حزب مردم بلوچستان Balochistan People’s Party بلوچستانءِ اُستمانءِ گــَل
Jundallah claims kidnapping Iranian soldiers
15/06/2008
QUETTA : A militant group on
Saturday claimed it has kidnapped 28 Iranian border security personnel
soldiers and demanded release of its jailed activists.
A spokesman for Jundullah, Maulvi Abdul Rauf told reporters at Quetta press
club over phone from an undisclosed place that the group is holding the
Iranian border security men.
TV channels also quoted the spokesman as reporting that 12 of 28 of security
men have been freed and 16 are still in the groups custody.
Jundullah is a militant organization that is based in Balochistan and it is
considered to be a part of the Baloch insurgency in Pakistan and in Irans
Sistan and Baluchistan Province.
The group has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and
Pakistan. Some believe the group is linked to al Qaeda.
Abdul Rauf demanded the release of upto 200 Jundullahs activists in Iranian
jails to free Iranian border security men. The TV channel quoted the
Jundullah spokesman as saying that three officers are among the hostages.
The report said that the group spokesman set two weeks time for the release
of its supports otherwise they would kill the hostages.
The spokesman said that the group has conveyed its demands to the Iranian
authorities and awaits response. NNI (News Network International).
http://www.sindhtoday.net/pakistan/5378.htm
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Pakistan hands over 4 Jundallah men to Iran
June 15, 2008
TEHRAN: Pakistan has handed over four Iranian militants to Iran, including
the brother of a Sunni militant leader in restive southeastern Iran, AP
quoted Iranian state media as reporting on Saturday. The handover took place
as part of a security pact between Iran and Pakistan, state television said.
Jundallah (Army of Allah) leader Abdolmalek Rigi’s brother Abdolhamid Rigi
was handed over to Iran on Friday night, the IRNA news agency said. “Rigi
had been jailed in Quetta over the past year,” IRNA said, adding that he had
sought to declare himself along with 15 others as Pakistani nationals. “But
he was handed over after officials presented evidence that these people are
to be prosecuted in Iran,” it said. The Rigis are members of Iran’s ethnic
Balochi minority, which can also be found in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Rigi
has claimed his group fights for the rights of Sunni Muslims oppressed by
Iran’s Shia government. Meanwhile, Pakistan has launched a search for 16
Iranian border guards who were kidnapped by Jundallah militants on Thursday
and taken them across the border into Pakistan.
Jundallah has claimed a string of attacks and kidnappings in the Sistan-Balochistan area, which is home to a substantial Sunni ethnic Baloch community. The area lies on a major narcotics route from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The militant organisation on Saturday said it had carried out the kidnappings to press Iran to release jailed Jundullah activists. Jundullah spokesman Abdul Rauf told Quetta Press Club over telephone from an undisclosed location that the group would kill the hostages if the Iranian government did not release the activists by two weeks, NNI reported. Television channels quoted Rauf as saying that 12 out of 28 border guards initially abducted were released. Shia-majority Iran has in the past accused the United States of backing Jundallah and inciting unrest in its minority-populated border areas.
Agencies Courtesy Daily Times
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Japanese tourist, seized by bandits in Iran, freed
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI; 15/06/2008
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A Japanese tourist kidnapped by suspected bandits while
traveling in southeastern Iran last year has been released.
Satoshi Nakamura, 23, was released late Saturday, eight months after he was
taken hostage as he traveled alone in Iran's lawless southeastern border
with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Japan's Foreign Ministry and Iran's official
IRNA news agency confirmed the release.
Iran's Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseini Ejehi was quoted as
saying drug smugglers and armed bandits were responsible for the kidnapping.
Nakamura sounded in good spirits when Japanese embassy officials in Tehran
telephoned the student, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.
No other details, including the location of his release and whether a ransom
was paid, were available.
Iran has historically blamed kidnappings of foreigners in the area on
criminals and drug smugglers, and foreigners are urged to be cautious while
there.
Elsewhere, rebels from the Jundallah armed group, believed to have links to
al-Qaida, kidnapped 16 Iranian border guards and carried them across the
frontier into Pakistan on Friday, IRNA reported Saturday.
The incident, part of the low level insurgency being waged in southeastern
Iran, took place as Pakistan handed over four senior members of the group.
Among the rebels handed over to Iran was Abdel-Hamid Rigi, brother of
Jundallah's leader Abdel-Malak.
The Rigis are members of Iran's ethnic Baluchi minority, which can also be
found in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Rigi has claimed his group fights for the
rights of Sunni Muslims oppressed by Iran's Shiite government.
Salim Awan, a government official in Quetta, Pakistan, said Iran had asked
Pakistan to help recover the border guards abducted inside Iran.
Iran has faced several ethnic and religious insurgencies that have staged
occasionally deadly attacks in recent years — though none has amounted to a
serious threat to the government.
Jundallah claimed responsibility last year for killing 11 members of the
elite Revolutionary Guards in southeastern Iran.
Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, contributed to
this report.
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Marri ready to negotiate on behalf of BLA only
* Says Punjabis must vacate
Balochistan as primary condition
By Malik Siraj Akbar ; June 14, 2008
QUETTA: Nawab Khair Baksh Marri has said he would be willing to represent
only the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and not other Baloch forces, in
talks with the government.
Daily Times recently asked Nawab Marri if he would agree to talk to the
government if nominated by all Baloch forces, including the BLA, as their
chief negotiator. Marri answered by pointing his thumbs down.
But he added that if the BLA asked him to talk to Islamabad, as an elder of
the Baloch nation, he would present his terms and conditions: the Punjabis
must vacate Balochistan.
“The other issues are all domestic and could be discussed later on ... I can
co-exist with a pig but not with a Punjabi,” he said at his Karachi
residence.
When Marri was asked how he would respond to the impression that he was the
real force behind Balochistan’s armed movement, he retorted with loud
laughter: “Why are you asking me to confess my guilt at this old age? If I
were younger, I would not be giving you an interview. I have always said
that the real fighters are the ones who are doing it with weapons. I wish I
were younger so that I could go straight to the hills and fight for the
Baloch cause.”
He said he was “pleased” with the BLA and did not regard Mengal’s
Balochistan National Party (BNP) as a nationalist force as it did not factor
in the Baloch of Iran and Afghanistan.
“The BNP does not have a majority on the mountains. God knows, it is not the
BNP giving arms, shoes, support and money to those fighting in the
mountains,” Marri said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008/06/14/story_14-6-2008_pg1_4
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Iranian Resistance calls for salvage of detained protesters in Zahedan
12 June 2008
NCRI - Following demonstrations and clashes which started last Sunday
between the Iranian regime's suppressive forces and angry residents in
Zahedan, provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchistan in southeast Iran, a large
number of people were arrested. Among the detainees there are many young
people whose whereabouts and state remain unknown.
The reason behind the angry protest and demonstration, which the regime is
trying to blame on division between Sunnis and Shiites, is the brutal
repression of the deprived people in the province and specially the cruel
discrimination against the Sunnis.
During the protests, the angry crowd attacked suppressive agents of the
State Security Forces (SSF) and set fire to their vehicles. They also
blocked the streets by setting fire to tires. The SSF agents and the
Revolutionary Guards anti-riot special units attacked the protesters by
firing into the crowd, throwing tear gas and beating them by batons.
To control the riots, the SSF and special units have been stationed in
different parts of the city and an undeclared martial law is in force in
Zahedan.
The Iranian Resistance calls on all human rights organizations, advocates of
freedom of belief and religion as well as the relevant UN rapporteurs and
competent bodies to condemn the systematic suppression prevailing in
Sistan-Baluchistan. It also calls for urgent actions to free detained
protesters in Zahedan.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 10, 2008
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Balochistan TV on air soon
June 8th 2008
Balochistan Raji Zrombesh is
launching its TV programme soon to reflect ground realties of Balochistan,
and to further democratic national movement of Balochistan.
Every effort shall be made to make it a success and politically substantive.
Balochistan TV team needs every help from friends and activists of
Balochistan in relation to its coverage of events in Balochistan. News
reports, documentary writings & films, assessment of human rights in
Balochistan, cultural and historical research findings, and reports on
extent of deprivation and discriminations, reports on health & education of
Balochistan are all vital to Balochistan TV. Please send your reports and
videos to Balochistan TV at
Balochistan-tv@bigstring.com.
Balochistan needs an effective media. Hence it is our commitment in
collaboration with you to produce such an effective TV.
Balochistan TV Team
Please note that you can send large files by email to us by opening an
account (creating email) with
WWW.bigstring.com.
It is free and very simple, try it.
Other email providers such as Yahoo and gmail of Google can not send files bigger than 10mb as they limit their capacities.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------By Aziz Baloch ; June 11, 2008
On
behalf of the Balochistan Human Rights Council of Canada, the Baloch
community of Vancouver would like to inform the peace loving people of
Canada gathered here today and the human rights organizations about the
atrocities and human rights violations unleashed upon Baloch nation by the
army, paramilitary units and fascist clerics in Pakistan and Iran.
This is not the first time that the Pakistani and Iranian governments have
jointly conspired and conducted military operations against the Baloch
people in the Iranian and Pakistani occupied Balochistan.
During the bloody military operation of 1973, Pakistani occupied Balochistan
went through a phase of genocide with a loss of 5000 civilians including
women and children. During this particular military operation, that lasted
four years – 1973 – 1977, Iranian fighter jets and pilots were used to bomb
the villages inside the Pakistani Balochistan territory.
While the Pakistan army's military operation is on full swing in the
Pakistani Balochistan, Iranian fascist clerics are busy hanging Baloch youth
on the streets in Iran. Thousands of Baloch youth have disappeared, tortured
and killed and more than a million tribal Baloch families from Bugti and
Marri areas have been displaced and their livelihood destroyed. According to
an HRCP report that recently came out in the press, 1.5 million internally
displaced people are living in inhuman conditions in refugee camps on the
very soil of their motherland.
