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The Challenging Questions
By Dr. Jumma Khan Marri
March, 20th, 2006
The dynamic of violence and all other forms of dehumanisation seems to have taken hold on Balochistan
but it seems to me that both Baloch and Punjab political and military hierarchy are locked in a fatal embrace
that promises to plunge both peoples into the abyss.
Objectively, the term "stranglehold" is a more appropriate description of the type of proximity between
occupiers and occupied an abnormal grip that is both insanely obsessive and mutually destructive.
While immobilizing his "adversary," Musharraf is repeatedly calling on Baloch leadership to give up their
dreams of self determinations demands, and calls them as greedy lunatic Sardars, with mindless
monotony; the Pakistan interior Minster and the general himself along with other military officials continue to
chant this refrain like a blind chorus in a Greek tragedy, though lacking any critical distance or insight.
This bizarre and painful condition of Baloch people is no act of fate, no accident of history. Rather, it is the
natural outcome of the deliberate distortion of history in the form of a festering colonial malady that has been
allowed to infect both body and mind with no remedy in sight.
How else can one interpret the Victimisation of my Baloch nation, with a no-holds-barred assault on their
lives, lands, rights, freedoms, and aspirations?
How else can one interpret this incessant shelling, pounding, beating and kidnappings of a people who
have nowhere to go beyond their homes and whose very homes are being demolished, burned, and
besieged?
How else can we interpret this deliberate unraveling humiliation by the state where no hope insight calls on
us to give up the arms which are part of Baloch national history pride or even call it daily way of life, Baloch
are left with nothing not even any prospects of a future peace?
How else can one interpret Musharraf’s blind extremism if not in the settling of historical scores with Baloch
fighters (particularly with his favorite scapegoat/punching bag, Baloch Sardars) and the stubborn
compulsion of arrogance that he declares all past injustices to Baloch nation on the Baloch leadership and
in the same time he wants them to do Pakistan’s bidding in abject submission?
How else can one interpret the blinders that have always and collectively warped the vision of most
Pakistani state media specially PTV, simultaneously distorting their perspective, scope, depth, and field of
vision? The banal litany of official jargon, processed language, and uniform allocation of blame seem to
have had a fatal impact on their own critical perceptions as well as on the conscience of their
readers/viewers/audience.
How else can one interpret the self-destruct political system of this country that has rendered no "peace
camp»? Which again proves that without a solid democratic system there can not be a peace camp?
Nowhere is this malady as apparent and potent as it is in the Musharraf-on-the-rampage syndrome, an
anachronism of history woefully bent on repeating mistakes and the crimes of a dishonorable past while
destroying the future of Pakistani people. Pakistan’s future lays in confederation of 4 provinces’ other wise
the country is on the brink of total brake down.
As Baloch, albeit the victims, we the Baloch people and Baloch leadership too have to admit our share of the
blame and ask ourselves those questions that have remained silent or whispered in the privacy of closed-
door discussions.
Why and when did the drive for revenge overtake our pursuit of human rights and the struggle for human
dignity and liberty our unity, thereby making us fall in our tribal trap of the reactive mode as deliberately set
up by the occupation?
How did we allow ISI to formulate our agenda and dictate our timing by responding to their calculated tribal
provocations specifically designed to draw us within their cycle of retribution? Pain, grief, and the impulse for
revenge are negative motivations that give rise to mutually destructive acts of desperation. No relief and no
remedy can be found in that course. I think it is the right time when Baloch leadership should ponder for
solutions to our tribal conflicts’ and divisions which time and again creates hurdles to our unity and strength.
Why and when did we allow a few from our midst to interpret Pakistani military attacks on innocent Baloch
lives as license to do the same to their civilians? Where are those voices and forces that should have stood
up for the sanctity of innocent lives I mean the land mine war in Balochistan, instead of allowing the horror of
our own suffering to silence us?
How did some from amongst us take up the tools and weapons (however ineffectual) that are chosen by
others and on their own terms instead of fending off and exposing Pakistani military violence with our own
empowerment as advocates of freedom, justice, and peace. Turning our reality into a battlefield plays
directly into the Pakistani government's hand, not only by allowing it to use its superior military strength, but
also by eradicating the fact of the occupation from public discourse and by creating false impressions
depicting the Baloch as aggressors and the military as engaging in self-defense.
