Baluch killings; Sen. McCain's help sought for independent Baluchistan

As the situation in Pakistan-occupied Baluchistan worsened and the pro-Jihad Frontier Corp fired upon Baluch girls and women, the DC-based American Friends of Baluchistan has urged Senator John McCain to step up to the plate and become an advocate for an independent Baluchistan.

U.S. vice president Joe Biden, who had long been an ardent advocate of bakanization of unnatural states created by the wrong policies of the British, including Pakistan, but appears to have become totally Press shy after assuming the vice presidency.

Copies of the A.F.B. letter were sent out to Baluch national heroes Nawabzada Hyrbyair Marri and Sardar Brahamdagh Bugti; De Jure Ruler of Baluchistan, Khan of Kalat Suleman Daud; former Chief Minister of Baluchistan, Sardar Akhtar Mengal; Her Excellency Anne W. Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan; His Excellency S.T. Jawad, Afghanistan Ambassador to the U.S.; his Excellency M. Humayun Kabir, Bangladesh Ambassador to the U.S

The text of the letter reads:

"Texas-sized Baluchistan was divided into three due to the wrong policies of the British rulers and like Kurdistan further to the West, the Baluchistan question has remained unresolved to this day. Baluchistan was not a part of Pakistan when the British exited India in August 1947. It was forcibly merged at the point of gun on March 27, 1948.

In recent days, the situation in Pakistan-occupied Baluchistan has gone from bad to worse as the pro-Jihad Frontier Corp has begun firing upon women and girls, leaving many of them injured. You may understand women and girls, being the most vulnerable, are not supposed to be touched even in times of war.

These brutal and inhuman tactics were used by the Pakistan army in the erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Dhaka is demanding an unconditional apology from Islamabad for its war crimes of 1971 – killing of three million Bengalis and raping of 200,000 of their women -- , to no avail.

Baluchistan, as you know, means the land of the Baluch and Pakistan army and Frontier Corp must respect this fact and give a timetable for their pullout from the restive, occupied territory.

The Baluch are fighting their fifth war of independence, erroneously called an insurgency, against Pakistan to regain their lost statehood. Largely in the interests of major arms manufacturing companies and the bloated bureaucracies in federal services, the U.S. has traditionally sided with the Pakistan army and lionized the army generals in Pakistan, including coup plotters like General Pervez Musharraf, to the detriment of the civil society.

This fallacy must stop at the Capitol Hill if the U.S. has to re-assert its moral authority in the world.

Thousands of Baluch have been killed in the desire for freedom and independence of their homeland at the hands of the Pakistani occupation army since March 1948. Every day a Baluch is killed or disappeared: Pakistani secret services extra judicially abduct Baluch independence activists and torture them Nazi-style in military dungeons.

More than 2,000 Baluch are missing and as many as 100 activists have disappeared – extra judicially abducted by the Military Intelligence and infamous Inter Services Intelligence since the return of the civilian rule under President Asif Ali Zardari.

Death is stalking entire the length and breadth of Baluchistan.

In the last eight days alone, several women were injured in Frontier Corp firing in the town of Tump; the body of a Baluch activist Rasool Bakhsh Mengal, who was abducted by the Frontier Corp on August 23, was found hanging from a tree on August 31 in Lasbela; a young activist Mirjan Meeral Baluch was killed by Frontier Corp firing on September 3; a student Mushtaq Baluch was killed and 27 others , including women and children, injured when the Frontier Corp opened indiscriminate firing at a peaceful public rally at the Tump High School in Mekran on September 6, 2009.

The latest killings come in the backdrop of heightened cooperation between Pakistani and Iranian security forces against the Baluch freedom activists. On August 22, 2009 Iranian forces lobbed rockets on Baluchistan killing a Baluch women and her child; Pakistan did not even protest the killings.

Intriguingly, the U.S. too has remained a silent spectator.

In this backdrop, we urge you to become a voice for the people of Baluchistan at the Capitol Hill and in this great country at large.

Honorable Senator McCain, since you are a scholar in your own right who has himself endured torture, we urge you to come to the rescue of the thousands of Baluch victims of torture at the hands of the infamous Inter Services Intelligence and the Military Intelligence.

The Baluch believe these daily killings and atrocities can come to an end once the Pakistan army and Frontier Corp pulls out from their motherland and are replaced by an international peacekeeping force.

The United States also must ensure none of the weapons it provides to Pakistan military are used against the secular people of Baluchistan.

We also urge you to please prevail upon the present U.S. administration to establish direct contacts with the Baluch leadership, including Baluch national heroes and resistance leaders Nawabzada Hyrbyair Marri and Sardar Brahamdagh Bugti; the De Jure Ruler of Baluchistan, the Khan of Kalat Suleman Daud; and former Baluchistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

You may please note Pakistani leaders, either civilian or military, do not enjoy any mandate to represent the Baluch people.

We request you to personally establish contacts with the Baluch leadership ASAP to help them in their just struggle for statehood. Such a step, I am sure, will help serve the longterm U.S. interests and the interests of world peace.

We urge you to do the right thing and raise the issue of Baluchistan's liberation with your colleagues in the U.S. Congress, U.S. think-tanks, intellectuals and the media."

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