Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif call Sardar Bugti was was holed up in an reenforced cave bunker a “shaheed”. He was a traitor who was getting funds and arms from forces outside the country. The BLA and others are getting support from India. Bugti’s Grandson is continueing his armed struggle. He is a terrorist like his grand father. Brahamdag Bugti has to be hunted down and his movement must be buried along with Mr. Bugti.
India has to be stopped in their support for these rascals. Bugti’s sancturies in Afghanistan must be destoryed by the PAF and NATO and ISAF put on warning on cross border terror from Karzailand. The group called “Government of Bauchistan” is based in Israel.
The Government of Pakistan has declared the BLA as a terror group and banned it. The US government also considers the BLA as a terror group.
The “Balochistan Liberation Army” (BLA) claimed responsibility for dozens of terror attacks on government offices and economic infrastructure in the province, as well as in neighboring Sindh and Punjab. The government declared the BLA a terrorist organization in April. In addition to violence related to the militant Baloch nationalists, a series of bomb attacks in the provincial capital of Quetta followed police actions against suspected Taliban fighters in the last quarter of the year. (http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2006/82734.htm)
The British government has also banned the BLA. The Balochistan Liberation Army has been listed as an organisation that funds, and promotes terrorism. On 17 July 2006 the government of the United Kingdom listed the BLA as a terrorist outfit[13] and banned their members from the UK.[14] The group has also been listed a terror group by MIPT Terrorism Knowledge base, an organisation funded by the US Dept. for homeland Security.[15] Due to BLA’s designation as a terrorist organisation by the British Home Office (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/security/terrorism-and-the-law/terrorism-act/proscribed-groups),[16] any member associated with the group is barred from entering the UKAccording to Wikipedia the BLA is led by three leaders, Mr. Bugti, Mr. Mengal and Mr. Marri, the same people whose pictures appear on the websites of the “other” groups. The fact remains that all these groups are the same Indian sponsored BLA.
Members of the BLA are from the Baloch community, some believe that 50% percent of fighters of the Baloch Liberation Army members are from the Marri tribe and the rest is other Balochs from all over Balochistan.
Balach MarriRegarding the leadership of the BLA, no one knows that who heads this clandestine network of Baloch guerillas. Some believe that Mir Balach Marri, son of Baloch tribal leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, was the head of the BLA but Balach denied this, stating he knew of the BLA but he is not their chief but supports them morally and physically. Balach Marri survived an attack by Pakistani Special Service Group (SSG) on 26 August 2006, in which another well-known Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed. In addition to Balach Marri, the grandsons of Akbar Khan Bugti, Brahamdagh Khan Bugti and Mir Aley also survived. However, Balach Marri was killed in another attack on November 21, 2007.[2
The terroirst groups website is hosted on a US ISP called Blue host. Not surprisingly almost all Baluch terror groups are registered in Orm Utah by the same registerant showing complicity and connection between all these fronts for the Baluchistan Liberation Army. The ISP is in violation of ICANN rules by hosting web sites of terror groups. From the design and feel of the site, it seems that they are made in India. One of the sites is forwarded by referring host in Australia
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Bugti’s grandson says armed struggle only solution for Baloch: * Brahamdag Bugti says govt has failed to improve law and order By Malik Siraj Akbar
QUETTA: The only way to rid the Baloch of the injustices being perpetrated against them by the military is by joining the armed struggle against the government, guerrilla commander Nawabzada Brahamdag Bugti said on Friday.
In his first telephonic press conference since August 26, 2006, he extended “100 percent support” to all the militant groups operating in Balochistan, saying the only way forward for the Baloch was to stop ‘begging’ for provincial autonomy and jobs from the central government. “The Baloch issue has moved past constitutional compensation. We refuse to be a part of any reconciliatory efforts in the province. Why does the government talk of reconciliation when it is still engaged in a full-fledged operation against the Baloch people,” he said.
“We are in a constant state of war. Troops recently burnt some people in the Sangsila area. We are fighting a sacred war for the attainment of just rights for the Baloch. We dislike begging for favours, as we are the masters of our land and resources. Why should we beg them (Islamabad) for granting us autonomy or ownership of our resources, as this implies that the people at the Centre, and not the Baloch, are the masters of the resources,” he said.