When and why did we allow the concept of resistance (and the right to resist) to become the exclusive
domain of armed struggle rather than the expression of our human will and spirit in defiance of subjugation,
intimidation, and coercion? I think Baloch along with arm resistance should take Palestinian intifada as
second tool for their struggle. Why did our nation-building process become subject to the narrow agenda of
the few who consider themselves above the law and beyond accountability, and who have persisted in their
politics of proprietorship despite their dismal record and inability to deliver?
How did our principles of democracy and the rule of law become subsumed by practices of intimidation,
exclusion, expulsions, revengefulness’, and lawlessness?Why did international public opinion become
desensitized to the plight of Baloch people under occupation, with the silence of the Baloch majority and the
duplicity of the rest?How the public presentation of the Baloch people and the cause became hostage to the
excesses of the few, and fall victim to the distortions and fabrications of official Pakistani malice?
Whether targeted by an immoral and brutal occupation, or suffering silently from internal inequities, the
people of Balochistan do not deserve their perpetual victimization. Whether deafened and terrorized by
exploding shells and missiles, or stunned by the silence of their leaders and allies, the Baloch people
deserve better.
Whether grieving for their murdered children and their destroyed homes and lively hood, the drastic poverty
or smarting at the indignity and deliberate humiliation of the siege and checkpoints, the Baloch people will
not be dehumanized. Who has the courage now to restore hope to a people whose spirit has never been
broken and whose will remains undefeated despite intolerable adversity? I am sure Baloch nation will stand
tall to prevail upon all odds of life.
No one has the right to intervene in the course of history to change its direction from the promised justice
and peace to death and destruction? Those who seek death and destruction will eventually end up with
destruction and humiliation, Baloch needs peace and prosperity the same we seek for all humanity.The
current dynamic generated by the occupation and the Musharraf’s government’s lethal agenda must not be
allowed to run its course.
Freedom, democracy, statehood and human dignity are rights that can no longer be put on hold.
By Dr. Jumma Khan Marri
March, 20th, 2006
The dynamic of violence and all other forms of dehumanisation seems to have taken hold on Balochistan
but it seems to me that both Baloch and Punjab political and military hierarchy are locked in a fatal embrace
that promises to plunge both peoples into the abyss.
Objectively, the term "stranglehold" is a more appropriate description of the type of proximity between
occupiers and occupied an abnormal grip that is both insanely obsessive and mutually destructive.
While immobilizing his "adversary," Musharraf is repeatedly calling on Baloch leadership to give up their
dreams of self determinations demands, and calls them as greedy lunatic Sardars, with mindless
monotony; the Pakistan interior Minster and the general himself along with other military officials continue to
chant this refrain like a blind chorus in a Greek tragedy, though lacking any critical distance or insight.
This bizarre and painful condition of Baloch people is no act of fate, no accident of history. Rather, it is the
natural outcome of the deliberate distortion of history in the form of a festering colonial malady that has been
allowed to infect both body and mind with no remedy in sight.
How else can one interpret the Victimisation of my Baloch nation, with a no-holds-barred assault on their
lives, lands, rights, freedoms, and aspirations?
How else can one interpret this incessant shelling, pounding, beating and kidnappings of a people who
have nowhere to go beyond their homes and whose very homes are being demolished, burned, and
besieged?
How else can we interpret this deliberate unraveling humiliation by the state where no hope insight calls on
us to give up the arms which are part of Baloch national history pride or even call it daily way of life, Baloch
are left with nothing not even any prospects of a future peace?
How else can one interpret Musharraf’s blind extremism if not in the settling of historical scores with Baloch
fighters (particularly with his favorite scapegoat/punching bag, Baloch Sardars) and the stubborn
compulsion of arrogance that he declares all past injustices to Baloch nation on the Baloch leadership and
in the same time he wants them to do Pakistan’s bidding in abject submission?
How else can one interpret the blinders that have always and collectively warped the vision of most
Pakistani state media specially PTV, simultaneously distorting their perspective, scope, depth, and field of
vision? The banal litany of official jargon, processed language, and uniform allocation of blame seem to
have had a fatal impact on their own critical perceptions as well as on the conscience of their
readers/viewers/audience.
