True face of Balochistan Liberation Army
Khalid Khokhar

WITH the death of the operational leader Mir Balach Marri on November 20, 2007, the command and structure of the shadowy organization, Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), has suffered a severe blow - exposing all its hidden activities and funding. The organization was involved in sabotage activities inside Pakistan killing innocent civilians and attacking Government strategic installations. Balach Marri, 44, has been operating in Kohlu for the last few years. He sought refuge in Afghanistan following the crackdown in the Marri and Bugti areas after the rocket attack on President Musharraf while visiting Kohlu on 14 December 2005. Balach Marri’s killing is shrouded in mystery and versions abound as to how he actually died. In a report, Balach was travelling in a convoy of vehicles in Afghan province of Helmund which came under air attack of NATO forces suspecting his convoy of Taliban. One account being advanced by intelligence intercept reports is that Balach died in Afghanistan as a result of infighting within the ranks of the Baloch militant movement. During a meeting with Afghan high ranking officials and RAAM (Afghan intelligence) both Brahamdgah Bugti and Balach Marri entered into a scuffle, resulting in the killing of Balach and five other loyalists. According to another, he died of a heart attack in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on November 20, 2007. Another report claimed that Balach Marri was killed in Pak-Afghan border near Naushki district in an attack by Pakistani security forces. However, in the absence of any post of security forces in the surrounding areas of Nushki, this version appears to have bugs in it and is misconstrued. But, one thing is very clear that Balach Marri has died on the Afghanistan soil.
Both Brahamdgah and Balach were on “red warrant” and wanted by Interpol. Even then, the Afghan Government gave them the status of refugee and granted perks and privileges. They have been living along with their families like state guests. They established training camps to train people in the art of guerilla warfare. Despite of giving solid proof of their existence by intelligence agencies, the Karzai Government has always denied their presence in Afghanistan. According to authentic intelligence reports, Brahamdgah and Balach have been vastly travelling to India and Middle East on Afghani passport and ID card with faked names. There was sufficient proof that they were in the province of Helmand on November 20, 2007.
Let us see the genesis of Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). Its name came up in the 1980’s as a pro-Moscow underground militant organization committed to the establishment of an independent “Greater Balochistan” state comprising all Baloch lands in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. A few dozen of students of the Baloch Student Organization (BSO) carried out terror actions under the BLA banner, during 1980’s. BLA was the brainchild of KGB. The first training camp had some 30 youth and initial classes comprised mainly of indoctrination lectures followed by small arms and sabotage training. The number of camps increased to some 45 to 55 training camps, with each camp accommodating from 300 to 550 militants. In a research study carried out by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), the BLA has carried out 403 terror attacks in Balochistan during the year 2006 alone, killing 277 innocent citizens and injuring 676 others. During the first six months of 2007, there have been 58 bomb blasts, 82 rocket attacks, 31 attacks on gas pipelines, 14 attacks on railways tracks, and 11 on electricity transmissions. Convinced about its involvement in the widespread acts of terror and sabotage, the government banned BLA since April, 2006 and the bank accounts of 42 suspected have been frozen. Due to targeted action against the miscreants, almost all of the farad camps in the province were dismantled and most of the rebel tribesmen of Bugti, Marri and Mengal tribes surrendered with their arms.
Balach Marri, the son of Baloch Marxist leader Nawab Khair Baksh Marri was the third among six brothers. He was born in Quetta and got his schooling from St Francis School. He later went to Kabul along with his family in 1980s and then Moscow to get his Masters degree in Electronic Engineering. According to official sources, Marri was supposedly a major moving force behind the Baloch Liberation Army, and was held responsible for a number of attacks on Sui Gas pipelines. Balach Marri had more than 80 murder case on him and was a proclaimed absconder. On December 17, 2005, the security forces launched a well-calculated operation and succeeded in countering the evil designs of terrorists. The Security Forces (SF) achieved major success when a few commanders of BLA were arrested in April 2006. The apprehended BLA commanders revealed the details of the routes which were being used to smuggle sophisticated arms into Balochistan particularly to Dera Bugti from India and Afghanistan. Some reports indicate that miscreants get weapons from India’s secret service RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) as the weapons recovered from allegedly involved criminals in deadly bomb explosions in different cities across the country were of Indian make and design. Reliable sources have revealed that these explosive were brought in by India under the garb of building of a road by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) into Afghanistan through Iran. The explosive being the same which are being ostensibly brought in for road construction (Zaranj-Dilaram, Farah Province Afghanistan), but being used for terrorist/sabotage acts against Pakistan.
The Great Balochistan National Conference (GBNC) based in Europe has been the sole factor in financing the supply of arms and ammunition to the local groups. Baloch “diaspora” in Europe is playing a negative role in the Baloch uprising. GBNC has its headquarters in Oslo with Secretary General Ehsan Arjumandi Baloch pf Pakistani origin. There is another organization in United States by the name of the American Friends of Balochistan (AFB) which is generating funds for the rebel tribesmen by highlighting the so-called miseries of Balochis. The organization is headed by Bob Selle, contributing Editor of the World & I, a publication of the Washington Times Corporation. Another platform is World Sindhi Congress (WSC) based in UK, USA and Canada, responsible for airing the venomous propaganda against Pakistan. The UK/EU Organizer of World Sindhi Congress (WSC) Ms. Suraiya Makhdoom, is very active in seeking financial support from the UK-based Balochs and Sindhis. Apart from this, a mushroom of websites advocating the so-called Balochi cause has cropped-up during a very short span of period. The owners of some websites having vested interests are fanning anti-Pakistan sentiments amongst the international opinion builders.
In the past, BLA had owned up to attacks on infrastructure such as gas pipelines and power pylons as well as bombings where innocent civilians have been the victims. Nobody can condone such acts or find them justifiable. The acts of violence and terrorism are reprehensible and must be denounced as it causes human misery. Due to the death of Balach Marri, a leadership gap in the BLA would disintegrate the organization. Therefore, it is ripe time that the rebel tribesmen should disarm themselves as a first pre-condition before a meaningful dialogue process takes place. It is incumbent on the local tribal leaders to join hands with the Government to develop a working partnership to lessen the suffering of the Baloch people, who have been the prey of negligence for a long time. The Government, in its turn, must take measures to dispel the feelings of alienation of the Baloch, bring the nationalists into mainstream politics, create local stakeholders in the province’s development, and to assuage their overall grievances.



