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Balochistan Review issue: 03

Weekly Review: 18th May to 24th May

Sunday 18th Monday 19th

Wednesday 21st

Tuesday 20th Thursday 21st

Tuesday 20th

QUeTTa: a dead body found from Kochlak, identified by the name of Muhmmad ameen.

SoUTh KoRea: Protest held against the abduction of BSo-azad leader Zahid Baloch and showed solidarity with Lateef Johar in Susan City of South Korea.

Canada: a protest held in Toronto City against the abduction of BSo-azad leader and other missing Baloch and showed solidarity with Comrade Lateef Johar who is on hunger strike unto death. Protest was organized by Baloch human rights council, Baloch community organization and World Sindhi Congress.

QUeTTa: one tortured body found, shifted to hospital but still couldnt identified. Body is burned after torture.

PanJGUR: Shutter down strike observed against the threats to schools for stop girls education. and a rally was also held which protest front of district coordinator office.

MaShKaY: Master Baba killed by firing of unknown man at nokjo Shadanzi.

KaRaChi: 2 dead bodies were found from Gul'Bahar. Shifted to hospital still couldnt identified.

KeCh: hussan Baloch killed by security forces in hushab. Mand : Mohd hanif S/o Mohd Sharif who is resident of Gayab Mand missing since 11th May 2014. his family claimed he is abducted by security forces.

aWaRan: Search operation continued by security forces in dandar in which torture many woman and children, looted many things. Said by local people.

MaShKeL: one man injured by firing of unknown people and they abduct one person named Ustad Baari.

KeCh: Shotter down strike observed on call of Baloch Republican Student organization against the killing of hassin. hassin was killed by security forces 2 days ago.

KaLaT: Transporter Safar Khan killed by firing of unknown man. Since this once Safar Khan was abducted by security forces and released after 9 days of torture.

deRa BUGTi: hayat Khan Bugti killed and many other woman and children injured in bombardment by security forces at Pelawagh and Sanghar Pati area.

BaLoChiSTan: Shutter down and wheel jam strike observed in many cities of Baluchistan on call of Baloch Students organization against the abduction of BSo-azad leader Zahid Baloch.

Balochistan Review is an independent review designed to keep people aware of the situtation in Balochistan. Given the ban on journalists and attacks it is important to present the world with independent news from Balochistan.

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Saturday 24thMaSTUnG: Jamal Uden killed by firing of unknown people.Quetta: 1 killed by firing of unknown.

KaRaChi: 4 tortured bodies found, shifted to hospital. Still not identified.

WaShUK: 2 killed by firing of unknown in Besima Washuk.

PUnJaB: 1 other tortured body found from Chowk Bahdurpur Rahim Yar Khan. This is the 6th tortured body found from Rahim Yar Khan in this week.

Friday 23th iSLaMaBad: a protest held by Pakistan Youth alliance in front of press club islamabad against the abduction of BSo-azad leader Zahid Baloch and solidarity with hunger strike of Lateef Johar.

SiBi: 2 tortured dead bodies of iftikhar Marri and Riaz Marri found dumped from Sibbi bypass. They were abducted from heran.

PaShin : 1 tortured body found and shifted to hospital. Still couldnt be identified.Se ek Masak Shuda Laash Bramad..!!

PanJaB : 5 bullet riddled bodies were found from Rahim Yar Khan city. 3 of bodies identified as members of Balochistan Republican Party, named as Wadera Zabar Khan Bugti, Beuragh Bugti and Badla Mazari, they were abducted 2 month ago by security forces, while other 2 dead bodies are still not identified.

QUeTTa: 1 person killed by firing of unknown people at Pashtoon abad.Mand: Waheem S/o Bahram abduct by security forces from Soro Mand.

MaSTUnG: security forces abduct 3 person in operation of Spelinji

images above: in Sibi on the 23th of May the tortured dead bodies of iftikhar Marri and Riaz Marri found dumped from Sibbi bypass. They were abducted from heran.

Cover image: Protest rally in Panjgur against the threats to educational institutions.

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RePoRts FRom the GRound

Wearing her traditional Balochi dress, Rabia stood tall with great poise and confidence, in a hall filled with teachers and students, at a local high school in Richmond, Virginia.