How else can one interpret the self-destruct political system of this country that has rendered no "peace
camp»? Which again proves that without a solid democratic system there can not be a peace camp?
Nowhere is this malady as apparent and potent as it is in the Musharraf-on-the-rampage syndrome, an
anachronism of history woefully bent on repeating mistakes and the crimes of a dishonorable past while
destroying the future of Pakistani people. Pakistan’s future lays in confederation of 4 provinces’ other wise
the country is on the brink of total brake down.
As Baloch, albeit the victims, we the Baloch people and Baloch leadership too have to admit our share of the
blame and ask ourselves those questions that have remained silent or whispered in the privacy of closed-
door discussions.
Why and when did the drive for revenge overtake our pursuit of human rights and the struggle for human
dignity and liberty our unity, thereby making us fall in our tribal trap of the reactive mode as deliberately set
up by the occupation?
How did we allow ISI to formulate our agenda and dictate our timing by responding to their calculated tribal
provocations specifically designed to draw us within their cycle of retribution? Pain, grief, and the impulse for
revenge are negative motivations that give rise to mutually destructive acts of desperation. No relief and no
remedy can be found in that course. I think it is the right time when Baloch leadership should ponder for
solutions to our tribal conflicts’ and divisions which time and again creates hurdles to our unity and strength.
Why and when did we allow a few from our midst to interpret Pakistani military attacks on innocent Baloch
lives as license to do the same to their civilians? Where are those voices and forces that should have stood
up for the sanctity of innocent lives I mean the land mine war in Balochistan, instead of allowing the horror of
our own suffering to silence us?
How did some from amongst us take up the tools and weapons (however ineffectual) that are chosen by
others and on their own terms instead of fending off and exposing Pakistani military violence with our own
empowerment as advocates of freedom, justice, and peace. Turning our reality into a battlefield plays
directly into the Pakistani government's hand, not only by allowing it to use its superior military strength, but
also by eradicating the fact of the occupation from public discourse and by creating false impressions
depicting the Baloch as aggressors and the military as engaging in self-defense.
When and why did we allow the concept of resistance (and the right to resist) to become the exclusive
domain of armed struggle rather than the expression of our human will and spirit in defiance of subjugation,
intimidation, and coercion? I think Baloch along with arm resistance should take Palestinian intifada as
second tool for their struggle. Why did our nation-building process become subject to the narrow agenda of
the few who consider themselves above the law and beyond accountability, and who have persisted in their
politics of proprietorship despite their dismal record and inability to deliver?
How did our principles of democracy and the rule of law become subsumed by practices of intimidation,
exclusion, expulsions, revengefulness’, and lawlessness?Why did international public opinion become
desensitized to the plight of Baloch people under occupation, with the silence of the Baloch majority and the
duplicity of the rest?How the public presentation of the Baloch people and the cause became hostage to the
excesses of the few, and fall victim to the distortions and fabrications of official Pakistani malice?
Whether targeted by an immoral and brutal occupation, or suffering silently from internal inequities, the
people of Balochistan do not deserve their perpetual victimization. Whether deafened and terrorized by
exploding shells and missiles, or stunned by the silence of their leaders and allies, the Baloch people
deserve better.
Whether grieving for their murdered children and their destroyed homes and lively hood, the drastic poverty
or smarting at the indignity and deliberate humiliation of the siege and checkpoints, the Baloch people will
not be dehumanized. Who has the courage now to restore hope to a people whose spirit has never been
broken and whose will remains undefeated despite intolerable adversity? I am sure Baloch nation will stand
tall to prevail upon all odds of life.
No one has the right to intervene in the course of history to change its direction from the promised justice
and peace to death and destruction? Those who seek death and destruction will eventually end up with
destruction and humiliation, Baloch needs peace and prosperity the same we seek for all humanity.The
current dynamic generated by the occupation and the Musharraf’s government’s lethal agenda must not be
allowed to run its course.
Freedom, democracy, statehood and human dignity are rights that can no longer be put on hold.
Baloch Society Of North America (BSO_NA) is Non-Profit Organization, working to unite and Organize all Baloch in North America, to expose the Occupation and Oppressive policies of Pakistani and Iranian Governments against Baloch people and our Baloch land (Balochistan), and to bring their Human Rights Violations in Balochistan into the world’s Notice. |
