A number of pro-Balochistan activists from all over the nation will be converging on the U.S. capitol this week.
"Hero of Balochistan" Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-CA 46th District, has convened a meeting of the Oversight and Investigations sub-committee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at 2200 Rayburn House Office Building at the U.S. capitol on Wednesday February 8, 2012
Since July 2010, Balochistan has been is in the grip of a genocidal situation where 350 political activists were forcibly disappeared, killed execution style and their bodies dumped in the wilderness by Pakistan army, Frontier Corps, Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence.
The Pakistani secret services have also launched a number of terror squads, like the Baloch Mussala Diffah Tanzim to kill, maim and terrorize the political activists and human rights defenders.
Those who will present their papers before the subcommittee include Lt. Colonel (Retd) Ralph Peters, who is widely respected among the Baloch Diaspora as an advocate of Balochistan's freedom; Georgetown University Asst. Professor C. Christine Fair, who belongs to a group of Pakistan-friendly scholars who believe ties with Islamabad are indispensable for U.S.; and Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch, Ali Dayan Hasan.
"I wished Baloch representatives in U.S.A. were invited," said Dr. Nazir Bhatti, president of Pakistan Christian Congress.
Influential Balochistan voices will be in attendance.
A leader of the American Friends of Balochistan, Laurie Deamer, has indicated her intention to attend the meeting.
Deamer, who belongs to a well-respected family from Lancaster area, is daughter of retired U.S. military man Ray Deamer.
The A.F.B. has been in touch with Rep. Rohrabacher office and has informed him about the key players in Balochistan, who include "Baloch Nelson Mandela" Sardar Akhtar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party; "Pride of Mekran" Senator Dr. Malik Baloch of the National Party; Brahumdagh Bugti, president of the Baloch Republican Party and chief of the militant Baloch Republican Army; Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Daud Ahmadzai, whose family ruled over the tribal confederacy in Balochistan for multiple generations; Mehran Baluch, who has been raising a voice for Balochistan at the U.N. Human Rights Council, Geneva; and Dr. Jumma Marri of the Baloch Unity Moscow and son of former guerilla leader Mir Hazar Khan Ramkhani.
Militant outfits such as Sattar Baloch's Baloch National Liberation Front, Hyrbyair Marri's Baloch Liberation Army; and Dr. Allah Nazar's Baloch Liberation Front also have some pockets of support.
Dr. Wahid Baloch, president of the Baloch Society of North America -- one of the first organizations to lobby for Balochistan --, is also likely to attend the meeting. Dr. Baloch has met Vice President Joe Biden and late senator Ted Kennedy, among other top U.S. politicians, to apprise them about the situation in Balochistan.
"I will do my best to be there," Dr. Baloch said on phone from Jacksonville, Fla., Saturday night.
Former Balochistan excise and taxation minister and Hindu businessman Dr. Tara Chand and Razzak Baloch, who are the new U.S.A. president and general secretary of the B.N.P., have been requested by Sardar Mengal to attend the briefing.
The two leaders will be arriving from Florida where Dr. Chand has a chain of motels.
Akram Baloch, who contested the 2008 elections as an independent candidate and has also joined the B.N.P., told this correspondent on phone from Philadelphia, he will also come to DC.
The bloody situation in Balochistan has been further compounded as two militant outfits, Nazar's B.L.F. and Marri's B.L.A., are also committing crimes against humanity by targeting pro-democracy political activists and unarmed civilians, especially Punjabi settlers, according to human rights groups.
Other than Rohrabacher, Rep Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, has publicly called for independence of Balochistan for ensuring NATO's political victory in Afghanistan. He too is considered to be a "Hero of Balochistan."
©Mustikhan Syndicated News Service
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