This was her twelfth presentation in one week and, by now, she was visibly confident in speaking to a foreign audience in her Balochi-accented english.

Rabia spoke about her hometown of Turbat and the culture and life of the people of Balochistan. Sixteen-year old Rabia is an exchange student in the US. in just one year, Rabia has made a mark for herself and her country; she has been on the honour roll twice already.

Zeenat is a 19 year old female student. after returning from a one-year high school exchange program in the US, she is now working towards bringing change in the lives of young girls like her in her hometown of Gwadar, Balochistan.

an excellent writer, who blogs regularly, Zeenat dreams of becoming a lawyer. in addition to working towards her undergraduate degree, Zeenat is also helping the women in her community learn the english language and gain some basic computer skills. Both, Rabia and Zeenat, can credit their achievements to their early schooling experience in Makran.

While the government wholly ignored the education sector, there were many young, often self-driven and educated, individuals from the region that moved forward to fill-in the gap.

The youth of the area has remained actively involved in community service and, most impressively, established an indigenous network of private

schools and english language centers.

although these schools are run on nominal fees, they provide the youth with their only life-changing opportunity to acquire basic education, computer and modern language skills.

Panjgur, a district of Makran bordering iran, is home to beautiful palm trees and is an exporter of the largest variety of dates found in the region. Panjgur has a reasonably large network of small private schools imparting education to girls and boys.

The entire private education network is run by local teachers and administrators. The schools generally cater to both girls and boys, although in some schools the genders are taught separately in two shifts.

With the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa affronted by militant attacks on girls education facilities, Balochistan, until now, had been spared the senseless violence that has engulfed educational facilities in the north.

Balochistans education-based hardships have traditionally been confined to a lack of government support, access and quality issues.

While the region of Panjgur has remained at the center of the Baloch nationalist insurgency and serves as the battleground for military offensives, girls education system and allied facilities have never been targeted by any group.

Tragically, it seems, all of that is about to change forever.

Terror in a letter

Recently, all the private schools of Panjgur received a letter

welcome to the waR on vulGaR, westeRn education in Balochistan

from a previously unheard extremist group called Tanzeem-ul-islami-ul-Furqan.

The letter, addressed to the owners and administrators of all private schools, accuses them of corrupting the minds of young girls by exposing them to a western education.

it goes on to state that all private schools must immediately disallow girls from seeking an education regardless of them being at a co-education or an all-girls facility.

it also includes a message for van and taxi drivers in the area, warning them of dire consequences if they continue to transport girls to schools.

The note goes onto warn parents as well. it asks them to keep their daughters away from english language centers and schools.

not surprisingly, their threat warns that the mujahedeen of al-Furqan are ready to brace martyrdom to stop the spread of vulgar, western, education in Balochistan.

The letter ends with a list featuring names of all prominent owners of private schools in Panjgur.

To assert their writ and spread fear, the group carried an attack on a school immediately after sending out the letters.

Schools in Panjgur remained closed for several days. Soon after their reopening, unidentified gunmen set a school van, transporting female students and teachers, on fire on 14 May 2014.

although there were no major casualties, the gunmen, belonging to this newly claimed extremist group, ensured the owner of the private school received their message loud and clear.

The owner in this instance was driving the van at the time of the attack. according to eye witnesses, to spread fear and panic, the gunmen fired multiple gunshots in the air just meters away from a nearby stationed Frontiers Corps (FC) convoy that simply chose to ignore the proceedings.

image above: Protest rally in Panjgur against the threats to educational institutions.

By Hina BalocH

Cover image: Protest rally in Panjgur against the threats to educational institutions.

interestingly enough, the entire Makran region, particularly Panjgur, is a heavily guarded and militarily-fortified area. Convoys and check-posts of the FC can be seen placed at all district entry and exit points and on every major road and intersection across the locality.

The security forces, who carry with them an abysmal human rights record (they have been accused by local and international human rights organisations of regularly attacking political activists, journalists and student workers), have yet to arrest any individual from an extremist group or a banned organisation.

it is also worth noting that just recently atta Shad degree College in Turbat was raided by FC personnel during a book fair. Masterpieces, like the autobiographies of nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Che Guevera, were brandished by the FC in front of the media the works were labelled as anti-state literature.

