armed struggle, and his Moscow-educated son, Mir Balaach Marri, was killed as he waged guerrilla warfare in 2007. His son’s death spurred Marri, usually reclusive, to argue more publicly for Baloch independence, but his manner remains deceptively soft, like a knife cloaked in silk. The Baloch, he says, can draw inspiration from the Vietnamese resistance to America: “Vietnam wasn’t an atomic power,” he concludes. “That’s why we have to do the same thing: Punjabi sons will die.”

Though the stakes today are higher than ever, most of the Baloch grievances are now decades-old. The province, whose gas reserves are among the largest in Asia, accounts for half of the country’s gas production, with the lion’s share forcibly exported to Punjab. Balochistan’s resources produce roughly a billion dollars annually for the central government; the Balochis receive pennies in return. The local population remains gut-wrenchingly poor, living in sparse shanty towns with little in the way of infrastructure outside of multiplying army encampments – only one reason why local discontent, especially among young Baloch, has found its outlet in increasingly militant Baloch separatism.

During the tenure of General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in 1999, the army again took a leading role in the administration of the province, and the government proceeded apace with the construction of army garrisons and other mega-projects that the Baloch regarded as inimical or irrelevant to local interests, like the massive Chinese-funded port at Gwadar. These became targets for attacks by guerrilla groups like the Baloch Liberation Army.

The “fifth rebellion” began in earnest in 2004, and grew more intense after the rape of a Baloch doctor who worked at the province’s largest gasfields. After the army refused to allow the police to interrogate the suspects, one of whom was an army officer, massive protests erupted, led by the ageing nationalist and tribal leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

“Don’t push us,” Musharraf warned Baloch militants during an interview in January 2005. “It isn’t the 1970s when you can hit and run and hide in the mountains. This time, you won’t even know what hit you.”

Bugti, who once worked with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to oust more hard-line rivals from the provincial government, went underground to lead an insurgency with 5,000 of his tribesmen. Helicopter gunships pounded Bugti’s tribal areas, and on the morning of August 26 2006, the snow-bearded Bugti was killed while hiding in a cave in Kohlu. Islamabad hoped that this would be the final blow, but it gravely miscalculated. Rioters burst onto the streets, burning cars and smashing windows in the immediate aftermath. Shopkeepers went on strike. The central government deployed the paramilitary Rangers, arrested over 450 people and imposed an indefinite curfew, but the violence spread to Baloch neighbourhoods in Karachi where protesters rallied and burnt tires. The assassination was roundly condemned as a major political blunder. Bugti was, after all, a leader who had been open to dialogue with the state. His death provided yet another blood-soaked example to consolidate Baloch nationalism and awaken younger Baloch to the futility of dialogue.

I arrived in Quetta on a crisp January afternoon to join a throng of camera crews crowded on circular embankment to film a Balochistan National Party rally making its way down the city’s main artery.

A few thousand men – I saw no women either among the journalists or the protesters – marched purposefully, dressed in Baloch wear and light jackets, while policemen stood by, batons in hand. The BNP has traditionally participated in electoral politics, and its focus has been on greater autonomy for Balochistan and local control of natural resources; its willingness to work within the Pakistani system has brought the inevitable accusations of treachery and opportunism from more militant nationalist factions. But the intransigence of the central government seems to have alienated even the more moderate members of the BNP: when I scrambled off the concrete island to walk alongside four of the young protesters, they evinced little appetite for elections or compromises.

“They killed the Baloch! They’re trying to spread fear!” a young student named Tauqir Ahmed tells me loudly. A hopeful fuzz lines his upper lip. He keeps his eyes on the road as he talks, moving in quick strides. “They should know that we prefer to be killed than to put our heads down!” Ahmed is suffused with his own certainty, a self-conscious bravado animating his words. “They think they can just kill us. Now we’ll show them what a Baloch is!” And then as though he’s decided he must declare this to someone down the road tout de suite, his pace quickens. His friends, invigorated by their comrade’s words, and not to be outdone, bruise the air with their fists, swell expansively and shout: “Pakistan murdabad!” Other men and other boys roll past repeating the slogan, throwing it back to the crowd, holding it aloft in the air.

In the week preceding this march, targeted killings in Karachi neighbourhoods, including Lyari, have claimed the lives of 27 Baloch. Raids conducted by the police to “clean up” Lyari fanned the flames even further, leading to massive demonstrations by local Baloch. The neighbourhood had traditionally been a stronghold of the Bhutto family’s Pakistan People’s Party, but it has increasingly come under the sway of Baloch parties, who have been working hard since Bugti’s murder to inculcate ethnic nationalist sentiment – and thereby connect the Baloch scattered across the country into one force. That the murders in Karachi are being protested in Quetta is one sign that they have been successful.

Three days after this march, the Frontier Corps opened fire on students in Khuzdar – sparking the protest led by Zahid Baloch that I attended in Lyari.

When I spoke to the organiser of the Quetta protest, a BNP leader named Akhtar Hussein Langau – who held a seat in the Balochistan Assembly until he resigned after Bugti’s assassination in 2006 – he pointed to the army presence as a principal cause of the alienation young Baloch feel from the state of Pakistan. “We asked them to stop building the army cantonments and they wouldn’t,” he told me over tea shortly before the rally, “but they had no problem killing [Bugti].” Four army cantonments exist in Balochistan and Islamabad is planning several more. Most of these are not where the Taliban roam, but in Baloch lands that are resource-rich and seething with rebellion. Pakistan’s Air Force has six bases here; the Navy has three. And hundreds of checkpoints dot the province. “The ground reality,” asserts Langau, “is that all of Balochistan is a cantonment.”

In November, Islamabad offered to halt construction as part of a deal intended to tamp down the insurgency: touted as a historic concession, the offer outlined constitutional, administrative and political reforms for Balochistan, as well as an inquiry into Bugti’s killing, a promise for fair dividends, and the immediate release of missing political workers. The package was tabled in Parliament on November 24, but by the end of the day all the major Baloch parties had rejected it.

Islamabad’s approach is marred by inconsistency, partly because the civilian government has little to no control over the army establishment: while the state rolled out its proposed reforms, the army continued to disappear Baloch activists. Sangat Sana Baloch, a 28-year-old, was abducted only two weeks after the reform offer was announced. He had been active in the BSO as a student, and then joined the Baloch Republican Party, headed by a militant grandson of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. He was picked up while driving into Quetta. “They had blocked the road,” his father tells me with a face crumpling into sorrow. “They were waiting for him.”

The police have refused to register Sana’s case. “They’re scared and they don’t have the nerve,” his father says. In the absence of police reports, family members file constitutional petitions in the provincial high court asking a judge to take notice. Amnesty International documented at least 600 disappearances two years ago; Baloch activists now claim nearly 6,000.

“This government doesn’t want to admit that the Baloch are human,” says Chakar Qambrani, a BRP activist who was abducted in February 2008 and held for six months and 10 days. We sit on the carpeted floor of Qambrani’s living room, an electric heater glowing orange in a corner as he recounts his time in an underground cell and the savage beatings inflicted on him after his torturers had stripped him naked. “They would curse me and they would hit me with their hands, with leather straps and with sticks. Then they would start interrogating me about my party, who gives us money, why we go on strikes.”

Outside the Quetta Press Club, a group called Voice for Missing Baloch has set up a protest camp to call attention to the disappearances; a banner with bold red lettering hangs over the entrance: “UN Should Take Notice Against Illegal Abduction of Baloch Missing Persons By Intelligence Agencies.” Oversized photographs of disappeared men line the walls of the cloth tent, which was pitched by families of the missing men in late December; dozens gather here every day to hold vigil. “They claim we have courts, but the point is, we have no rule of law,” the group’s chairman, Nasrullah Baloch, tells me outside the tent. “If the agencies really think that these people have done something, then try them in court. Otherwise, what’s the point of having courts?” He adds laconically, “Just end them.”

In Tump, on the border with Iran south of Quetta, I meet Banok Karima Baloch, a 26-year-old student activist who has faced several cases in the antiterrorism courts; she was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in absentia last year. “They claim that people are free, but that’s not true… Even students who speak against them have had cases registered in the antiterrorism court.”

Karima is light-eyed and apricot cheeked, a member of the BSO central committee and the daughter of a solidly middle-class doctor. When the court demanded that she present herself, she refused. “The agencies disappear thousands,” she says, “and even if they present them in court, [the court] never bothers to ask what happened.”

Karima has suspended her studies to focus on activism. She explains that women have been compelled to take on a public role because their husbands and brothers have been abducted, but admits that she likes her work. I ask what will happen once the nationalist struggle is over. Will the women return home? Will she? “In Baloch tradition, women are respected,” she counters, hedging. “We get educated as much as the men.”

