Press Release:
WASHINGTON DC: A Baluch journalist and founder
of the American Friends of Baluchistan, whose
family had known the Advanis in Karachi prior
to partition, has urged former Indian deputy
prime minister Sree L.K. Advani to stop the Iran-Pakistan-India
gas pipeline until such time the Baluch get their
right to self determination.
Ahmar Mustikhan sent the copies of his
Open Letter to the N.A.T.O leadership in Brussels
and also to the Indian Ambassador to the United
States, Ronen Sen.
In his letter, Mustikhan warned the pipeline
means more bloodshed in Baluchistan where an
army operation is still going on. Pakistan has
promised foolproof security measures to protect
the gas pipeline, but the Baluch say this will
be built only on their dead bodies.
He urged Advani to open direct talks with the
Baluch leaders, including the De Jure ruler of
Baluchistan Khan of Kalat His Highness Suleman
Daud Ahmedzai.
Following is the full text of Mustikhan's letter
to Advani.
I want to draw your attention to the rank opportunism
once again being shown by the present government
of India. The Baluch people never expected this
from India.
The Baluch in Baluchistan and the Baluch Diaspora
are victims of the worst oppression of the Punjabi-Mohajir
army generals in Pakistan and the mullahs in
Iran, about which you know quite well as you
are an ardent student of history yourself.
At this time in Baluch society, a strange gift
is being offered by New Delhi to the people of
Baluchistan-- I mean the signing of the Iran-Pakistan-India
(I.P.I.) accord with Pakistan under the so-called “Look
East” policy. The cruel gift came at a time when
the Baluch and Sindhis join their Bengali brothers
in mourning the passing away of General Sam Manekshaw,
the liberator of Dhaka who helped stop the killing
of Bengalis and ended the rape of their women
at the hands of the butcher army of Pakistan.
Neither Iran nor Pakistan has any authority
to sign an accord what passes through Baluch
territories. The Baluch are resolved this gas
pipeline will be built on their dead bodies.
I assure you at least five million of the 20
or so million Baluch will sacrifice their lives
to ensure that the occupying powers of Islamabad
and Teheran are duly defeated in Baluchistan.
With the help of the world, they will uphold
the national sovereignty and territorial integrity
of Baluchistan.
Pakistan's minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was
quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency
as saying Pakistan will “provide fool-proof security” for
the planned 2,600-kilometre pipeline, expected
to pass through the volatile Baluchistan region.
The Pakistani authorities have already gifted
Ghulam Haider Raisani to be hanged by the mullahs
in Iran as a gift. What Qureshi is promising
is more Baluch bodies.
Enough is enough.
You are one of the finest sons of Sindh, notwithstanding
the total idiosyncrasy of raiding the Babri Mosque
which was a ruder slap on the Hindu philosophy
of tolerance. That action was more akin to what
Muslims do and the late Sain G.M. Syed of Sindh
had clearly warned you against it.Forgive me
for saying that but sometimes the feet of saints
are also made of clay and I am sure history will
not judge you kindly for that action. That said,
you command my respect for your principled stand
against Islamic extremism.
My family elders had known and respected some
of the Advani family members in Karachi. Your
relatives still live in a beautiful house near
the Beach Luxury Hotel in Karachi. As you may
recall, Karachi was once mostly a Baluch city.
The ethnic Baluch numbered nearly 250,000 out
of the roughly 400, 00 people in Karachi at the
time of the 1947 partition holocaust. The rest
were Sindhis, both Muslims and Hindus. Karachi
was then called the Paris of the East, before
the marauding Muslim mohajirs came as freeloaders
and bounty hunters from India to destroy Sindh
as part of the ill-conceived partition plan.
Sindh
and Sindhis were one of the first to suffer because
of Pakistan's creation. My late father used to
own rental apartments near Jubilee Cinema in old
Karachi and recalled that prior to partition when
Sindhi Hindus were his tenants they always paid
their rent on time and were very polite and courteous.
But after August 1947 when my father went to collect
rents from the Muslim delinquents, they not only
refused to pay the rent but cussed my dad, telling
him the peaceful grass eating Hindus--some Muslims
call Hindus grass eaters as they are mostly vegetarian
--have left for India and that they will "show" him. "That
was the day when I realized what a monster ( Pakistan
), Jinnah has created," my father told me.