Surprisingly, the activities of many religious madrassas, suspected to be recruiting centers and training grounds for extremist forces, have never been disturbed let alone investigated.

With religious intolerance and sectarian violence an unheard of phenomenon for the secular Baloch populace now mysteriously at an all-time high, it is alleged that the state is playing that dangerous game of curbing nationalism by stoking religious fanaticism once again. and in doing so, re-asserting its historic (and myopic) doctrine of strategic depth by providing tacit support to non-state actors for short-term strategic gains.

The alleged strategy, or rather the folly, has already wreaked havoc in Kashmir and KPK and resulted in Pakistans increased international isolation and condemnation.

Madrassas, madrassas everywhere

While it is becoming increasingly difficult for private schools to function in Balochistan

government schools are either non-existent or non-functional in most parts), the numbers of madrassas continue to increase exponentially.

according to the latest figures there are 2,500 registered and 10,000 unregistered madrassas in Balochistan.

it is pertinent to ask, if the national economy is still nudging at a sluggish rate and abject poverty haunting the average man, then where exactly are these funds coming from?

housed in impressively built fortress-like structures and ably providing lodging and boarding facilities to hundreds of thousands of students, how exactly are these Madrassas sustaining themselves financially?

Where are the funds that are leading to their mushroom growth across Balochistan (a historically secular and pluralist society) flowing from?

These are some mysterious, not to mention uncomfortable, questions the answers to which the government and the establishment both appear unwilling to divulge.

The Balochistan public education scenario reflects a grim picture and the future outlook, worryingly, remains equally bleak. Years of administrative negligence, insufficient funding, systemic corruption, dysfunctional curricula and poor teaching conditions have resulted in a collapsed provincial education system.

according to the latest figures, the current literacy rate in the province stands at 56 percent, this also includes people who can barely write their names.

The female literacy rate, at 23 percent, is one of the lowest in the world.

according to the British Council Pakistans education emergency Report, with the existing pace of growth, Balochistan will not be able to reach the United nations Millennium development Goals for education in even the next

one-hundred years.

it was just last year in June when the Sardar Bahadur Khan University was attacked by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi killing 14 female students.

With the culprits still at large, and rising suspicion amongst the local populace of the states complicity in those attacks, the peoples confidence in the governments ability to deliver at any level stands shattered.

Since the recent warning by Tanzeem-ul-islami-ul-Furqan, parents of female students in Panjgur have decided they have had enough. They have marched onto the streets and expressed solidarity with the schools and their owners, urging the local administration to take immediate action against the militants.

The district teachers association has also asked the provincial and federal government to intervene in the matter. But for now, it looks like female education is not really on the priority list of the provincial or federal government.

The prime minister, since taking charge of his office, has been busy signing deals with China on siphoning Balochistans natural resources to the rest of the country and beyond. his governments grand designs include a $12 billion economic corridor extending from the Gwadar deep seaport in Balochistan to the southern-belt of China and parts of Central asia through spanking new road, rail, air and fibre links.

Local development in Balochistan, especially in Gwadar, is heavily assisted and influenced by the security forces. it almost always excludes locals under the pretext of security concerns and instead utilizes labor and expertise from other parts of the country.

The Baloch people and their welfare is seldom discussed, let alone ever addressed. The functioning private education system, one of the last straws of hope for the girls of Makran, now also stands to be plucked and destroyed by extremist forces and their benefactors.

With little trust in the government or the law-enforcement agencies to protect their lives and property, the local private schools association in the area has decided to shut down schools for an indefinite period.

if this current downward spiral in womens education continues across Balochistan, disenfranchised and impoverished districts like Makran will not be able to see anymore Rabias and Zeenats in the coming future.

That would not only be a loss for Makran but, more importantly, for the provinces human development and socio-economic progress.

With not much having gone in its way, the last thing Balochistan needs is to have its girls forced to sit at home instead of the classroom.

(This article first appeared in dawn)

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as anti-state, are particularly vulnerable to these violations. Relatives and eyewitnesses frequently accuse the security forces, especially the Frontier Corps and intelligence services, for carrying out these violations.

