Jihadi soldiers torture, kill secular Baluchistan activist

Body of Rasul Bakhsh Mengal, with torture marks. Picture courtesy Baloch Sarmachar

Rasul Bakhsh Mengal speaking at a rally. Picture courtesy Baloch Sarmachar

BELA [PAKISTAN OCCUPIED BALUCHISTAN]: The body of yet another Baluchistan liberation activist, Rasool Bakhsh Mengal, was found hanging from a tree here, with severe torture marks.

Mengal was abducted by the Frontier Constabulary on August 23 in front of dozens of eyewitnesses in Uthal. His body had cut wounds that read "Down with B.L.A. [Baluch Liberation Army]" and "Down with BNM [Baluch National Movement]."

Mengal was the joint secretary of the Baluch National Movement, whose founder Ghulam Mohammed Baluch, along with Lala Munir Baluch and Sher Mohammed Baluch, was abducted and killed by the Pakistani intelligence services in a similar fashion in April this year.

Asa Zafar Baluch of the Baluch National Front announced a three-day shutter down strike all over Baluchistan, which Baluch nationalists call occupied territories, to protest Mengal's slaying.

Mengal's body was found 40 kilometers away from the site of his abduction, near the Qalandari Hotel in Lasbela. The state security officials had hung his identity card around his neck, according to BNM.

The BNF said Mengal gave his life for the liberation of Baluchistan and his killing would not stop Baluch patriots to continue to sacrifice their lives for achieving the cherished goal of national liberation.

The BNF said the killing of Mengal was not unexpected as the Baluch fear the worst form of bestiality from the state forces of Pakistan.

Resource-rich Baluchistan is the energy house of Pakistan and baluch nationalists who advocate liberation insist the Baluch must be mentally prepared to sacrifice as many as 1.5 million lives-- or 10 percent of their global population – if they want their homeland to emerge as an independent entity on the world map.

The BNM condemned some federalist elements who were asking the Baluch to remain peaceful in the face of the gruesome killing and decribed the call as treachery with the blood of the assassinated leader.

The BNM called for a well-organized, well-coordinated and calculated response to the latest state atrocity by the occupation forces of Pakistan against the people of Baluchistan. They said in stead of observing a black day, the Baluch should observe a 'red day' promising to make the blood of martyrs fuel for accelerating the liberation struggle.

Promising retaliatory measure, they said officers of Pakistani occupation force were stationed in Bela.

They said the latest slaying in continuation of the assassination of other Baluch leaders shows Punjabi officials have decided to annihilate the entire leadership of the BNM. But the BNM said such scare tactics against Baluch freedom fighters were bound to fail miserably as state atrocities can not stop the caravan of national liberation.

Mengal was a successful banker but left his day job to organize the Baluch freedom movement.

"The spirit of freedom fighters find peace in torture marks," the BNM said. "The more brutal tactics Pakistan uses, the stronger shall our movement become."

Mengal was one of the founding members of the BNM that had reached the conclusion that parliamentary politics within the present boundaries of Pakistan would serve little purpose towards Baluch emancipation.

In response to the Pakistani occuaption atrocities, Baluch resistance forces including the BLA and BRA [Baluch Republican Army], have adopted a hit and run policy.

Soft-spoken Mengal was described by his party-men as a man of steel will who remained faithful to the philosophy of Baluch liberation to his last breath.

The slain leader had once trekked all the way from Khuzdar to Karachi, hundreds of miles, to partake in a peaceful strike for recovery of abducted Baluch leader, Dr. Allah Nazar Baluch.

In a statement, the DC-based American Friends of Baluchistan urged the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to condemn the Pakistani occupation forces for their extra judicial killing of Baluch political activists.

The Pakistani news agency PPI reported the slaying sparked violence in Khuzdar and Mashkay.

Angry people rushed to the roads in Mashkay and set Pakistan government offices and four vehicles on fire. Workers of nationalist parties took to streets and forced shops to close. Heavy contingents of security forces started patrolling of roads to avert any unpleasant incident.

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