Peace through reconstruction & not destruction
Shamsa Ashfaq


THE fact is that despite a strong NATO-led coalition force (40,000 troops), situation of law and order in Afghanistan has turned worse from bad. According to an accumulated estimate mentioned in a United Nations report, till 31st October 2007, more than 7000 people have been killed in Afghanistan with 5200 died only as a result of fighting between coalition forces and Taliban. Addressing members of the UN Security Council in New York, the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs reported that the incidents of violence were augmented by about 30 percent during year 2007 as compared to the previous year.
The UN has documented 606 roadside bombings and 133 suicide attacks this year, a 50 percent increase to the 88 suicide attacks recorded during the same time last year. Worse yet is the significant increase in civilian casualties, as at least 1,200 civilians have died in violent incidents ever since the beginning of year 2007. Despite the media attention given to suicide attacks, the largest threat to civilians remains the ongoing battle between Taliban and Afghan government and its allies. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission’s (AII-IRC) report for September 2007 states, “More than 155 Afghan civilians died in ground military operations, aerial strikes and suicide attacks by Taliban insurgents, US, NATO and Afghan Government forces in September alone. At least 80 civilians lost their lives in suicide attacks and over 75 others were killed in military operations and aerial strikes”. The Commission has yet to verify the gender, age and other details of the civilian fatalities.
Dozens of civilians were found wounded and many others have been displaced as a result of insurgency-related ferocity. Though Afghanistan is in a continuous state of turmoil but the suicide attacks were all but unknown in Afghanistan until 2002, have soared in the last two years. Since January 2007, over 103 suicide attacks have been recorded until September this year as compared to 100 in the whole of 2006. Noncombatants make up to 80 percent of suicide attack victims, found the UN study, ‘Suicide Attacks in Afghanistan (2001-2007)’. The grim scenario of the situation of law and order in Afghanistan clearly reflects that reliance on military approach alone will bear no results in improving security situation there. The US and NATO, needs to understand the vulnerability of the situation in Afghanistan. Rising graph of civilian causalities is back firing. Public discontent against foreign forces is growing and insurgency is gaining strength day by day. Escalating insecurity has badly hampered development in much of Afghanistan. Economic growth mostly remains limited to urban areas, and in particular; Kabul. Human rights’ abuses, poverty and insecurity increased markedly away from city centres. Noticeably dreadful matter is that more than 5 million people are facing dire food shortage and access to clean drinking water.
The US’ imposed war on Afghanistan has rendered thousands of Afghan people homeless while innumerable schools and other infrastructure is destroyed. Due to corrupt administration, the foreign aid and assistance arrive in Afghanistan, in the name of reconstruction and welfare of poor masses, either doesn’t reach people at all or found inadequate to improve their state. Women and girls continue to suffer from indiscrimination “and restrictions. Violence against women and girls remains rampant, including domestic as well as sexual violence and forced marriages. Some are placed in custody to prevent violent retaliations from family members. To top it, opium production has soared to record high levels. Afghanistan is now producing 90 percent of world’s total heroine. According to US estimates, narcotics production and trafficking has brought approximately $ 5 billion to the Afghan economy and has become a significant source of criminality and resistance to the rule of law.
The US and NATO forces urgently need to redo their basic plan of action to fight Taliban insurgents in order to avoid collateral damage. However, instead of planning any effective” collective strategy with Allies particularly Pakistan.; US’ front line ally in the global war on terror - US and NATO started blaming Pakistan for cross-border infiltration, harbouring AI-Qaeda’s top leadership and supporting & arming of Taliban. Nevertheless, killing of senior commanders of AI-Qaeda Mullah Dadullah with his brother Mullah Fazal and Mullah Akhter Usmani in Afghanistan during NATO air strikes negated all such clumsy allegations. As this year graph of civilian causalities has drastically increased, criticism and anti-US and NATO sentiments among Afghan population have doubled. People demonstrated and raised protests for killings of innocent civilians by foreign troops and even demanded Karzai and its administration to resign if the ineffective government cannot safeguard rights aid lives of its people against foreign aggressors. Public discontentment paved the way for Talihan to stage a strong come back by sympathizing impoverished masses of Afghanistan and launch attacks against US and coalition forces. Now the US and NATO forces are facing heavy causalities due to their inefficiency and wrong policies. Instead of realizing their own weaknesses and real causes of their failure in restoring peace and stability in Afghanistan again they have started mud-slinging at Pakistan. The long-dead and buried issue like Pashtunistan has been taken out of grave. The reason for the impatience and restlessness of the Pashtuns living on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border is not Pashtunistan but the gross injustices and mal treatment of Pashtun population in the garb of anti- Taliban/anti-terrorist operations by US.