Not improved: Bugti, 28, claimed that the state of law and order had not improved in the Marri and Bugti tribal areas since the induction of the new government at the Centre and in Balochistan. Instead, he alleged, around 200 people had been ‘abducted’ by military personnel.
He said the troops deployed outside the fort, and close to the grave of the late Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, had not yet been withdrawn, as claimed by the government. Instead, he claimed, the government had added more checkposts to the area.
To questioning, he said that his struggle sought the full independence of Balochistan. Referring to his grandfather Nawab Akbar Bugti, he said the late Nawab had talked of parliamentary politics while living within the federation of Pakistan but had been killed when he raised his voice for the right of ownership. He said the new wave of armed struggle in Balochistan was different from the ones waged in the past because this time an overwhelming majority of the Baloch supported the movement.
“They know that armed struggle is justified if it can protect the Baloch land from the injustices of the military. Many Baloch are not part of the struggle but they don’t oppose us. We enjoy their moral support and are sure they will join us one day,” he added.
On a question about the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)’s targeted killings of policemen and Punjabi settlers, he said such attacks were inevitable in the wake of the violence being perpetrated against the Baloch.
Bugti said he had decided to rename the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) into the Baloch Republican Party (BRP), as the situation in the province had completely changed since the founding of the party in 1988. He claimed that the current atmosphere was not conducive for carrying out a democratic struggle. He said all the political parties of Balochistan should unite under a single platform, adding that otherwise they were all just wasting their time.
He said the Baloch fighters led by him had not received any external assistance for their struggle. “The only international support we have is from the media, as some international media organisations sometimes give us coverage. But we need more international moral support, especially from the United Nations,” he added.
APPENDIX A
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APPENDIX B
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APPENDIX C
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APPENDIX D
BLA declared terrorist organisation, banned
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, April 9: The government on Sunday banned the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) after declaring it as a terrorist organisation for its alleged involvement in terrorist activities. According to a notification issued by the interior ministry, the BLA is headed by some tribal leaders.
However, a news agency quoted Balochistan police chief as saying that Balach Marri, an MPA, heads the group and he will now lose his assembly seat.
The notification has been sent to provincial governments for action against the outfit.
The federal government exercised its powers under section 11(b) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, to declare the BLA a terrorist organisation.
The decision was made after the government cancelled the arms licences issued earlier to main nationalist leaders in Balochistan.
According to evidences collected by the federal government, the notification said, the BLA was involved in sabotage activities, including rocket attacks on national installations, civilian population and security forces. It was also accused of laying landmines in various parts of the province.
Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah told reporters that anyone associated with the BLA or supporting its terrorist activities would be tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
He said the investigation into several past terrorist acts found that majority of the incidents had been planned, engineered and executed by BLA operatives to create a situation of anarchy in Balochistan.
The offices of the BLA operating anywhere in the country, he said, would be sealed and bank accounts associated with it would be frozen immediately.
The interior secretary said no prominent leader of the BLA had been arrested. He, however, added that several of its operatives had been caught who had admitted to their involvement in terrorist activities.
He said intelligence agencies had credible evidence that the BLA operated with foreign support, adding “the organisation is being financed from certain foreign sources.”
He pointed out that the BLA had ‘farrari camps’ to train its workers to carry out acts of sabotage.
Senate Deputy Chairman Jan Muhammad Jamali, also a former chief minister of Balochistan, recently accused Indian consulates in Afghanistan of assisting terrorist activities of the BLA.
The reported objective of the BLA is to obtain the ‘right of independence’ for the people of Balochistan.
Agencies add: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan in an interview to PTV World said: “Balochistan Liberation Army has been proscribed for the reason that they were involved in terrorist activities.”
The minister pointed out that for a couple of months the BLA had been involved in blowing up railway tracks and electric towers. “They themselves have admitted responsibility of these actions,” he said.
The government kept a watch on them and now it has decided to proscribe them, he said.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the people arrested had revealed that they were being paid for damaging national assets and disturbing the law and order situation.
He said it was imperative to ban the BLA as it was playing with the lives of innocent people.