On the subject of tactics, however, she pulls no punches. “The ones who talk about autonomy and rights,” she says, referring to the mainstream nationalist parties, “have a different vision and different goal from those of us who want freedom.” For her, resistance is the only possible step. She notes succinctly, “You can’t get freedom through talk.”
***********

Islamabad’s feckless, incoherent policies have amplified a strident Baloch nationalism, and even the most pliable Baloch nationalist parties are feeling pressure from young activists. These nationalists have lost faith in Pakistani overtures; the hardliners among them now view any effort at reconciliation as a ploy to muffle and then quash this resurgent Baloch nationalism.

For the next generation, the only significant question is how soon Balochistan will become independent – which they now regard as the only way to preserve a distinct Baloch identity. To protect this “imagined community”, militant nationalists are willing to kill and to die. As a young, wiry activist, Abdul Qayyum Baloch, put it to me in a callow remark: “It’s just as well when they disappear and shoot people. It needs to happen, so more Baloch recognise the true nature of Pakistan.”

A day after the murder of the students in Khuzdar, the BLA launched its retaliation, killing three Punjabis in Balochistan. Rather than religion, which draws the lion’s share of attention when analysts contemplate Pakistan’s coherence, these increasingly strident ethnic divisions pose the greatest problem for the government – which cannot seem to evoke a sense of Pakistani nationhood broad enough to encompass them.

“What is Pakistan?” Qayyum asked me. “I understand Sindhis, Baloch, but Pakistani?” The question of Balochistan, it seems, is really a question about Pakistan itself.

The pressures of the American war, and its overriding obsession with the Taliban, seem likely to direct Pakistan only toward unsavory answers to those questions. The billions of dollars sent to Pakistan’s army by the United States have reinforced what may be the nation’s most long-lasting problem: the dominance of a military establishment that knows no language but force, and pursues the cause of Pakistani nationalism by bludgeoning and disappearing its own citizens. Ironically, the abuses of the US-funded army – which heighten ethnic discontent and delegitimize a broad and secular Pakistani nationalism – are the thing most likely to bring the Islamists that Washington fears so to power.

When I returned to Karachi, I visited Liaquat Kurd, who had been shot by the Frontier Corps in Khuzdar, and was now recuperating in a hospital bed – a film of sweat on his round face, instruments monitoring his heart rate as blood mixed with a yellowish liquid soaked through the bandaged stump of his left leg. “When they told me they had to amputate, I said just give me poison,” he recalls.

After Kurd was shot, the FC continued its rampage. Kurd’s friends dumped him in a graveyard promising they would return. Strangers found him an hour later and took him to the local hospital, which was ill-equipped to handle his wounds. By the time Kurd arrived, by road, in Karachi, too much time had lapsed: the nerves in his leg were destroyed. I asked him whether he would continue with his activism. “When you close all paths,” he said, “the youth will either leave politics or pick up a gun. Those are the only two options.”

Later I went to meet Jamil Bugti, the son of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, at his home in Karachi. I asked him who were the heirs to the towering political figures who led the Baloch nationalist movement in its earlier days. “The next generation is all in the mountains,” he replied, “And they’re not willing to talk to anyone. People like me, and others, like the different nationalist parties that are in Parliament, they don’t have any role to play. They look very good on TV. That’s about it.”

Madiha R Tahir is a freelance journalist reporting on international conflicts and currently based in Pakistan.

Two extremes digging in their heels

On the Baloch side, the armed radicals are bent on intimidating, perhaps even eliminating, moderate voices, making the possibility of a compromise with the state that much more distant. — Photo by AFP

By Cyril Almeida
Saturday, 24 Jul, 2010
ISLAMABAD: The killing of Habib Jalib Baloch on July 15 has sent a wave of concern across Balochistan and Islamabad that the insurgency in the province has entered a dangerous new phase.

Mr Jalib was the secretary general of the Balochistan National Party led by Akhtar Mengal, a moderate party considered to be secular, middle class and at a remove from the oppressive sardari system that dominates politics in the province.

While publicly Mr Jalib’s death has been blamed by Baloch leaders on the intelligence agencies, there is growing concern in the ranks of some nationalist groups that hard-line Baloch separatists may be eliminating those willing to work inside the Pakistani federation.

“We are in a very difficult position,” Senator Hasil Bizenjo of the NP said. “The message to us is that people talking about nationalist politics, about staying within the federation, will not be spared.”

According to Mr Bizenjo, the BNP-M and NP are viewed as collaborators by the separatist forces. “They (the hardliners) say, ‘We are being killed by the ISI and you people are working for them.’ ”

The killings — Mr Jalib was the third former BSO chairman and one of a dozen Baloch leaders killed in the last three years — raise a more fundamental question: why is the cycle of violence still continuing in Balochistan?

While the violence is down from the 2005-2008 peak period, the Pakistani state and parts of the Baloch population are undeniably still locked in conflict.

In a series of conversations with Dawn, senior government and army officials and Baloch representatives attempted to explain why, in their view, a conflict that has claimed between 500 and 1,500 lives since 2001 continues today.

Foremost is the issue of missing persons.

Estimates vary wildly: the Baloch claim thousands of fellow citizens are missing; rights groups like the HRCP suggest a figure in the low hundreds; the army acknowledges no more than a few dozen missing. Yet, it isn’t necessarily the detentions per se but the lack of information about the detainees that makes the missing-persons issue so incendiary.

“We asked them (the army) to do two things. One, produce all the missing persons in court and file charges against them. Two, allow the families to meet them,” according to Hasil Bizenjo.

A senior federal minister involved in discussions concerning Balochistan concurred: “We weren’t even asking to set them free. But they (the army) weren’t willing to listen because they considered them (the missing persons) to be treasonous. We said, they may have done things they need to be punished for, but they are still Pakistanis and we have to treat them as such.”

Army officers deny the charge. A high-ranking officer claimed that comprehensive internal investigations have been conducted: “We’ve looked and we haven’t found anything. It’s a myth, one of those unfortunate consequences of this situation.”

The army does admit nearly 30 suspects are in the custody of agencies such as the ISI, MI and Corps Intelligence and are being investigated by Joint Investigation Teams. In addition, senior officers admit some of the missing have been killed in encounters.

Beyond that, high-ranking officers claim they are ready to investigate any and every case of alleged disappearances brought to their attention.

That does not cut ice with rights groups.

Ali Dayan Hasan of the Human Rights Watch says, “It’s the state’s responsibility to protect its people. If the families are claiming people are missing, then the MI should prove that they aren’t. Find these people and show us where they are.”

Part of the problem, according to Hasil Bizenjo, is that the army does not understand the impact of missing persons. “Balochistan is a backward society. If you pick up a boy from a village, you make an enemy of the entire village.”

The depth of anger over the missing persons can be gauged from the fact that it has dislodged as the central complaint the decades-old grievance of the Baloch: that the province’s gas and mineral riches have been exploited by the Pakistani state.

No one, not even army officers, denies that reality.

Referring to the disparity in the gas price offered to Balochistan and the other provinces, Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Naveed Qamar explained: “There was definitely an anomaly in pricing. Sui was discovered in the mid ’50s and the subsequent increases in the price were made using the original price as a benchmark. Qadirpur (in Sindh) was priced using the benchmark of international oil prices. That doesn’t justify it, though. It was wrong.”

However, Mr Qamar disputes the notion the centre is still exploiting Balochistan’s resources: “Over the last 18 months, significant change has come about. We’ve fixed the gas-price anomaly to a large extent. Rikodiq (where large reserves of gold and copper are reported to exist) has been handed over to the provincial government and Saindak will be soon.”

Even so, perceptions about the intentions of the army and ‘centrist’ bureaucrats in Islamabad linger.

“It’s about greed. They want Balochistan’s resources to create prosperity in the other provinces,” claimed Syeda Abida Hussain, co-founder with her husband, Fakhar Imam, of the Friends of Baloch and Balochistan.

“It’s no longer about the resource-sharing at present. It’s about the potential,” Naveed Qamar suggested. “Balochistan contributes 17 or 18 per cent of gas today to Pakistan’s needs, but the vast resources that are still untapped because of the security situation, that is the real prize.”

The Baloch look no further for modern-day proof of the Pakistani state’s intention to ‘colonise’ Balochistan than the port at Gwadar. “There are these beautiful, paved boulevards in the port area. And right outside the poverty of the Baloch is shocking,” said Sanaullah Baloch, a former BNP-M senator. “Gwadar has nothing to do with concern for the Baloch.”

If the Baloch, army and government do agree on one thing, it is that a great deal of the blame for the violence continuing must be shouldered by the Balochistan government.

The February 2008 provincial elections were boycotted by the moderate Baloch parties such as the BNP-M and NP, an “unintended consequence that we didn’t understand at the time”, according to a senior army official, and which “the province is paying for”.

The provincial government is widely perceived to be epically corrupt and monumentally inefficient. That has real consequences.

