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India-Pakistan

Balach Marri's killing : Balochistan shuts down

2007-11-23

More than a hundred protesters were arrested across Balochistan on Thursday as the province observed a complete shutter-down strike against the killing of Nawabzada Balach Marri, a Baloch nationalist leader. Police rounded up around fifty protesters in Quetta, most of whom had come from Sariab, where Balochis are in a majority. Fifteen protesters were arrested in Gwadar, where the Balochistan National Party, National Party and the Baloch Students Organisation had called for a complete strike. Ten leaders of the National Party were detained in Panjgur district where police used tear gas and baton-charged the protesters. Dozens of protesters were arrested from other provincial districts including Khuzdar, Dalbandin, Turbat, Sibi, Panjgur, Mustung, Noshaki. Life came to a stand still in these districts while protests were largely peaceful. “A state of red alert has been declared in Quetta with 4,000 police personnel and the Frontier Corps (FC) deployed at different locations. Around 70 mobile teams will continue to patrol Quetta,” the city’s police chief Mohammad Akbar said. In Quetta, a complete shutter down strike was observed in the Baloch-populated areas where protesters burnt two government vehicles and pelted stones at official buildings. Shops, banks and business centres remained closed. The city government had announced the closure of all educational institutes on Thursday. However, life continued as usual in the rest of the city. Supporters of Balach Marri also blocked many roads, including the RCD and Mekran Highways for many hours. Meanwhile, three bomb blasts took place in Hub, Balochistan’s industrial town, and Sibi, suspending power supply to many parts of Hub township and damaging the local post office.

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India-Pakistan

Balach Marri killed: BLA

2007-11-22

Nawabzada Balach Marri, leader of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), has been killed, with the actual cause of his death still not being confirmed. BLA spokesman Bibarg Baloch confirmed to Daily Times on Wednesday Marri’s death, saying that he would not like to disclose the circumstances, which led to the killing of the Baloch guerilla fighter. “It is a black day for the Baloch people. Our leader has been martyred,” he said via satellite phone from an undisclosed place. He refused to tell where Marri was killed and how many people had been killed or injured along with him. He said Marri might have been killed in an operation inside the Pakistani border. AFP, meanwhile, quoted a local TV channel as saying that Marri had been killed in Afghanistan.

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India-Pakistan

38 Marri loyalists surrender

2006-08-03

The Balochistan government claimed on Wednesday that members of the Marri tribe had for the first time begun surrendering to the government, following in the footsteps of former loyalists to Nawab Akber Khan Bugti. Government officials said that 38 former loyalists of Nawabzada Balach Marri, the Moscow-educated purported chief of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), had surrendered to the Kohlu administration. They also gave up a large number of weapons including rocket launchers, Kalashnikovs and ammunition, while pledging to refrain from participating in movements against the government, the sources added. The surrendering team is led by Wadera Jumma Khan, a prominent elder from the Marri tribe, said one source. "This is just the beginning of a new era of success for the government," said Raziq Bugti, Balochistan government spokesman, while talking to Daily Times.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Baloch's getting riled up

2004-09-19

EFL Hundreds of Marri Baloch tribesmen, armed to the teeth, took up position on the Kohlu mountains, one of Pakistan's most backward, but oil and gas rich areas, to challenge the government's policies in Balochistan. The tribesmen, who call themselves "guerillas" waging a war for the rights of the Baloch population, were armed with Russian Kalashnikovs, heavy machine and anti-aircraft guns and RPGs, picked up in Afghanistan during their 14 years in self-exile. Most of them are educated with military/guerilla training received in Afghanistan. Their chieftain, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, who was in self-exile, called his tribesmen to leave their homes and join him in Afghanistan in 1980. More than 12,000 Marris responded to their leader's call and left Pakistan to settle in the Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. Note, the Baluch's don't follow an Islamist ideology, but instead have leftist and tribal motives. Remember Afghanistan was ruled by the Communists during the eighties. Until the eighties, Baluchistan and the NWFP had a significant presence from leftists, which was a primary motivator for the Saudis and Pakistanis to support radical madrassas in those provinces. Similar to the way the Muslim Brotherhood was supported by the Gulf states to undermine the radical pro-Soviet Arab states like Nasser's Egypt and Assad's Syria. According to political analysts, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, who believes that the Baloch cannot get their political and economic rights without an armed struggle, called his tribesmen to Afghanistan to train them in guerilla warfare. The Marri guerillas are currently lead by Nawabzada Balach Marri, the son of the ailing Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri. Balach, an electronics engineer from Moscow, won the provincial assembly seat from Kohlu with record votes of over 18,000 - the highest ever cast in the constituency - despite all efforts by the administration to support his rival candidate, Mir Mohabat Khan Marri, the then provincial caretaker minister. After a sudden increase in the Marri tribes militant's actions in 2000, other militant groups also joined them to carry out joint actions across the province. Rockets attacks on F.C. posts, landmine and dynamite explosions against F.C. personnel were witnessed in the neighbouring Dera Bugti tribal agency. Similar attacks were also launched in Kalat, Dalbundeen, Khuzdar, Gwadar, and other areas by the militants in a show of strength.

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