Talking to AFP, Balochistan police chief Chaudhry Mohammed Yaqub said the group was now officially a terrorist organisation, its name could not appear in the media.
He said the group was allegedly led by Balach Marri, an MPA who is facing several criminal charges, including landmine blasts and bomb explosions.
“He will now lose his seat in the provincial assembly,” he said.
The BLA leader’s brother Gazin Marri, who was provincial home minister from 1993-96, was arrested in Dubai late last month on the charge of money laundering, the police chief said.
“This confirms our belief that the group had been receiving funds from abroad,” he said.
The BLA last week claimed responsibility for killing five tribal policemen and a private security official guarding an oil and gas exploration site in Bolan.
It has also been claiming landmine attacks on gas pipelines and railway lines in the province bordering Iran and Afghanistan. The group also claimed a recent attack on power lines that plunged more than half the province into darkness.
APPENDIX E
Tribes and Rebels: The Players in the Balochistan Insurgency
By Muhammad Tahir
As the violence on Pakistan’s northwest frontier dominates the headlines, a lesser-known insurgency has gripped Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan. Bomb blasts and rocket attacks have become almost daily events in this region: A ten-week period in 2008 saw 76 insurgent-linked incidents reported, claiming the lives of 14 people and wounding 123 (South Asia Terrorism Portal: Balochistan Timeline 2008).
The troubled history of Balochistan dates back to the independence of Pakistan in 1947, beginning as a reaction to the annexation of the princely state of Qalat—later joined to three other states to form modern Balochistan—by Pakistani authorities in 1948. The annexation led to the first Baloch rebellion, which was swiftly put down. The security situation in the region remained fragile as rebellions erupted in 1958, 1973, and most recently in 2005.
Unlike previous anti-government insurrections, it is currently hard to pinpoint one person or group for orchestrating these incidents as there are today several groups in Balochistan potentially interested in challenging the government. The most immediate suspect is the Taliban, who are unhappy with Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States in its war on terror. The Taliban is active throughout Balochistan, particularly in Quetta and the Pashtun belt of the province, bordering with Afghanistan.
However, despite the Islamist presence, the prime motivators of the current insurgency remain Baloch nationalists, who live in the remote mountains of the province and believe they have been deprived of their rights and revenues from the considerable natural resources of their province. The nationalists believe these revenues are appropriated by the federal government with little return to the province (Ausaf, February 7, 2006).
The Baloch claim to have been native to the region since 1200 BC. Today, there are an estimated eight to nine million Baloch, living in Iran and Afghanistan as well as Pakistan. Their language consists of three main dialects: Balochi, Brahwi and Saraiki. The Balochistan province of Pakistan is one of the important Baloch settlements in the region, located at the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau and in the border region between southwest, central and south Asia. It is geographically the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan and composes 48 percent of the nation’s total territory.
Though the Baloch have a long history of mistrust of the central government of Pakistan, the federal government has its own interpretation of the current tensions, claiming that the hostile situation is provoked by Baloch nationalist leaders who consider large-scale initiatives to develop the region as a threat to their influence. President Pervez Musharraf even accused the leading tribal chiefs of the Baloch tribes of Bugti, Marri and Mingal of playing a direct role in the mounting insurgency (Daily Dunya, August 25, 2006; Dawn [Karachi], July 21, 2006).
The Baloch Tribes
• The Bugti tribe is one of approximately 130 Baloch tribes, with approximately 180,000 members dwelling mainly in the mountainous region of Dera Bugti. The tribe is divided into the sub-tribes of Rahija Bugti, Masori Bugti and Kalpar Bugti. For decades this tribe has been dominated by the Rahija Bugti family of Akbar Khan Bugti, a prominent Baloch nationalist. Before he took the chieftainship at 12 years of age in 1939, his father and grandfather were leaders of the tribe.
Unlike some other traditional Baloch tribal families, the Akbar Bugti’s family was considered moderate, as Akbar’s grandfather, Shahbaz Khan Bugti, was knighted by Britain, and Akbar Bugti himself was educated at Oxford and held several of the most powerful political positions in the country: governor, chief minister of Balochistan and federal interior minister. Until his death in 2006 in an air and ground assault by Pakistani security forces, Akbar Bugti was also chief of the Jamhuri Watan Party, established in 1990 (Bakhabar, August 27, 2006).