For one, it allows the army to deflect attention from the heavy-handedness of the Frontier Corps, which is still tasked with law and order duties. Practically speaking, it becomes difficult to debate the withdrawal of the FC, a major demand of the Baloch, when the police are incapable of establishing even a modicum of law and order.

The provincial government’s incompetence also impacts on the possibility of winning over disaffected Baloch. “They’ve got all this extra money,” Naveed Qamar said referring to the Rs12 billion of new resources-related payments to the province, “but will it make its way to the people? That’s a big question mark.”

Another commonality among the Baloch, government officials and army officers spoken to: none were optimistic the violence will abate soon.

In fact, many suggested the two extremes appear to be digging in their heels.

On the Baloch side, the armed radicals are bent on intimidating, perhaps even eliminating, moderate voices, making the possibility of a compromise with the state that much more distant.

On the army’s side, while it fiercely denies it has a ‘colonial’ approach towards Balochistan, there is a steely resolve to prevent any ‘mischief’ by outside powers in the province — an approach which severely diminishes the possibility of concessions towards the Baloch extremists.

“If the federation is to survive, the moderates need to be heard,” according to Raza Rabbani. The trouble is, no one seems to believe that is an imminent possibility.

[The following is an eight-part series by Amir Mateen of The News.]

Watching Balochistan slipping through our fingers … (Balochistan-1)
August 7, 2010

By Amir Mateen

QUETTA: Anybody who has not been to Quetta for some time will be aghast to see the ghost town that it has become. Half of the once-bustling and lively town goes to sleep as soon as the sun sets. The other half trembles even to the sound of a cracker while locked inside their overly guarded houses.

The British garrison city that was known for its cultural diversity and for its laidback evenings stands divided into quarters based on ethnicity and religion. And, more important, whether you are a “uniformed person” or not. A quarter of the city is a no-go-area worse than Karachi’s killing alleys in the 1990s. A non-Baloch would not venture into areas around Saryab Road and Arbab Karam Road even during daytime.

The localities of Spiny Road and Smungli Road are no less dangerous as the marauding gangs of armed youth are found witch-hunting for anybody wearing trousers or matching the profile of a “non-local.” Local police enter the localities at considerable risk. Even the paramilitary Frontier Corps pickets get attacked occasionally. The picket leading to Bolan Medical College, meaningfully named as “Golimaar,” has been targeted more than once by grenade attacks. In suburbs, 16 kilometres off Quetta city on the western bypass, the Hazar Ganj bus stand was ambushed by rockets. The situation on the east side is equally scary. Life in the Quetta Cantonment is stable, thanks to the 24-hour armed-to-the-teeth vigilance. But the ordinary citizenry has been left to the butchery of a lethal mix of extremist nationalists, political separatists, religious fanatics, smugglers, drug dealers and the land mafia hand in glove with criminals, not to forget international terrorists and foreign intelligence agencies. The locals are shifting to the relatively safer Pashtun localities of, say, Nawankali and Sraghurdhi. The so-called Punjabi settlers, who may have lived in Quetta for generations, are being forced to leave for other provinces, sometime after selling their assets for pennies.

“The country seems to have given up on Balochistan,” says social activist Dr Faiz Rehman. He believes doctors are being discouraged to attend clinics in trouble areas so that such incidents do not get reported. Dr Yousaf Nasir, a top surgeon who was a cousin of former federal Minister Yaqoob Nasir, was ambushed in a target killing on Thursday. Another senior surgeon Chiragh Hassan is also receiving threats to move out. “Everybody wants to get out of here,” he added.

Security officials are on top of the hit lists. Around 1,600 government officials have applied for long leave and for transfer to other provinces.

Under such trying times, one hardly finds a notable politician in Quetta or even in Balochistan. The doyen of Baloch nationalism, Sardar Khair Bux Marri is in Karachi, Sardar Attaullah Mengal in Wadh, his son Akhtar Mengal in Dubai and MNA Hasil Bizenjo in Karachi. Equally important among Pashtun nationalists, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai is believed to be in London. His family said he was out of the country but they would not share where or when he might return home. Most Balochistan politicians who pour their grievous heart out regularly on television talk shows reside either in Islamabad, Karachi, London or the US.

While half of the province is inundated because of floods, killing scores of people, Chief Minister Aslam Raisani is languishing in Dubai. His staff said he was in Dubai for many days and they could not confirm when he would return. In any case, he is known to be a part-time CM as he lives in Dubai or Islamabad nearly 15 days a month and is never available, intelligibly that is, after 8:00pm come crash floods or cyclone. The only exception was when, military sources confirm, his son was caught by the Frontier Constabulary in a vehicle name-plated “Sarawan 2.” The chief of Sarawan tribes that he is, Aslam had to seek the intervention of military and political leadership at the highest level to bail out his son.

In the meantime, on average two persons die every day in target killings. The official figure for target killings in the last 10 months is 370 but others say the actual number should be around 600.

The country, particularly Islamabad, wakes up to the Balochistan tragedy only when a high-profile politician like Habib Jalib gets killed. That he was murdered in the wake of other Baloch Nationalist leaders like Maula Bux Dasti and Liaquat Mengal makes it all the more tragic and mysterious. Theories abound about these killings depending on whose side you are on.

Many like Jamhoori Wattan Party Secretary General, Rauf Khan Sasoli, believe that the commonality among these killings was that they were middle class leaders who opposed separatists and supported the Baloch cause while remaining with the framework of the Pakistani federation. “It’s the extremist separatists who have killed Jalib,” Sasoli said emphatically. Others think that Sardar Khair Bux Marri has issued the decree for the Baloch youth to choose violence as the only way for the independence of Balochistan. Political sources say on the condition of anonymity that the ‘lumpen’ groups are targeting the moderate Baloch. Still others blame it on the intelligence agencies like the CIA, KGB and, interestingly, those of India and Pakistan.

Military sources at the highest level confirm that they have proof of the involvement of the exiled Brahmadagh Bugti, the grandson of the Nawab Akbal Bugti, who allegedly runs the Baloch Republican Army from Afghanistan, in these killings. They say they have a copy of Brahmadagh’s Indian passport which the Pakistan Army has also furnished to the Indians as a proof.

The Pakistani security agencies are equally blamed. “The target killings of Baloch nationalists are being carried by those who think they can control us by eliminating our political brains,” says former Senator Manzoor Gichki. Many in Quetta believe that Baloch Massallah Daffah Army (BMDA), the outfit that has claimed all three recent killings, is a front for Pakistani agencies.

Most people in Quetta have stories to share that they believe proves the involvement of Pakistani security agencies. Chairman of Balochistan’s Peace Committee, Sardar Hameed Khilji names many people who were caught with evidence on close circuit cameras but later released. “I have helped catch many culprits but they always come out to threaten you,” said Khilji.

Military sources explain that the biggest problem was the lack of prosecution and investigation, sometimes out of negligence or incompetence but mostly because of fear. They say it is very hard to prosecute criminals. In some cases, judges refuse to take up cases and in nine cases out of 10 witnesses fail to give evidence. Investigators operate under tough environment. In many cases senior police officials wear scarves to hide faces from the accused terrorists. “There are serious flaws in the legal and administrative systems to handle the situation,” said one military source. “Once these people get out they become more confident while those who help us get punished, even killed,” he said.

The Balochistan issue may not be as simple as the policy makers and pundits in Islamabad think. It’s not just about politics and terrorism. It is also about the crisis of governance, capacity, the feelings of deprivation and exploitation. Most important, it’s a psychological issue that exists in the hearts and minds of the people of Balochistan. It will take much more than the so-called the Aghaz-e-Hqooq-e-Balochistan. We shall focus on that in the coming days. (Continued….)

(The News – )

Is it more anarchy, than an insurgency? (Balochistan-II)
August 7, 2010

By Amir Mateen

QUETTA: Violence is no longer an abstract word in Balochistan’s capital city. It is a dreaded reality and one so close and deadly that you can see it writ large on the faces of people in the bazaars of Quetta, what to speak of other areas which were never known for any admirable writ of the state.

Walking through the markets here one cannot help noticing that people no longer look into the eyes of another for the fear of the unsaid, the unknown, the deadly. Nobody even strikes a real conversation without first judging the other’s ethnicity, sect and political ideology. Violence has impacted life in every way, right down to what you wear. Trousers are out, because anyone wearing one would be deemed as a settler or Punjabi and more likely to be gunned down than someone sporting a traditional shalwar qameez. People are painfully careful about the choice of words and delivery of their dialect in a clear attempt to protect their identity. Festivity on weddings and other social occasions has become a rarity, if ever. People avoid gatherings lest they become targets of bomb explosions.

