Bangladeshi traitors? Because they didn’t want to be ruled from West Pakistan?

in east Pakistan the military launched an operation on the democratically elected majority party. Whats going on in the frontier has more to do with the tribal areas spill over an area again that has been used as a base for Afghan policy by the GOP.

The Bangladeshi traitors faced it in the 70’s when they broke away…

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I assume he is quite happy that China invaded Tibet, reclaiming it’s ‘historical’ territory?

He hasn’t really justified what Peter Tachell claims in the first few paragraphs of this link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/01/pakistansneocolonialrule

Except by claiming that Pakistan is entitled, by force majeure apparently, to do what the heck it likes. Perhaps he’d like to try justifying it a bit better than that.

The so called “Bangladeshi traitors” then would include the only part of British India to get (and take) a vote for joining Pakistan in 1947 (Syhlet which voted to detach itself from Assam) – of course within 25 years West Pakistanti military misrule exacerabted inherent weaknesses in the state making ethnically autonomous federalism a far more attractive option in the 1970 elections.

Had Bhutto not conspired with Kissinger to support Yayha Khan’s “military operations” – a million dead Bengalis and 10m refugees in the space of 6 months, swiftly coupled with military defeat and (the then) over half the population of the country leaving, Platinum might have had a bit more Pakistan to be patriotic about. But to use the term traitors in the context of a brutal military crackdown (which made autonomy within a federation no longer viable)shows that Platinum786 has learned nothing from the 1971 Bangladesh war.

It’s a pity that the post independence Mujib government in 1972 was not strong enough internationally to insist on war crimes trials for the Pakistani generals (and for that matter Bhutto and Kissinger.) Would not only have been good for the world’s concsicence but have been better for the people of Pakistan as well by putting butchers in their place.

First and foremost Balouchistan is a province not a country, it never has been and never will be.

Secondly, any treaty made with the british government is not valid anyway. We don’t care what invading foreigners had to say, or what their lackies who signed agreements had to say. Balouchistan province, as well as Kalat suceeded to Pakistan and was ratified again in 1955 after the end of the Baluchistan States Union. Are you going to mention our occupation of gwadar next, which in the past was a Sultunate of Oman?

Thirdly Balouchistan faced the same operations anyone else has done. Military operations have been launched where police action is deemed to have been inadequete to restore control and order. The BLA faced such action in the 60′s, so did those in NWFP who wanted a Pukhtun states. The Bangladeshi traitors faced it in the 70′s when they broke away, the MQM faced it in the 80′s when it was turning Karachi into a warzone. Today we see operations across NWFP againt Taliban militants many of whom are of Puktun origin. You fight the state, the state will crush you.

Zak, any sufferings the Balouch face is not due to Pukhtuns, Sindhi’s, Punjabi’s or Kashmiri’s. It’s of their own making. They’re the ones who choose to vote in and live under tribal chiefs such as Bugti. That is the same reason Rural Punjab and Sindh is full of people living as slaves to landlords. They vote in the same people into parliament. Do you expect these tribals or fuedals to legislate themselves out of their own fiefdoms? Today Pukhtuns suffer the most due to terrorism, their own doing, they were the ones who turned a blind eye to militant Islam, they were the ones who voted in the MMA, the religious parties who turned a blind eye at government level on militancy. Today the people suffer as a result.

After the partition of India and the creation of the religious State of Pakistan, the newly-independent democratic and secular Baloch State came under tremendous pressure both from Pakistan and the colonial authorities in India for a merger of the Kalat with Pakistan. However, both Houses of Parliament of Kalat unanimously voted not to join Pakistan and resolved to retain its independence.

Ultimately, when the Pakistani government could not persuade the Baloch leaders to give up their independence and join Pakistan, the Pakistan army invaded the Kalat State to get the merger statement from the Khan of Kalat at gun point. He was forced, on pain of death, to sign the accession document.

Becoming part of Pakistan was never voted on or agreed by the people of Balochistan. That is why Balochistan has been under military occupation ever since the Pakistani invasion in 1948. If the Baloch people are happy being part of Pakistan, why is the whole country being held under military siege?

you are right about Kalat ..the rest of the province was classed as the Chief Commissioners Province of Baluchistan. I believe the Shahi jirga which acceded to pakistan did so on a split vote .. one of the key pro pak votes being a certain Akbar Bugti.

While I agree there has been relative deprivation in other provinces, target killing and discrimination but it can’t compare with the severity of whats happened to the Baloch..no province has experienced 4 successive military operations and none of them experience the level of deprivation in human development terms that the Baloch have..they have not been integrated in anyway into the Pakistani mainstream. They have virtually no representation in the military establishment, no presence in the media (there is a large media blackout of much of the province), no major business groups have a baloch presence and the only Baloch prime minister was a powerless military stooge. With the provinces own Chief Minister (from the ruling party no less and a former opponent of the nationalists) openly saying he is virtually powerless and the province is in the hands of the paramilitary and Army..the discontent is understandabale.

Also the use of US military equipment in Balochistan is not new it was done in the 1970′s as well…

I agree that Balouchistan has been mistreated by the “federation” but no less than AJK or Sindh or NWFP or Punjab. Everyone has their issues with the federation because Pakistan as a state, whether you look at it from a provincial or a federal level, has FAILED it’s citizens. Do Kashmiri’s living on the edge of Mangla dam, people who’s homes were washed over to build the dam, do they not have the same right to be agrieved at the lack of electricity they have, as say a Balouch sitting in the cold under Pakistan’s biggest reserve of national gas?

This article is making something out of nothing. Targetted political killings and Karachi, ring a bell? It’s been the way of “democartic” Karachi since the Zia era, whether it’s criminal gangs, or political parties (MQM Vs PPP, MQM Vs ANP) etc. We’ve also seen PPP, MQM and ANP members killed in Karachi, yet we hear nobody talking about Sindhi’s taking it as a ethnic thing or pukhtuns or anyone else.

The article seems though to be confusing target killings with massacres..there has been widespread intimidation by the Pak paramilitary forces and the target killings of many Baloch nationalists seems to be an attempt to scuttle any peaceful compromise.

We must all do what we can to stand by the Mengals and Bugtis!

If the relationship is that of Wales to England, are the Mengal and Bugtis burning down holiday cottages and defacing roadsigns?

The first place it went wrong was claiming that Balouchistan was annexed. Balouchistan is a part of the Pakistani federation, it was and has been since partition, there has never been a dispute about it, until these Balouch tribals such as the Mengals and Bugti’s decided to start holding the rest of the country to hostage using it’s gas reserves.

The use of the term Balouch Citizens would suggest that Balouchistan is some opressed territory such as Kashmir or Palestine or Tibet, whereas in fact it’s more like Wales is to Britain.

I think someone talked to a balouch seperatist and decided to write an article. Well done on flushing your journalistic credentials down the pan mate.