The issue of royalties and the ownership of gas fields—discovered in Akbar Bugti’s hometown of Dera Bugti and providing 39 percent of the country’s total requirement—remained the main cause of conflict between the tribal chief and the government. Pakistani officials claim that Akbar Bugti was paid around $4 million annually in royalties, but used these resources to blackmail the state and build a state-within-the-state (Khabrain, August 6, 2006). Islamabad’s response, such as supporting rival Kalpar Bugtis—who denounced Akbar Bugti’s chieftainship—and deploying troops in Dera Bugti, led Akbar Bugti and his followers to take arms against the government.
Akbar Bugti’s son, Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti, has rejected Prime Minister Gillani’s offer of negotiations conditional on laying down arms, saying that the Baloch people will only do so after they have achieved their rights and gained complete autonomy (ANI, April 3). Another son, Jamil Akbar Bugti, is currently fighting a freeze on his assets on the placement of his name on Pakistan’s exit control list (APP, March 28). A grandson, Nawab Sardar Brahamdagh Khan Bugti, is a major leader of Baloch militants.
• The Marri is another major Baloch tribe, based in the Kohlo district of Balochistan. Their chief, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, was branded by President Musharraf as the “troublemaker Sardar” (tribal chief). The Marri are also divided into sub-tribes: the Gazni Marri, Bejarani Marri and Zarkon Marri, with Khair Bakhsh Marri belonging to the Gazni faction. The total population of the Marri tribe in Balochistan is reportedly around 98,000 and the nature of their relationship with the government is historically hostile—they have integrated little into the political structure of the country.
Unlike the leader of the Bugti tribe, the chieftain of the Marri is said to be closer to the communists, his sons graduating from schools in Moscow. Unable to withstand the Pakistani military, he and dozens of his followers took refuge in Kabul in 1979, remaining there until Russia withdrew. Khair Bakhsh Marri remains committed to an armed struggle for no less than full independence for Balochistan despite losing dozens of followers and relatives, most recently his son Balach Marri, who reportedly led a rebel group of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) (Balochistan Express, November 22, 2007).
• Ataullah Khan Mingal, leader of the Mingal tribe and another trouble-maker in Musharraf’s eyes, has played a dominant role in the political history of Baloch in the region. Unlike the other tribes, the Mingals have given little military resistance, although Ataullah never denounced the anti-government armed resistance.
The party in which he began his political career was the National Awami Party (NAP), led by Pashtun nationalist Wali Khan. Following the elections of May 1972, in which the party swept Balochistan, Atualla Mingal took power as the first chief minister of Balochistan. His role in the NAP-led London Plan—a secret meeting of Pashtun and Baloch nationalists in London, allegedly to prepare ground for declaring the independence of the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan—is the peak of his nationalistic political career, which led to his imprisonment in 1973. Subsequently the federal government began large-scale military operations in Balochistan to crush the nationalists (BBC Urdu, February 11, 2005).
Following his release from prison in the late 1970s, Atualla Mingal went into exile in London, returning in the mid-1990s to establish the Balochistan National Party (BNP), which brought his son Akhtar Mingal to power as chief minister of Balochistan. Mingal junior was jailed by Musharraf in September 2006 on charges of terrorism, due to his alleged involvement with the recent Baloch insurgency against the Pakistan government.
Tribal Leaders and Insurgent Groups
Since Musharraf came to power in 1999 there have been other goals besides independence that have drawn Baloch nationalists together. The most influential Baloch leaders—Akbar Khan Bugti, Khair Bakhsh Marri and Ataulla Khan Mingal—have had a variety of reasons to be suspicious of the government’s involvement in the area, which they viewed as an attempt to de-seat them from tribal chieftainship. Government moves have included state support to rival factions within the tribe and the deployment of military forces into the region (Bakhabar, August 27, 2006). Nevertheless, no tribal chief is ready to tie himself to insurgent groups publicly, though military sources remain skeptical that the authoritarian tribal chiefs are ignorant of who is firing rockets in their territory.