Quetta’s bowl-like geography is such that a firing or explosion in one part of the city can, in most cases, be heard all over the city. This in turn unleashes rumour factories that push the city’s panic button. Mothers can be seen rushing to schools, fathers back home to protect their families, shutters come down like clockwork while the legions of the young unemployed youth get out to watch or to be part of some action of tyre-burning or stone-pelting. Meanwhile, in the nearby Quetta Cantonment, the officers, particularly those likely to be promoted as generals at the Staff and Command College, receive calls from families and friends pleading them not to send children into the wilderness outside their safer confines.

For the rest of the country, particularly in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, such events happening here merit a mere single-column news on inside pages, a momentary blot or a crawling scroll on news channels and life goes on as this picture is not reflected in the national news media as much or as often as it should. One big reason being the ‘small’ local journalists’ fear of writing too much about it. They can name names of the people involved in most crimes but only in private. Almost all journalist colleagues requested anonymity while talking about the issue. A senior journalist in Quetta was candid enough to say: “You can afford to write or talk about this because you don’t live here whereas we can lose a limb or life for saying a lot less.”

In most schools in Quetta’s Baloch localities, Pakistani anthem is not allowed to be recited or the national flag to be hoisted. Many have been forbidden from teaching Pakistan Studies as a subject. Only recently, five Baloch youngsters turned up at the St. Mary’s Convent to burn the national flag, and it’s happening all over. Anti-Pakistan separatist slogans are chalked on walls anywhere you traverse in the northern parts in what is known as Jhalawan or the southern Baloch territory of Sarawan.

Yet, many believe that while the situation may be dreary it still cannot be compared with earlier Baloch insurgencies. “Most of the action is sporadic symbolism than concrete political realities on ground,” says analyst Noor Kakar. “It is more anarchy than an insurgency.” The present spate of violence is different from the earlier insurgencies in many ways. One, the present phase does not have the class of leadership in terms of experience, organisation, unity and respect. The first three Baloch conflicts in 1948, 1958 and the 1960s were relatively smaller than the major insurgency of the 1970s but the leadership then was revered by the insurgents.

Prince Abdul Karim Khan had the credentials to gather nationalists of those days for the ‘greater Balochistan’ after his brother Mir Ahmad Yar, the Khan of Kalat, signed accession that the nationalists claim was forced on him. In the end it took no more than a small army battalion to quell the rebellion.

In the 1958 insurgency, Nawab Nowroze Khan was highly revered by his followers who took up arms against the formation of West Pakistan as one unit. In the end, five of his family members were hanged for killing Pakistani troops and the Nawab also died in captivity. Sher Mohammad Marri was perhaps the ablest Baloch leader to lead the insurgency from 1963 to 1969. The initial provocations for the insurgency were the army bases that were built in the Baloch area but later ballooned into a larger movement for the Baloch rights on mineral resources and independence. General Sherov, as he was called, raised parallel posts across the 445 mile Baloch belt giving the Pakistani establishment tough time until General Yahya Khan abolished the One Unit.

The Parrari movement of the 1970s is listed among the top 10 wars in the 20th century in terms of the casualties that the Pakistan Army suffered at the hands of the Baloch insurgents led by Nawab Khair Bux Marri. He had the support of most major Baloch leaders of the time, except Nawab Akbar Bugti who, nationalists believed, stabbed the movement in the back by becoming the governor after Sardar Attaullah Mengal resigned in protest against the dissolution of the National Awami Party government in NWFP (now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa).

The present conflict is hardly a comparison by any standard. The most prominent leader of the Balochistan Republican Party and its militant wing, Brahamdagh Bugti is too young and inexperienced to match his predecessors. He has to first get himself accepted from his own Bugti tribe as a tribal chief and from his rival cousins and uncles. He may have gone too far in his relationship with the Indians and in times that are different from the 1970s. The Baloch leadership stands divided on the issue. Khair Bux Marri stands on one extreme in his support for armed insurgency. The incorrigible Nawab is too old and isolated to lead. While Balaach Marri died in mysterious circumstances, none of his other sons have an iota of their father’s charisma. Attaullah Mengal may support the movement morally but he stayed out of action even during the 1970s insurgency. His son, former Chief Minister Akhtar Mengal, is angry for being imprisoned and tortured by the previous regime but his faction of Balochistan National Party is still reluctant to support the separatists openly. Others like the National Party led by Dr Maalick too remains committed to work within the federation of Pakistan.

The rebel groups in the field are such a hotchpotch that it is as difficult to keep a track of them as to know who is sponsored by whom. A hotchpotch of rebel groups exists including Baloch Liberation Army, Baloch Liberation United Front and Baloch Massallah Daffah Army. They seem to all work on their own agendas, often at variant with each other. The organisation, unity and the support in the masses are no match to the earlier insurgencies.

Most important, times may have changed a lot. The Pashtun factor and the rise of the clergy in Balochistan cannot be ignored. A sizeable section of Baloch nationalists, even if they are angry over what they believe is the exploitation of Islamabad, will agree that an independent Balochistan or new states are not possible in this day and age. Afghanistan may be harbouring Brahamdagh but it is not like the Afghanistan support of the insurgency in the 1970s. “All we want is a better and a fairer deal from the establishment,” says JWP Secretary General Rauf Khan Sasoli. “Is this asking for too much?”.

For a change, unlike the 1970s or even the Musharraf regime, Islamabad is more receptive to the demands of Balochistan. The problem is that Islamabad has no idea who to give what and how to appease the angry nationalists. There are serious flaws in the administrative and political set-up to execute the agenda even if every demand of the nationalists is accepted. Politicians need to do more than issue statements and the army more open minded than it has been so far. (continued)

(The News – )

Balochistan conflict, the most complex issue in the country …(Balochistan – III)
August 7, 2010

By Amir Mateen

QUETTA: The Balochistan conflict, at one level, happens to be the most complex issue in the country. A sectarian quagmire exists where the local Shia population, predominantly the Hazara community, is under constant threat by local Taliban helped by militant fanatics from as far as Punjab, Waziristan, to Kandahar and Khost in Afghanistan.

A whole gamut of Baloch nationalists from moderates to extremists are fighting for their rights — some against Islamabad, others against ‘Punjabi imperialism’ and still others against the Pakistan Army and the State. An underlying tension prevails between the Pashtuns and the Baloch over distribution of power, resources and territory; between Pakistani Pashtuns and their Afghan counterparts over business and turf; between nationalists and religious political parties and sometimes also between local militants and al-Qaeda. A tug of war also simmers between the settlers (read Punjabis) and locals; between secular and religious elements over lifestyle, not to forget between those who live in the cantonment and those who do not.

Add to this a nexus of smugglers of goods, arms and drugs; the land mafia that makes millions when people sell prime property for peanuts and criminals who take contracts for killing people for as little as a few thousand rupees.

The picture gets more complicated when regional and international forces get involved in this power play. A whole set of theories from the ridiculous to the sublime prevail about the classical ‘great game’ over the mineral resources of Balochistan. Enter the British, Americans, Chinese, Arab Sheikhs and all those jazzy players backed by multinationals that make James Bond movies so watch able. The only five-star hotel in Quetta presents a leaf from the classical movie, Casablanca, where every shady character is out to sell each other.

Some facts, however, belie the Hollywood scripts. The Chinese want to expand their investment in Gwadar by linking road and rail links for the cheaper energy and commercial supplies in future. “The Americans and many regional countries have a problem with that,” says PML-N’s Anwaarul Haq Kakar. “It’s quite possible that these powers are fomenting trouble in Balochistan.”

The same powers may have a problem with the proposed Iranian pipeline into Pakistan. The Afghan legacy is there in the shape of massive refugee camps. Replicas of Kandahar exist in Quetta’s localities of Nawankilli, Kharrotabad, Pashtunabad, Killi Khotik Chashma, and Killi Raiti Bulledi. “Kandaharis hold jirgas in Nawankilli as if they were in their own country,” says journalist Farhan Bokhari.

The mystery of the so-called Quetta Shura remains unsettled but the linkages of Balochistan with the war in Afghanistan and its impact on the provincial polity cannot be underestimated. Finally, the Indian footprints are all over. It is only in Quetta that one realizes the severity of the proxy war being played between India and Pakistan. If all this does not qualify as a momentous mess, then what does?

On another level, the fundamentals in Balochistan are quite simple. The conflict revolves primarily around four factors: The administrative (mis) governance in controlling the law and order; the political handling as opposed to the military solutions; a fairer economic development and its execution cutting across the corrupt ways of the Sardari system, and lastly the curtailment of foreign interference.

More simply, it boils down to just one-governance, without which the other three could not be executed. And that, sadly, is the weakest link in the Balochistan chain. “There is no governance in Balochistan,” said former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Nawab Wazir Jogezai. “The province has been left to the rules of jungle.”

Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani is extremely handicapped as he has feuds of blood running with, among others, the Rinds, Bugtis, Domkis, Jatois, Kalhois involving scores of murders taking place on each side. This makes his personal enmity stretching to nearly half of the Baloch tribes. The Interior Ministry put its foot down recently when Raisani sought the FC para-military troops to settle scores with former Federal Minister Yar Mohammad Rind, whom he accuses of murdering his father. The Nawab of Rinds, Yar Mohammad is one of the only two Balochistan opposition MPAs in a house of 65. Such is Raisani’s terror that ‘Rind’ has not come to the Balochistan Assembly after his oath taking two years ago.

Raisani is running the administration like a personal fiefdom. The chief minister, who is a former police DSP, is always keen to promote rankers as District Police Officers (DPO), some of them old colleagues. DPO Pishin Asad Nasir, DPO Nasirabad Javed Hashim, DPO Chamman Rauf Bareech, among many others, are rankers who got promoted on the whims of the higher authorities. Even the crucial post of RPO operations in Quetta has been given to a ranker, Hamid Shakil Sabir while many able regular officers have been sidelined as OSDs.

Taking the cue, most of the 60 plus cabinet have got the police officials down to the level of SHOs of their choice. This has messed up the entire administration setting into motion a wave of crime and sabotage. Former Inspector General Police (IG) Chaudhary Yaqoob is on record saying, “the political set-up is so weak that the law and order situation cannot be controlled.” IG Police Javed Bokhari, disheartened on political interference, left on a two-month leave for Canada that got extended to six months and his colleagues say he may not come back at all. Malik Iqbal, a highly respected officer, has been appointed as the new IG and it is yet to be seen how long he will survive. And this is just the beginning.

The police have no writ beyond a six-mile ring outside main cities. Over 80 per cent of Balochistan is what is called as “B-area,” which is the British legacy of running affairs through local tribes hired as levies. The Police Reforms of 2006 abolished the system by converging ‘B area’ into regular police administered ‘A area.’ This was a blow to the Sardari system through which they retained control in their areas. The Sardars in the Balochistan Assembly got a resolution passed against it. The process got stalled as a few Levies’ officers challenged it in the Services Tribunal. The issue is now believed to be pending in the Supreme Court.

The provincial government was quick to revert back to the old system. This may have contributed to the worsening of the law and order situation. Reports say that there have been cases of 12 murders in Jhal Magsi but none of them has been reported, as they will be decided in a jirga. This gives the local Sardar, in this case Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi, the leverage to control people. “This has happening all over and the situation is worse in Dera Bugti and Kohlu,” confirmed a police source on the condition of anonymity.

This is how the Sardars not only influence the administration but also run a parallel judiciary. The proponents of the Sardar system may claim that in the absence of swift judiciary, the old system serves the purpose. But the fact remains the system has not been able to control the present law and order situation. Former Federal Minister for Law and Human Rights opines that the judiciary should see it as the case for parallel justice system like the Sharia courts in Swat and dispose off the matter. Till then, the crisis of governance in Balochistan continues to get worsen.

There is lots of clamour from the political class to get rid of the Frontier Corps troops from trouble areas. One hears numerous complaints about their over stretching their authority. Yet, military sources point out, it is on the request of the provincial government that the FC is involved in the security duties. “Given a choice, we would like to go back to the frontiers,” said the sources.

The provincial government has a love-hate relationship with the FC. The chief minister does not like it when the FC nabs his son in a case but wants it to perform security duties. “We may not like it, but imagine what will happen without the para-military,” says Anwaarul Haq. “The police alone cannot handle it”. Apparently, till there is a responsible police and administrative order, the FC is all that Balochistan appears to have got even though it is definitely not the ideal agency to handle the chaos that Balochistan has become. (Continued)

(The News – July 27, 2010)

Disarray in political parties a bad omen … (Balochistan-IV)
August 7, 2010

By Amir Mateen

QUETTA: Everyone aggress that only politics can offer the panacea for Balochistan’s problems. But herein lies another predicament: which politics? For Balochistan’s political landscape is dotted with fractured political parties, more often than not led by fractious leaderships, seemingly more obsessed with changing their loyalties and luxury SUVs, rather than the fate of their milling masses. If one thing they all seem to readily agree upon is to disagree with one another.

Such is the political mess that it is difficult to keep track of the A to Z of every faction. Take the Baloch parties first. After the demise of the Balochistan National Alliance, one Balochistan National Party (BNP) is headed by Sardar Attaullah Mengal’s son Akhtar Mengal while the BNP (Awami) is presided by Sardar Israrullah Zehri. Nawab Akbar Bugti’s Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) is divided into the factions of Aali Bugti and Talal Bugti, while Brahmadagh Bugti is running his militant wing, the Balochistan Republican Army. The divisiveness of the Baloch militants is no less.

Pashtunkwa Milli Awami Party and Awami National Party have never been able to unite the Pashtun nationalists despite the fact that their party heads, Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Asfandyar Wali, were once close friends. Even Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) now has a faction named as JUI (Ideological) led by Maulana Ismatullah.

It is because of the divisive polity that Balochistan always had a coalition government. This has never allowed any government to take bold decisions. Balochistan does not have a political culture, except a few pockets in Makran, Kharan, Quetta and some Pashtun areas. The provincial Assembly is a grand cluster of individuals who have pockets of votes, most of them tribal Sardars. This breeds corruption and manipulation of power in a few hands. Transparency International placed the Balochistan as the second most corrupt provincial government, but many contest that it should merit the top position by the miles.

A crude indicator might be the parking lot of the Balocistan Assembly when it is in session. The 60 ministers, plus the Speaker and his deputy, in a house of 65 have fleets of super SUV jeeps along with armoured land cruisers manning dozens of armed-to-the-teeth guards. It’s a rare sight that one might just see in movies alone. Many of them bought their way to the Assemblies, particularly in the Senate.

The system is such that no matter how much money is poured into Balochistan, there is only a fraction of it that will reach the masses. Balochistan nationalists will admit that in private but never in public. “It is convenient to talk against Islamabad and ignore the structural lacunas that will not let the change happen even if Balochistan’s all demands are accepted,” said analyst Farman Kakar.

The biggest jolt to middle class politics has been the exclusion of populist nationalist parties. Mahmood Khan Achakzai’s PMAP always had a political culture. The Pashtun icon that he is, Achakzai was always a saner voice who always contributed positively to the national politics while he was in the parliament.

The President of his BNP faction, Akhtar Mengal may be the son of a Sardar (Attaullah Mengal) but is enlightened enough not to act like one. The party that shuns the Sardari system and tops the chart of middle class politics is the National Party (NP) with former BSO leader Dr Maalick as its President. The National Party may be seen as the new version of Ghous Bux Bizenjo’s Pakistan National Party (PNP) but without the prefix of Pakistan, which just shows the changing times. The PNP, like the ANP, had pockets of workers in Lahore and Karachi. None of the existing nationalist parties have any presence outside their own belts of Balochistan.

The boycott of nationalists in the last elections has given way to the religious parties in the case of Pashtuns and the Sardars filled the vacuum of the Baloch nationalists. One may have contributed to the rising fanaticism and the other has ruptured the administrative structure leading to the anarchy that we face in Balochistan today.

The Musharraf regime, like all military dictatorship, had deliberately undermined the middle class nationalists who were considered as anti-national. “They needed loyalists more than political workers,” said former Senator Manzoor Gichki. A whole generation of middle class politicians is either in exile, subdued or wiped out with the killing of Faizuddin Sasoli, Maula Bux Dasti and Habib Jalib being the latest.

The Baloch politicians are in a fix. “If we talk about our rights and demand fairer deal on our resources we are marked by the agencies and if we favour the politics of federation and Pakistan we get equally marked by nationalist extremists,” said a Baloch leader on the condition of anonymity.

The security agencies overseeing the province see politics with a black and white prism. Either you are patriot or you are not. They do not have the political training to understand the ‘grey area.’ Military sources confirmed that the highest authorities have decided to let the politicians take control of the province. “First, we got the army out and would like to see the FC out as soon as the government asks us,” said a military source. But the problem is that the intelligence officials at the lower level may not be as neutral as the high command thinks. The security officials are the most sought after persons in Quetta and behave like demi-gods. If you know them “your file never stops” goes the dictum. There are just too many stories about their trespasses.

The so-called mainstream parties are virtually non-existent in Balochistan. They do have few individuals but have not invested anything on promoting political culture. All of them have retained the big Sardars. PPP’s provincial president is Lashkari Raisani, who happens to be the brother of the Nawab of Jhalawan (the northern tribes), Chief Minister Aslam Raisani. PML (Q) has the chief of Lasbela, Jam Yousaf as the President where the PML (N) might replace Sardar Yaqoob Nasir with the Nawab of Jhalawan (the southern tribes), Sanaullah Zehri.