Today a young Baloch, Gholam Haider Raisani is in a Quetta Jail (capital
city of Pakistani Balochistan) and the present govt of Pakistan wants to
extradite him to Iran where he will be hanged publicly. He will face torture
before being hung by Iranian regimes without a trial. Therefore Baloch
people are sitting in a hunger strike in front of the press club in Quetta,
to stop the extradition of Gholam Haider Raisani Baloch to fundamentalist
regime of Iran. Hundreds of Baloch youth had been hung in public and
thousands more are waiting for the orders of execution in Iranian jails.
In March 2005, Pakistani army officers in Sui, Balochistan raped Pakistani
female physician Dr. Shazia Khalid by an army captain. A Baloch leader, a
former governor and premier of Balochistan and powerful tribal chief of
Bugti tribe, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti demanded that military that the officer
should be brought to the court and justice should be served. But President
Pervez Musharrraf (He is still president of Pakistan) himself acquitted the
rapist army officer without any trial. Such undemocratic rulers, which
forcefully occupied Balochistan in March 1948, are involved in oppressing
the Baloch nation for the last 60 years.
General
(retired) Pervez Musharrraf started the 5th military operation in
Balochistan against the Baloch nation and the Pakistani generals used United
States military aid, which was clearly meant to be used against "war on
terror", but instead they were used against the Baloch people. Prominent
Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, former governor/premier of
Balochistan, and later Mir Balach Marri (former provincial assembly members
of
Balochistan) both were assassinated by the Pakistani army. From March 2005
till today more than 7000 political, social, and human rights activist have
disappeared, been kidnapped, tortured and are being killed. Just recently in
June 2008 Pakistani intelligences arrested 70 Bugti tribesmen in Chaman,
Balochistan and 200 more Bugti tribesmen have disappeared since the 18
February 2008 general elections in Pakistan.
As I speak right now there are three hunger strike camps in front of Quetta
Press Club in Balochistan demanding the release of their loved ones. The
undemocratic state of Pakistan is exploiting the rich natural resources of
Balochistan for the last sixty years at gunpoint. Baloch people are tired of
living under such tyranny and atrocities; Balochistan is the most backward
and deprived province of Pakistan. Therefore, a young Baloch senator
Sanaullah Baloch last Friday June 2008 resigned from his post as member of
senate due to the Pakistani government's continued oppression against its
people.
In May 28, 1998 Pakistan tested its nuclear weapons in Chagai, Balochistan,
a deadly nuclear test destroyed that region facing the worst draught there
were no crops to be grown. Baloch families, particularly newborn babies,
were born with serious health problems in those regions. Native Baloch
tribesmen's were displaced without any compensation - they have lost their
homes, livestock and lands.
The situation is similar in Iranian occupied Balochistan. Since 1928 till
today Baloch genocide is going on at all levels – cultural, economic, and
political and of human lives because their cultural, social, religious,
economic, and political rights are being denied. There is a systematic
discrimination against Baloch and other minorities such as Kurds, Azaris,
Arabs, Bahais, Christians, Jews and other minorities in Iran. Pakistani
nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan and military generals are clearly
involved in transferring nuclear weapons technology to Iran where after
Pakistan; the second Islamic nuclear bomb is secretly being built to further
erode the peace and stability in the region.
According to Amnesty International reports an eye witness saw Roya Sarani,
(innocent Baloch girl) aged 11 being shot dead on the streets of Zahedan at
about 05:30 pm on 16, May 2007 after leaving for a school examination by the
Law enforcement force (LEF)… Ladies and gentlemen here is the picture of the
innocent 11-year-old girl. The second story is about a young Baloch human
rights activist from "Voice of Justice of Young People's Society" … Yaqub
Mehrnehad, who was arrested on May 2007 after attending a meeting at a
provincial office of culture and Islamic guidance where governor of Zahedan
himself was present. Today Yaqub Mehrnehad is facing the death sentence in
an Iranian jail.
Both the Islamic states of Iran and Pakistan are collaborating with each
other, suppressing the Baloch in both the occupied parts of Balochistan.
Baloch people are appealing to the international community to take a notice
of these atrocities and oppression, they have been ruling Balochistan from
the barrel of the gun, treating Balochistan as their colony where Baloch
nation is treated as a third class citizen on their own native soil.
Behalf of the Balochistan Human Rights Council of Canada we appeal to our
democratic government of Canada, the honorable Prime Minister Mr. Stephen
Harper, human rights organizations and the United Nations to intervene and
save the Baloch nation from genocide and annihilation in Pakistan and Iran.
Help us by stopping military aid to Pakistan and putting an end to Iran's
nuclear weapons program, which we believe will be used
against Baloch civilians, and neighboring countries.
http://www.bso-na.org/