Currently at least five insurgent groups are publicly known in Balochistan, including the Baloch Republican Army (BRA), Baloch People’s Liberation Front (BPLF), Popular Front for Armed Resistance (PFAR), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), the last two being the largest and most widely-known.
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)
The BLA’s political stance is unequivocal: They stand for the sole goal of establishing an independent state for Baloch in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The roots of the BLA date back to 1973, during the period of resistance against military operations in Balochistan and the discovery of the secret NAP-led London Plan.
Though the movement did not become public until 2000, some sources claim that the BLA was a Russian creation and came into being during the Afghan war, propped up as a reaction to Pakistan’s anti-Soviet involvement in Afghanistan (Dawn, July 15, 2006). Those supporting this claim point to the Moscow education of the alleged leader of BLA, Balach Marri, and the time he spent in Russia and Afghanistan.
The number of BLA activists is not known, but Pakistani military sources suggest that there are currently 10,000 Baloch insurgents involved in separatist activities, of which 3,000 are active in the insurgency. The government implicates India and Afghanistan in supporting the movement. President Musharraf reportedly presented a damning file regarding these allegations to President Karzai during his visit to Afghanistan in late February 2006 (The News [Islamabad], April 16, 2006). Despite these allegations and regardless of any possible outside support, the nature of the BLA’s activities has a local focus, with no foreign nationals being arrested with proven involvement in the Baloch insurgency.
Baloch Liberation Front (BLF)
The BLF, like the other Baloch insurgent groups, recently re-emerged as a potential threat in the region, claiming responsibility for deadly and frequent attacks on government installations. The BLF has so far escaped state accusations of organized terrorism, although its operations seem far bigger than those of other factions. The seventh article of its charter—from the pro-Marri nationalist website sarmachar.org—describes the struggle as a holy duty of all Baloch and asks for moral and financial, if not military, participation. The tenth article says: “The independent state is a matter of life and death for Baloch.” This organization, describing itself as an army of volunteers, also offers a complete program for a post-independence state, ranging from education and health policies to issues of foreign policy and internal and external security.
Some reports suggest that the BLF was established in Damascus in 1964 by Baloch nationalist Juma Khan Marri, who in the 1970s and 1980s was seen actively meeting with the communist regime in Moscow and Kabul. The BLF played an active role in the resistance against military operations in 1973, which continued until the collapse of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s regime. These clashes reportedly took the lives of 3,000 soldiers and around 5,000 Baloch rebels.
It is not clear on what scale the BLF currently operates and who leads it, though Akbar Bugti once described it as an autonomous organization that operated independently of tribal chiefs (Newsline, February 2005).
Conclusion
Regardless of the number of Baloch insurgents, the nature and scale of their activities since 2000 have marked their emergence as a major threat toward regional security, with Pakistan’s new government—elected on February 18—apparently recognizing this threat. Soon after the election, the victorious politicians began signalling the adoption of a softer approach to ease tension in Balochistan. The election was boycotted by the Baloch nationalist parties in response to ongoing military operations in Balochistan that began in 2005.
As a first step to change the tense atmosphere, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has hinted at accommodating some Baloch nationalists under its political umbrella and has accepted their demand to stop military operations in the region. The nomination of Aslam Raisani, an independently elected Baloch member of parliament, for the post of provisional chief minister in Balochistan by the PPP is another signal directed at winning hearts and minds in the province.
It is unclear whether these policies and the appointment of Raisani as a chief minister may bring a major breakthrough, but soon after his nomination, Raisani hinted at taking a completely different approach toward the crisis from the military-based policies of the Musharraf regime. Recently he was quoted by local media saying that the so-called rebel Baloch are his own brothers and if he could not make them agree to lay down their arms, he will step down (Daily Zamana, March 9).
The question of an independent state remains a tricky issue, but some moderate Baloch voices say that independence is no longer a priority for the Baloch majority, as they are struggling to survive due to the devastating effect of hostilities on the local economy. The economic structure of Balochistan is where the future of the region begins. Involving local Baloch in the large-scale economic projects proposed for the province will be a major step in winning their confidence; otherwise there is no reason to believe that the tense political situation in Balochistan will not deteriorate further.