Not to be left behind, the JWP has Nawab Aali Bugti as President and BNP (Awami) Israrullah Zehri. None of them allows his tribesmen to sit on their level let along mingle with them. So much for the grassroots politics.

Interestingly, most of these Sardars retain a secretary general from a middle class. JWP has Rauf Khan Sasoli; BNP (A) has Asad Baloch Jamaldini; BNP (M) had Habib Jalib. “They need them for sending messages to other sardars and to do the dirty political work,” said one of them requesting, like always in Balochistan, that he not be named.

All may not be lost, however. Besides the nationalists, JUI (F) always had a popular culture, thought it may be changing as we have seen their pauper members becoming billionaires by being part of every coalition government in the last 25 years. Mekran has never had a Sardari system; Kharan too has a culture of middle class politics.

“We cannot resolve the problems of Balochistan without creating a politic culture which can only happen if the process is allowed uninterrupted,” said NP President Dr Mohammad Maalick. “This is the only way we can drag the province out of this conundrum.”

One cannot agree more. The issue of governance is directly linked with the political process. Well, we might just have to wait till the next Assembly or somehow induct the political outcastes in the political decision-making. It’s easier said than done.

(The News -28 July 2010)

Time to mend fences in Turbat, but is Islamabad cognizant …(Balochistan-V)
August 9, 2010

By Amir Mateen

TURBAT: A Baloch, they say, has a long memory. In any political discussion, they take a long perspective starting from the days when the Khan of Kalat was ‘coerced’ to accede to Pakistan, the betrayal of Nauroze Khan to the insurgencies of the 1960s and 1970s and, finally, the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

This discourse takes place on roadside cafes of Turbat where Baloch nationalists, mostly young, share their numerous conspiracy theories, the cases of missing persons, the alleged brutalities of the state. It is here on the streets of Turbat, sitting on wicker charpoys and sipping tea from cracked crockery that the Baloch grand narrative shapes up. The cycle of current violence, it seemed, accelerated after the killing of three prominent Baloch Nationalists — Baloch National Movement (BNM) President Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Lala Munir, also of the BNM, and Sher Mohammad Baloch of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) in Turbat last year.

The three were picked up by unidentified armed men from the chamber of Advocate Kachkol Ali on April 3, 2009, and were found dead 40 miles outside Turbat six days later. The mystery of the killings remains unresolved.

The plot thickens as Ghulam Mohammad Baloch was also a member of the 10-member committee constituted by BLA’s Hyrbyar Marri to negotiate the release of UNHCR’s American official, John Solecki. Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) had owned the kidnapping of Solecki. Both Khair Bux Marri and Brahmadagh Bugti were involved in negotiations as the UNHCR approached them.

Solecki was released, reportedly after paying a ransom, a day after the three Balochs were abducted. Theories abound on this issue. While most people point fingers at the ‘agencies,’ a Baloch website, Sardar Watch, blames Khair Bux Marri for the killings. Others say it was all about the ransom money. Still others say that the BLUF vanished after the incident, and it is operating under the name of Dr Allah Nazar’s BLF now.

“It is possible that Ghulam Baloch was deeply involved in some of the investigations regarding the missing persons and had uncovered something crucial,” a cousin of Ghulam Mohammad was quoted as saying in the press. “Maybe that is why he and his colleagues were killed.”

Whatever the truth, it threw the entire Mekran into a tailspin of violence. Mand, a town close to the Iranian border, remains a no-go-area even to this day. Former Federal Mnister and now PML-Q MNA, Zubeda Jalal, who hails from Mand, says that the conditions are so bad that she has not been to her hometown in over two years now. She opened a model school in Mand but had to evacuate its 80 percent settler staff to Karachi. “Most girls from my school now participate in demonstrations and are led by the widow of Ghulam Mohammad,” said Jalal.

A political vacuum exists as the popular parties of the area, Dr Malick’s National Party (NP) and Balochistan National Movement (BNM), are out because they boycotted the last elections. Those who got elected, reaping the windfall, hardly come to the area.

Others who command local respect, Dr Maalick, Hasil Bizenjo and Manzoor Gichki, are scared of extremist threats. The border trade (read smuggling) with Iran, which is the main livelihood, has lessened because of tighter border controls. One sees lots of unemployed people as Balochistan has the highest number of youth under 25 in Pakistan. Rival gangs of various factions of Balochistan Students Organisation (BSO) keep fighting on the streets of Turbat. This is a perfect ground for extremists to breed militancy.

One hardly sees any evidence of the government’s writ. The local administration is all about making money out of issuing permits (rahdaari) for the border trade. Almost 100 percent vehicles in town, actually the whole division, are stolen or smuggled without any registration. Fuel is smuggled from Iran and there are lots of indoctrinated youth to ram them into easy targets, the most vulnerable being the three Frontier Corps pickets.

The city that was home to Punnu of the Sassi ballad fame, Turbat is a political and administrative mess. Only one police station in the 15km radius of Turbat copes with the barrage of frequent target killings, rocket and grenade throwing. The regular police force in the strategically placed second biggest town of Balochistan consists of just 120 constables. The rest 400 plus levies force has not been paid any salary. Reason: The issue over the bifurcation of the police and levies has bequeathed total confusion among the administration and nobody knows who is under whom.

The settlers among the police have all gone on long leave, perhaps forever, after eight of them were ambushed in a year. If this was not enough, half of this limited police force is deputed on protocol and security of politicians and the city Wajas as these local elders like to be addressed.

Local politicians are scared to visit the area, the provincial government apathetic and the establishment in Islamabad too far away and unconcerned with the consequences of ignoring this strategic intellectual and political hub of Balochistan. “Actually, the time may be ripe for making a beginning as the people are dismayed by the recent killings of the cream of moderate politicians,” said a local politician on the condition of anonymity. “The moderates need to be protected so that they come out in the open to resist the extremists.”

Signs of strong reaction against the killings of Kech Nazim Maula Bux Dasti and others are obvious. BNM stands divided on the issue as its acting President Asa Zafar has resigned. NP President Dr Maalick and Hasil Bizenjo have also taken a strong stand against the inhuman acts.

“We always had an moral basis of our cause which was supported by intellectuals from all over, including Lahore and Karachi,” said Dr Maalick. “Nobody can justify the inhuman target killings of not just the Baloch intellectuals but also the settlers.”

Most nationalists argue that the extreme terrorism has damaged the high moral ground that the Baloch nationalists always carried. Others favour a more peaceful resolution of the problem. “We have been down the path of violence many times earlier causing the loss of many generations of Baloch youth,” said analyst Ghazanfar Baloch. “The state is much more powerful and our leadership much less united and capable. In this day and age, new countries are out of fashion.”

The argument goes that the LTTE in Sri Lanka was much more organized and powerful and yet it collapsed in the end. “I think there is a change in the air for a better realization for our objectives, but our leadership does not have the capacity to reap it,” argued PPP’s Rahim Zafar.

Another feature of Baloch in Pakistan is that because of their secular nature, they do not join hands with, say, Taliban. This is different from the Baloch nationalism in Iran, which is based on Sunni resistance against the Shia domination. Interestingly, both of them share an element of the American backing.

“The Jundullah in Iran has obvious pat from the Americans but Brahmadagh Bugti could also not have operated from Afghanistan without the consent of the yanks,” said PML-N’s Anwaar Kakar. “Much higher stakes are being played by multiple international forces in Balochistan.”

The youth at Turbat’s roadside cafes have a fairly good understanding of such factors. The question is whether Islamabad realises the situation in this far outpost of Turbat. (To be continued)

(The News – August 08, 2010)

Mekran–real battleground of Nationalists … (BALOCHISTAN – VI)
October 6, 2010

By Amir Mateen

Turbat—The first news that I was told when I landed in Turbat was that there had been a rocket attack a day earlier on the Navy camp next to the airport.

On the way to this town of roughly 300,000 largely Baloch population, which is the second biggest city after Quetta in Balochistan, I was informed about more scary details: That roughly 10000 Punjabi settlers have been forced to leave the town; that anybody could be shot any time particularly when wearing a trouser like I was; that 16 people, including 8 policemen were ambushed in a target killing in the last one year, two of them in July; that grenades were hurled on a police station a fortnight ago; that Pakistani anthem could not be recited in schools or the national flag hoisted in colleges; that any office symbolizing the federation like the NADRA, PTCL or the National Bank could not be operated without the Frontier Corps (FC) protection. The drive to the city, such ghastly images in mind, felt longer than the 30 minutes that it took.

Yet, like always, it was not as bad as they tell you, particularly when one is in the protected company of local elders. The first impression that one gets is the contrast in economic disparity. Either one sees the wretched majority that cannot afford two meals a day or the huge mansions mostly in the outskirts that were reportedly owned by the ‘gentry’ or smugglers of diesel and drugs.