Just click to get published!
Victor Keegan

IF THE invention of the printing press liberated books from the monopoly of the monasteries in the 15th century, then self-publishing is freeing us today from the power of publishers. Only a tiny proportion of books written ever gets into the public domain because publishers are not prepared to take the risk. This is understandable to the extent that few books make money. However, things are changing thanks to a new generation of online publishers, such as Lulu.com, which enable you to publish a 100 page book complete with colour cover for as little as $7.20 — as long as you get everything right the first time (which seldom happens in practice).
The revolution is now spreading fast to full colour books as new companies spring up offering high-quality colour reproduction in hardback or paperback for affordable prices. According to a report from Understanding & Solutions, the Western European market for photobooks has exploded from under 250,000 in 2005 to nearly 7m by the end of this year and an estimated 18m by 2010. At one end of the scale a professional photographer wanting to publish a 350-page hardcover coffee table book of their work in ‘landscape’ format measuring 13x11 inches can do so for around $160 a copy. But it is at the lower end of the market where the really interesting things are happening. A new genre of photobooks has sprung up which, apart from anything else, offers a fresh opportunity for unusual Christmas presents.
One of the most interesting recent arrivals is blurb.com, founded by Eileen Gittins — an entrepreneurial amateur photographer from San Francisco — barely a year ago. I have tried it in recent months and found it easy to use, except on one occasion when something happened and it kept crashing. If you use one of the standard formats and keep to the default layouts you can publish a book remarkably quickly. After downloading the software you can easily upload photos either from your desktop or from photo-hosting sites or blogs on the web. You write the title and author on the cover before dragging a photo you would like for the front. After choosing formats for the rest of the book (eg, colours and how many photos per page) you are ready to drag photos into the slots provided from your computer or let Blurb extract them automatically from iPhoto, Flickr or Picasa web albums.
Lulu also offers an improved service including a one-click option to alter the layout of the page from, say, one to four photos. Both have recently opened European printing presses that have reduced the previously prohibitively high cost of postage. An 80-page 7x7in full- colour book from Blurb works out at a basic $16.95 plus Euro 5.75 postage from Switzerland. If you want to sell it for more you keep all the profits.

—Khaleej Times