Please write immediately in Urdu, english or your own language:

expressing concern to the authorities that Zahid Baloch has not been seen since 18 March when witnesses say he was abducted by the Frontier Corps;

Urging them to order an immediate impartial investigation into this apparent enforced disappearance, publicly disclose its findings and bring those responsible to justice in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty;

insisting that if Zahid Baloch is in custody, he is immediately released or transferred to an official place of detention and charged promptly with an offence consistent with international human rights law;

Urging them to ensuring that Zahid Baloch is not tortured or otherwise ill-treated, and is allowed immediate and regular access to his family, lawyers of his choice and any medical attention he may require.

additional information

Political activists from the ethnic Baloch community have been subjected to abductions, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions in Pakistans Balochistan province. hundreds have reportedly been subjected to these violations, but the precise figures are impossible to verify given the secretive nature of the

including former Chief Justice iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, have also accused the Frontier Corps of being responsible for many enforced disappearances in the province.

The Frontiers Corps is the primary state security force responsible for maintaining law and order in Balochistan province. The confrontation between Baloch nationalists and the state is characterized by human rights abuses committed by both sides.

views on Balochistan amesty inteRnational: document - Pakistan: aBducted Politi-cal activist at Risk oF death

Ua: 132/14 index: Pakistan aSa 33/008/2014 date: 19 May 2014

URGenT aCTion

abducted political activist at risk of deathZahid Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch Student organisation-azad (BSoa) was abducted in Quetta, Balochistan, on 18 March. his family do not know where he is or what has happened to him. he is at grave risk of ill-treatment, torture, or even death. hundreds of other activists have suffered similar fates in the province over recent years.

Witnesses claim Zahid Baloch was taken at gunpoint in the Satellite Town area in Quetta, Balochistan on 18 March by personnel of the Frontier Corps, a federal paramilitary force. The authorities have not provided any information concerning his abduction and have failed to investigate it adequately. Zahid Baloch is the Chairman of BSoa, a student organization advocating the separation of Balochistan province from the state of Pakistan. it was banned by the Pakistan government in March 2013 because they claimed it was involved in terrorism.

Zahid Balochs abduction follows a pattern of enforced disappearances in Balochistan province whereby Baloch political activists, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and suspected insurgents have been picked up by state security forces, and never seen again. across the province many of those subjected to enforced disappearance have been recovered dead, often bearing bullet wounds and marks of torture. activists calling for greater autonomy for the Baloch population, seen by the Pakistani authorities

abductions and killings, and the general inaccessibility of Balochistan province. Lateef Johar, a member of the BSoa has been on hunger strike for the safe recovery of Zahid Baloch since 22 april at a protest camp in Karachi.

activists, journalists, lawyers, and student leaders as well as members of armed groups are among those who have been targeted for enforced disappearance, abduction, torture and unlawful killing. The violence takes place in a context of increasing political unrest and state military operations in Balochistan. Straddling the border with afghanistan and iran, Balochistan is Pakistans geographically largest, but most sparsely populated province. it has a history of insurgency, with local groups advocating greater autonomy and a bigger share of the revenue generated by the province's natural resources, principally natural gas, which they believe now disproportionately benefit other provinces.

The bullet-riddled bodies of those who have been abducted, many showing signs of torture, are frequently found across Balochistan and occasionally in the city of Karachi, capital of neighbouring Sindh province. Relatives and Baloch groups accuse Pakistani security forces, particularly the Frontier Corps and intelligence agencies, of perpetrating these abductions and killings. in december 2013 Balochistan Chief Minister dr abdul Malik Baloch acknowledged that state agencies were responsible for illegal confinement of Baloch activists. Judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the highest judiciary in the country,

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links and contact

www.bygwaah.com - a website on missing persons.

www.balochwarna.com - Balochistan news.

www.sagaar.net - BSo-a official website.

www.sangarpublication.com - Magazine covering Balochstan.

www.thebalochhal.com - online newspaper covering Balochistan.

www.nakedpunch.com - Politics magazine with regular coverage of Balochistan.

Contact Balochistan Weekly Review

Balochistanreview1@gmail.com