On the surface, it seems just another shabby, pot-holed town that pockmark the barren, mountainous wilderness of Mekran. However, beneath this deceptive expanse lies key to a myriad political problems that bug not just Quetta and Islamabad but ring alarm bells as far as Tehran, Kabul, India, Oman and even London and Washington. It is only 150 km from both the Iran border in west and Gwadar on the Arabian Sea in south—one route planned to link gas Iranian pipeline to the rest of Pakistan and the other proposed to open the Arabian sea to China and the Central Asia through roads and railways.

The impediment to this grand agenda is that this town happens to be the most violent town in Balochistan after Quetta. “The Baloch issue cannot be resolved without appeasing the aspirations of our people,” said National Party’s President Senator Dr Maalick, whose party boycotted the last elections. “We need to be satisfied that we get a fairer share out of our ancestral largess and we should be treated as equals in every respect.”

Mekran and its divisional capital Turbat happen to be the intellectual and political centre of Baloch nationalism. It has always had a political culture and shunned the repressive Sardari system of the rest of Baloch areas. And it is here that the battle between the moderates and extremists of the Baloch nationalism is being fought.

The moderates, in local parlance, are those, like National Party (NP) and to some extent Akhtar Mengal’s Baloch National Party (BNP), who want the realization of Baloch aspirations while working within the framework of Pakistan. The extremists are the Baloch separatists who want to win an ‘independent Balochistan’ through an armed struggle. On top of the ‘separatists’ list is Nawab Khair Bux Marri’s Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). After the death of his son Balaach Marri, the younger Marri, Harbiar, is believed to run the BLA. However, military sources insist that the grand old Nawab K B Marri despite his age remains the guiding spirit behind the BLA. Another militant faction, Balochistan Republical Army (BRA) is run by Nawab Akbar Bugti’s grandson Brahmadagh Bugti allegedly from Qandhar.

However, the person who impacts the militant Baloch youth more than K B Marri and Brahmadagh is somebody that people in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi may not even know about. The new kid on the bloc is Dr Allah Nazar. “He has become a mythical figure among young militants as he dares the Sardars like K B Marri and Brahmadagh Bugti, “ said a local journalist on the condition of anonymity. “This goes well with the middle class politics of Mekran and Khuzdar.”

Originally from Mashkay in Avaraan district, Dr Allah Nazar is believed to be the person calling the shots among the Baloch militants, particularly in Mekran, Khuzdar and Avaran. He is also accused of the recent killings of moderate Baloch leaders like Maula Bux Dashti, Liaquat Mengal, Rehmatullah and Khalil Tufail. Some nationalist allege that he may also be involved in the killing of BNP leader Habib Jalib in Quetta. However, intelligence sources say that Jalib may have been shot by the BLA which avenged the killing of Balaach Marri who was allegedly killed by Jalib’s Qaimkhawani tribe.

Whatever the truth, Dr Allah Nazar’s message to the moderates is clear: “I’ll come after anybody who talks about Pakistan.” He recently owned the killing of Turbat’s Nazim Maula Bux Dasti saying that he was targeted because, one, he had sought military operation against the militants and two he was rewarded as the best Nazim in Pakistan. The second count was seen as a proof of his closeness towards the establishment. His word or message is seen as a death warrant in Mekran and even senior Baloch leaders like Senators Dr Maalick and Hasil Bizenjo are believed to be on his hit list. He is the only one among the Baloch separatist leaders who is fighting it out while living in the mountains. This fits into the popular imagination of the Baloch way of fighting and puts him one up on Khair Bux, Harbiar Marri and Brahmadagh who are operating from posh mansions in Karachi, London and Qandhar.

Allah Nazar got active in Baloch Student Organisation (BSO) politics while he was doing his medical degree at Bolan Medical College in Quetta. He was picked up by security agencies when the Musharraf regime decided to clamp down the protests provoked by the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti. According to published accounts, Dr Allah Nazar Baloch was kept in custody for six months. He was allegedly “stripped naked and hung from the ceiling for hours on end, deprived of sleep for many days and given anaesthesia injections.” His photograph that shows him brought out on a stretcher is haunting. He was in hospital for three days and could not stand for two months. The myth goes that the day Allah Nazar got up, he looked up in the sky and swore to fight against the state of Pakistan till he died. He is doing precisely the same since then.

Military sources acknowledge that Mushrraf went overboard in controlling the Baloch issues. But they also allege that Dr Allah Nazar too has an Indian connection. “We have proofs that he is in competition with Brahmadagh and Harbiar in taking money from the Indians,” claimed an intelligence source. “What makes the present Baloch conflict different from the earlier insurgencies is the Indian factor.”

The Pakistan Army is trained to fight India. Any linkage with India transforms them into an action mode, as in the movie ‘Terminator,’ where they see the militants as the infra-red “enemy” that they have to “terminate.” Perhaps somebody needs to add the ‘abort’ mode in the khaki robots which should differentiate between the ‘enemy’ and the local political elements gone awry because of wrong actions. While the security forces are capable of ‘overkill’ when it comes to the Indian link, Dr Allah Nazar’s terrorism is not winning him any admirers among the ideologically driven nationalists either. In fact, most nationalists think that his extreme actions devoid of any humanism and ideology are harming the Baloch cause. For that, see tomorrow’s newspaper.

PS: The Balochistan government has accused me of not listening to their side and not meeting who could give the official version. This is incorrect as I had sought meetings with the Chief Minister and his entire top brass in writing. Chief Minister Aslam Raisani’s was out of province, despite the crash floods, in the five days I was in Quetta. But I met all the relevant politicians and government officials including the provincial Chief Secretary. The new press secretary appointed after my reports should first check his facts before issuing such statements. I thank the CM’s invitation for a meeting and would like to avail the offer soon.

Time to mend fences in Turbat … (BALOCHISTAN – VII)
October 6, 2010

By Amir Mateen

Turbat—Baloch, they say, have a long memory. In any political discussion, they take a long perspective starting from the days when the Khan of Kalat was ‘coerced’ to accede to Pakistan, the betrayal of Nauroze Khan to the insurgencies of the 1960s and 1970s and, finally, the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

This discourse takes place on road-side cafes of Turbat where the Baloch nationalists, mostly young, share their numerous conspiracy theories, the cases of missing persons, the alleged brutalities of the state. It is here on the streets of Turbat, sitting on wicker charpoys and sipping tea from cracked crockery that the Baloch grand narrative shapes up. The cycle of current violence, it seemed, accelerated after the killing of three prominent Baloch Nationalists— Baloch National Movement (BNM) President Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Lala Munir, also of the BNM, and Sher Mohammad Baloch of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) in Turbat last year.
The three were picked up by unidentified armed men from the chamber of Advocate Kachkol Ali on April 3, 2009 and were found dead 40 miles outside Turbat six days later. The mystery of the killings remains unresolved.
The plot thickens as Ghulam Mohammad Baloch was also a member of the 10-member committee constituted by BLA’s Hyrbyar Marri to negotiate the release of UNHCR’s American official, John Solecki. Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) had owned the kidnapping of Solecki. Both Khair Bux Marri and Brahmadagh Bugti were involved in negotiations as the UNHCR approached them.
Solecki was released, reportedly after paying a ransom, a day after the three Baloch were abducted. Theories abound on this issue. While most people point fingers at the ‘agencies,’ a Baloch web site, Sardar Watch, blames Khair Bux Marri for the killings. Others say it was all about the ransom money. Still others say that the BLUF vanished after the incident and it is operating under the name of Dr Allah Nazar’s BLF now. “It is possible that Ghulam Baloch was deeply involved in some of the investigations regarding the missing and had uncovered something crucial,” a cousin of Ghulam Mohammad was quoted as saying in the press. “Maybe that is why he and his colleagues were killed.”

Whatever the truth, it threw the entire Mekran into a tailspin of violence. Mand, a town close to the Iran border, remains a no-go-area even to this day. Former Federal Mnister and now PML (Q) MNA, Zubeda Jalal, who hails from Mand, says that the conditions are so bad that she has not been to her home town in over two years now. She opened a model school in Mand but had to evacuate its 80 per cent settler staff to Karachi. “Most girls from my school now participate in demonstrations and are led by the widow of Ghulam Mohammad,” said Jalal.

A political vacuum exists as the popular parties of the area, Dr Malick’s National Party (NP) and Balochistan National Movement (BNM), are out because they boycotted the last elections. Those who got elected, reaping the windfall, hardly come to the area. Others who command local respect, Dr Maalick, Hasil Bizenjo and Manzoor Gichki, are scared of extremist threats. The border trade (read smuggling) with Iran, which is the main livelihood, has lessened because of tighter border controls. One sees lots of unemployed youth as Balochistan has the highest number of youth under 25 in Pakistan. Rival gangs of various factions of Balochistan Students Organisation (BSO) keep fighting on the streets of Turbat. This is a perfect ground for extremists to breed militancy.