The case of Baluchistan was totally different from Sindh: it never opted for
Pakistan and was an independent state under the Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmadyar
Khan. It remained independent for more than seven months until it was unlawfully
annexed by Pakistan. My uncle the late A. Sattar Mustikhan was named Baluchistan's
ambassador to Pakistan and the flag of Baluchistan flew over our house in Garden
East, right across from Gandhi Zoological Garden which you might still remember.
My uncle said Sindhi feudal lords never spoke in front of Jinnah as they were
afraid of the British wrath and knew quite well that Jinnah was a British agent.
Pakistan's cruelty against Baluchistan has few parallels in modern world history.
Just last month, three Bugti tribesmen were burnt alive by the Pakistani occupation
forces. Almost every family in Baluchistan has lost a loved one and is grieving:
Pakistan army killed former governor and chief minister Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti,
provincial assembly member Nawabzada Bala'ach Marri, Mir Asadullah Mengal,
Nawab Nauroz Khan Zarakzai and his sons-- after promising them safety on the
Quran— Safar Khan, Hameed Shaheed, Dr Khalid Shaheed, the list is endless and
thousands of unknown soldiers who sacrificed their life for the sake of Baluchistan.
An army officer himself told me that during the military operations, the soldiers
would cut off the genitals of rebel tribesmen and throw them from helicopters
on their villages to extract information but the Baluch were so loyal to their
cause that they would rather die than betray the resistance.
One of the worst atrocities against Baluchistan was the illegal testing of
Pakistan's Islamic Bomb on May 28, 1998. Those tests have left a huge tract
of Baluch lands unsafe and since then native tribesmen have complained of strange
skin diseases and untimely death of their livestock. People from my tribe called
Gorgej are among the many tribesmen who have also been displaced from the Chagai
area.
The game Pakistan's I.S.I and Punjabi army generals are playing in neighboring
Afghanistan is not hidden from anyone. The Afghan authorities have clearly
blamed Pakistan for the bloodletting in Afghanistan, and we fully support President
Hamid Karzai's stand on the issue. The I.S.I. last April tried to assassinate
President Karzai, according to Afghan officials.
I have absolutely no doubts in my mind that just like the killing of Pakistani
premiers Nawabzada Liauqat Ali Khan, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto, and Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani army generals and secret services
were involved in the assassination of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Just
as a matter of record, a few days prior to the assassination of Indira Gandhi
the drawings of “head and skull” mysteriously appeared on the walls of Karachi
University.
There is no doubt in our minds that Pakistan is the epicenter of global terrorism
as it is the headquarters of assorted terrorist organizations, ranging from
Al Qaeda, and Taliba'an to the M.Q.M. We are of the considered opinion that
one-eyed Mullah Omar, who was hell bent on keeping Afghanistan in the Stone
Age was a poster boy of the Pakistan army, and is still being sheltered by
Pakistani soldiers.
To end the 60 years of blood, bodies and tears in Baluchistan, the de jure
ruler of Baluchistan Khan of Kalat His Highness Suleman Daud Ahmedzai is knocking
the doors of the International Court of Justice at the Hague. We urge you to
prevail upon the Indian Government to call a stop to the project until such
time the case is decided and the Baluch right to self-determination is recognized
by the Punjabi-Mohajir army generals and the Iranian mullahs. We also urge
you to initiate direct, official talks with the Khan of Kalat and other nationalist
Baluch leaders including Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Sardar Attaullah Mengal, Nawabzada
Brahamdagh Bugti, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, Mir Hasil Bizenjo, Dr. Abdul Hayee
Baluch, Ghulam Mohammed Baluch, Nasser Boladai, and leaders of the Baluch Students
Organization for any construction of any pipeline that passes through Baluch
soil.
Former chief minister of Baluchistan Sardar Akhtar Mengal, who was recently
released from prison, voiced the collective concern of the Baluch and has categorically
stated in public that the Baluch will not allow the pipeline.
Just to let you know one of the founders of Baluch nationalism former governor
of Baluchistan, Baba-i-Baluchistan Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo, who was one of
our closest family friends, told me the independence of Baluchistan was duly
broadcast by the All India Radio. He said the Kalat State National Party had
dispatched him with a team to meet Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to thwart any Pakistani
misadventure in Baluchistan, but that Maulana told them not to make any trouble
as it would give the British a pretext to delay their departure from India.
Now it's time for India to pay back to the Baluch.
I again urge you not to let the secular people of Baluchistan plunge into
blood. Please do the right thing and stop the project until such time the Baluch
case at the I.C.J. is decided and the people of Occupied Baluchistan in Pakistan
and Iran get their right to self determination.
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