By Agha Gul
I agree with you so far as US administration’s vision and strategy goes. Having strategic mobility, the US ends up being every country’s neighbour, hence the effects, good or adverse.
Mulla Omar in all probability must be dead. Three years are too long to hide him with no demands or use. But, God knows better. What you call ‘political obsession of State Deptt’ to see that the ‘poor Baloch’ don’t have a country, it is actually a euphemism for pursuing an agenda to have a stick for beating Pakistan, so that the nucs can be taken away and Pak is kept subservient.
These are double standards which the US administration and deep-state has been following since independence. Why does it not feel that the Palestinians’ 2,000 year old land was handed over to the Zionists and they made country-less? Don’t the Palestinians deserve a homeland? What about the Native Indians?
I find them tucked in Anadarko and Chicashey in Oklahoma in small zoo-like settlements. They sure deserve a country. Diego Garcia, was evacuated and no natives are allowed to live there by US forces. There are so many examples.
But, before we even consider that Baloch deserve a ‘homeland’, does the State Deptt know the demographic spread of racially-pure Baloch? There are 4-6 times more Baloch than what there are in the so called “Balochistan”. Over 20 million Baloch are spread from Sargodha-Lahore southward in the Punjab. And almost the same number in Sindh. We have had Farooq Leghari and Zardari as Presidents of Pakistan, both Baloch from Punjab and Sindh respectively.
Khosa, Jamali, Sherbaz all Baloch, have been prime ministers. Lt Gen Qadir Baloch from Kharan, Balochistan, after retirement is now a Federal Minister. Since Balochistan became a province in 1970, there has always been a Baloch/Brahui as chief minister, often also the governor. And the list goes on. Baloch are seamlessly part of Pakistan.
Only three small clans of tribes of Marri, Bugti and Brahui-Mengal agitate when they are out of power. The fathers and even the sons who are now abroad demanding separation on behest of the foreign powers, were perfectly assimilated Pakistanis when they were in power. This is lot of nonsense which the State Deptt tries to sell. I will send a note I scribbled about the presence of Baloch in Sindh and Punjab. Have it refuted by the State Deptt, if they have the evidence.
I wrote to you that Balochistan is a multi ethnic, multi racial land wrongly named as ‘land of Baloch’. It is not. Brahuis stand alone in central Balochistan. North is inhabited by Pashtuns and Hazaras. Mekran has a mix which is Sikhs, Arabs, Abyssinian from Africa (slaves of last century) and some Persians. There is NO leader in Mekran who is acceptable to all. Indeed, there is no leader amongst the rebels who is acceptable to even them.
There is a raging blood feud of every clan with the other, even within them. I can list a dozen feuds. No one accepts the other clans’ head as the leader. I can count clan-wise. When I was Vice Chancellor of the Balochistan University, there was one students union representing Pashtuns and seven, yes, seven unions representing various Baloch/Brahui students. All were called Baloch Student Organisation, with a suffix showing which sardar supported them.
The Jamotes of Las Bella are Sindhis, and are not part of any agitation. Pashtuns are always peaceful. The Jamalis, and bulk of Bugtis and Marris are peaceful. The Rind sardar Yar Muhammad has his tribe spread in Balochistan and Sindh but he mostly lives in Sindh where the majority lives. Bajarani-Marris, Jhakrani-Bugtis, Khosas, Mazaris and Jamalis all live in Sindh, even Punjab also and are doing very well, in politics, in agriculture and in business. These tribes are peaceful in all the provinces. Hah!
Please inform the State Deptt, what is the truth and suggest they should stop spreading lies. It does not behoove a superpower who is always trying to espouse higher values, in talks. Balochistan is here and will stay part of Pakistan as the people want. US will face another defeat like Vietnam if it goes on to separate a Baloch /Brahui chunk from the province.
ahmed sabir