One hardly sees any evidence of the government’s writ. The local administration is all about making money out of issuing permits (rahdaari) for the border trade. Almost 100 per cent vehicles in town, actually the whole division, are stolen or smuggled without any registration. Fuel is smuggled from Iran and there are lots of indoctrinated youth to ram them into easy targets, the most vulnerable being the three Frontier Corps pickets.

The city that was home to Punnu of the Sassi ballad fame, Turbat is a political and administrative mess. Only one police station in the 15 km radious of Turbat copes with the barrage of frequent target killings, rocket and grenade throwing. The regular police force in the strategically placed second biggest town of Balochistan consists of just 120 constables. The rest 400 plus levies force had not been paid any salary. Reason: The issue over the bifurcation of the police and levies has bequeathed total confusion among the administration and nobody knows who is under whom. The settlers among the police have all gone on long leave, perhaps forever, after eight of them were ambushed in a year. If this was not enough, half of this limited police force is deputed on protocol and security of politicians and the city Wajas as these local elders like to be addressed.

Local politicians are scared to visit the area, the provincial government apathetic and the establishment in Islamabad too far away and unconcerned over the consequences of ignoring this strategic intellectual and political hub of Balochistan. “Actually, the time may be ripe for making a beginning as the people are dismayed by the recent killings of the cream of moderate politicians,” said a local politician on the condition of anonymity. “The moderates need to be protected so that they come out in the open to resist the extremists.”

Signs of strong reaction against the killings of Kech Nazim Maula Bux Dasti and others are obvious. BNM stands divided on the issue as its acting President Asa Zafar has resigned. NP President Dr Maalick and Hasil Bizenjo have also taken a strong stand against the inhuman acts.

“We always had an moral basis of our cause which was supported by intellectuals from all over, including Lahore and Karachi,” said Dr Maalick. “Nobody can justify the inhuman target killings of not just the Baloch intellectuals but also the settlers.”

Most nationalists argue that the extreme terrorism has damaged the high moral ground that the Baloch nationalists always carried. Others favour a more peaceful resolution of the problem. “We have been down the path of violence many times earlier causing the loss of many generations of Baloch youth,” said analyst Ghazanfar Baloch. “The state is much more powerful and our leadership much less united and capable. In this day and age, new countries are out of fashion.”

The argument goes that the LTTE in Sri Kanka was much more organized and powerful and yet it collapsed in the end. “I think there is a change in the air for a better realization for our objectives but our leadership does not have the capacity to reap it,” argued PPP’s Rahim Zafar.

Another feature of Baloch in Pakistan is that because of their secular nature they do not join hands with, say, Taliban. This is different from the Baloch nationalism in Iran which is based on Sunni resistance against the Shia domination. Interestingly, both of them share an element of the American backing. “The Jundullah in Iran has obvious pat from the Americans but Brahmadagh Bugti could also not have operated from Afghanistan without the consent of the yanks,” said PML (N)’s Anwaar Kakar. “Much higher stakes are being played by multiple international forces in Balochistan.”

The youth at Turbat’s road-side cafes have a fairly good understanding of such factors. The question is whether Islamabad is cognizant about the situation in this far outpost of Turbat.

(The News – )

Agoniizing contrast of Gwadar dream … (BALOCHISTAN – VIII)
October 6, 2010

By Amir Mateen

Gwadar—The contrast between the dream that Gwadar was promised to be and what it has become today is, to say the least, agonizing.

The dream was that the sight of Gwadar’s emerald green waters would make us shake our shoes off to stroll on its white sands. It was supposed to fulfill our longing for the beeches of Bahamas, the skyscrapers of Shanghai and the lifestyle of Dubai.

It was meant to be a strategic deep water port that would snatch away trans-shipping business from regional giants like Dubai and Muscat; outsmart Iran’s upcoming Chahbahar port in unlocking the gateway to the central Asian markets and in turn transport their oil and gas to the ‘warm waters’ of the Persian Gulf. It was designed to be a tax-free trade and industrial hub that would link China’s western regions to the outside world through the ancient silk route.

The reality of Gwadar was dreamt in different ways. Locals resented that they were being marginalized as “red Indians” in their ancestral lands but secretly hoped that this might one day bring more jobs and development to their impoverished region. Many thought Gwadar’s proposed international airport and a network of railway and roads linking to national and Turko-Iranian highways might fetch their perch, bass, trout, snapper, tiger prawns, sardines, swordfish, and skates to world markets.

Businessman saw it as a shorter route than Karachi for imports and exports; others eyed its proposed industrial zones as a prized grab; and still others planned refineries, energy plants, fertilizer factories, to name a few, close to this upcoming international trade hub.

Gwadar fit well into the military strategy. The Navy saw it as an alternate port to stall any Indian blockade of Karachi in a possible future encounter. The air force was hoping to expand the Pasni air base nearby. The generals under Musharraf found another chance to announce more defence housing schemes to share the bounties of political power with the army. Other khakis ganged up with wheeler dealers in Dubai, estate brokers in Karachi, bureaucrats and politicians in Lahore and Islamabad to make mega bucks in one of the biggest land scams in the country’s history. Scoundrels from places as far as Landon, New York and Singapore rushed in to stake a claim in the grand booty.

A deliberate hype was weaved around Gwadar as the dream city where ordinary Pakistanis could have a feel of the ‘abroad’ without having to put up with sniff dogs and long immigration lines. A poster in Gwadar showed a couple holding hands while resting in hammocks before a thatched-roof hut with rainbow colours of the sea in background. As is so typical of the middle class, such images set millions of common Pakistanis to invest billions of rupees to grab “that hut on the beach.”

Sadly, Gwaadar is now revulsion of the dream. It’s a ghost town with half-constructed mega structures like hospitals, schools, skeletons of government buildings haunting the landscape. Thousands of electricity poles lie abandoned as are half-finished roads, sewage pipes and landmarks in the suburbs. The town of some 80000-people presents a scene from a medieval Oman, of which Gwadar was a part until 1958 when Pakistan bought it back from the Sultanate. Not much has changed as locals still use the old ways of Arabia in fishing and boat-making. Its T-shaped peninsula is set between white ash cliffs and sea the colour of emeralds from three sides. But the populace, immersed in the glaring poverty, seems divorced from the natural beauty surrounding them.

Half of Gwadar is a shanty town with its noisy bazaars crammed with shabbily dressed largely Baloch and Brahui inhabitants. It is every bit a window of Balochistan’s reality—the locals surviving on a bare minimum amidst this grand agenda of the ‘new great game.’

Behind the façade of government buildings on its coast lay Gwadar’s slums, its pot holed roads, sewage water spewing out all around. The stink mixed with the smell of fish, piles of filth, open tiolets and the sweat of workmen is a recipe for dizziness. But locals remain undeterred, sipping tea under the shade of bamboo in broken-backed jute chairs. Perhaps musing over the more difficult times ahead.

Gwadar port remains virtually inoperative except when a government-subsidized ship brings fertilizer or wheat. The government suffers a loss for every ship that is unloaded in Gwadar and then brought to Karachi. Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), which was given the lease of the port for 40 years, has not been able to bring a commercial private ship in over three years. The PSA blames the Pakistan government for not providing the infrastructure that was required for the port development. The network of roads and railways that was to connect Gwadar with the National highways and on to China and Afghanistan remains shelved; the tax-free industial zones have not been formed; even the coastal highway to Karachi has become less secure. In turn, Islamabad blames the PSA for not investing the money it had promised. The deal is close to be cancelled as the government is mulling over giving the port to the Chinese as was originally planned. It may not be as easy it seems as the security situation has deteriorated sharply in the area.

Targeted killings are on the rise. More then 12 persons have been killed in the last ten months. Most Punjabis and settlers, who monopolized skilled labour, have left Gwadar. A serious shortage of car mechanics, electricians, plumbers exists in town. But some skills, barbers for instance, are more essential than others. “Most barbers were Punjabis who have left,” said PPP’s Rahim Zafar. “It may seem like a small problem but it’s not when you don’t have a hair cut in months.”

More seriously, tourists, investors and foreigners that are essential for running a modern port are scared of visiting Gwadar. Prices of land have come down to a quarter of their original. The only five-star hotel, which is perhaps the best in Pakistan, was recently attacked by a rocket. The management is fighting a lost war by keeping an almost vacant hotel afloat.

Worse, the town is swarmed by unemployed, disillusioned youth. Hostels in Mekran are known to give refuge to the ‘miscreants.’ The local youth is poor, angry and bitter—a combination that comes handy to the Baloch separatists and their sponsors backed by a plethora of foreign players who have a stake in Gwadar’s rise and fall. The key to the materialization of Gwadar’s majestic agenda lies with these ‘angry young men.’ Without them the grand pipelines passing through Mekran will remain pipedreams.

(The News – )