The crime itself has few parallels in the world, though Pakistan military --now the fourth largest in the world and armed with nuclear arms -- has a track record of killing and raping innocent women. At least 200,000 Bengali women were raped in Bangladesh in 1971, scores killed and 30,000 "Babies of War" were born to victims of rape in the erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
In Balochistan itself, during the 1973-77 insurgency when the military would be outmatched in the battlefields against the fearless Marris they would target women and children and burn down entire villages.
Zamur Domki, 34, and Janan Domki, 13, were full of laughter and life. At a tender age they had seen their family elder Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, 79, say goodbye to a life of comforts and in stead give his life for the glory of his homeland, Balochistan -- the land of the Baloch. By his own blood he washed his political sin of being a representative of the Pakistani establishment for most of his political career, including during the 1973-77 insurgency.
Scores of Bugti kith and kin were killed. Tens of thousands had to leave their ancestral Dera Bugti and Sui areas to escape to safety.
Zamur Domki's younger brother Brahumdagh Bugti, president of the Baloch Republican Party and chief of the Baloch Republican Army, said goodbye to the land that spews more than $10 million dollars of natural gas each day and opted to live in exile. The right honorable Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Daud Ahmadzai has very correctly said that Baloch leaders in exile are leading miserable lives.
This is the time for all Baloch to forgive their own blood and bone, for their acts of omission and commission, and unite for the biggger battles and the great war ahead. The war for victory of love over hate, the triumph of life over death.
"The blame game must end," wrote Dr. Jumma Marri -- Marri's father Mir Hazar Khan Ramkhani along with another guerilla leader the late Sher Mohammad Marri, has fought some of the fiercest battles for the glory of Balochistan --, in his condemnation of the cowardly killing of the Domki females along with the family driver in the dead of night last week in Karachi, commercial capital of Pakistan.
Brother must bury the hatchet for the second brother, if the lives and honor of the sister are to be saved. Time is fast running out for the Baloch people, from Karachi to Chabahar.
Just a few weeks ago the picture of former senator Mir Tahir Bizenjo standing in front of the Karachi Press Club in solidarity with the families of victims of enforced disappearances raised one's spirit. His father-in-law Waja Maula Bakhsh Bizenjo was killed without any rhyme or reason by the trigger-happy hichmachars. But his joining the protest showed he has forgiven the killers.
If the Baloch begin settling their scores, the anti-people generals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad will have a a field day.
Name calling must stop. The factories that manufacture the so-called certificates of national traitors and I.S.I. agents have to wind up their businesses now. The guns that have been pointed at the heads of some of the best sons of the Baloch soil, like Dr. Malik Baloch, president of the National Party, need to be unloaded.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Baloch today face the same challenges the Native Americans faced in North America couple of centuries back and will perish in the next quarter or half century if they fail to unite in a single party. or at least form a broad-based united front.
At the international and national level the slogans have be refined and fine tuned.
The Pakistan resolution and talk of provincial autonomy drowned in the Bay of Bengal in December 1971.
Today, the right to self-determination is the correct slogan.
The path of all forms of struggle is the correct way as there can be no single road to freedom. While the war against the occupation forces need to continue in a smart manner, the sarmachars or resistance must vow it shall never again touch an unarmed civilian and political activist. The sarmachars should have the courage to cleanse its ranks of criminals and killers and recruit person of high moral caliber.
The resistance outfits must apologize for killing unarmed civilians and political activists as the first step towards seeking truth and reconciliation in Baloch ranks.
Any national struggle in a tribal-oriented society that does not include a democratic charter and a social agenda is bound to relegate into war-lordism, adventurism and even fratricide. The struggle for democracy must be part of the national struggle for the right to self-determination .
Elections and parliament are part and parcel of democracy and must be fully embraced. Only the Taliban and Pakistan military fear democratic institutions and pro-people processes like elections.
Unity does not mean there should not be political debates. Polemics and debates, without personal attacks are the lifeblood of a movement. Negative trends such as suicide bombings and killing political opponents by labeling them as agents must be combatted at the intellectual level.
The two right demands that will be acceptable to the international community are: the right to self-determination and an end to the genocide and secret dirty war in Balochistan. This was evident when Pakistan tried to expel the Inter-Faith International at the U.N. Human Rights Council. Both the U.S. and U.K. came on record to defend the Inter-Faith International and the idea of the right to self-determination under international law.
Preference must be given to honest, educated middle class leaders such as Dr. Malik Baloch, Akram Dashti, former senator Sanaulah Baloch, former fisheries minister Kachkol Ali Advocate, Dr. Jumma Marri etc.
Our honorable Afghan brothers, both Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns, who have been at the receiving end of the Rawalpindi GHQ, are willing to go an extra mile in our support as it would help them in the long-run as well.
"Tiger of Panjsher" Amrullah Saleh, former chief of the Afghan intelligence, whom Brahumdagh Bugti calls a brother, feels the pain of the Baloch as much as he feels the pain of the common Afghans suffering because of the villainy and cruelty of the Inter-Services Intelligence.
An effort is underway in the U.S. to bring together the Afghan and Baloch leaders to the U.S. capital in summer. Those engaged in the yeoman exercise are doing so on empty pocket. The plan is to bring together everyone: Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Daud, Dr. Malik Baloch, "Baloch Nelson Mandela" Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Brahumdagh Bugti, Hyrbyair Marri, Mehran Baluch, Dr. Jumma Marri and Sher Alam Marri, among others, alongside their Afghan counterparts for a historic Afghanistan-Balochistan Unity Conference with the U.S. acting as a glue.
If these efforts result in a single party that will be Nawab Bugti's dream come true. This will be the best revenge for the blood of Zamur Domki and Janan Domki.
Many people have been moved by the plight of the Baloch people. In the U.S. people like Selig S. Harrison, Ralph Peters, C. Chris Mason, Laurie Deamer, Jane E. Weisner, Wendy Johnson, Annie Nocenti, Dr. Nazir Bhatti, Bob Selle, Andrew Eiva, Sakura Saunders, Kimberly Crichton, Jeffrey Imm, Peter Tucker, James Clad and countless others want to help the Baloch cause, mostly on volunteer basis.
This is a huge achievement for the Diaspora.
Just this morning I got a tweet from Maria Rohaly, human rights activist of Mission Free Iran, who was keenly interested in attending the upcoming hearing of the Oversight and Investigations Committee of the House Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, convened by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.
Most of these American friends will shy away in case political activists and unarmed civilians are touched by the resistance or there are more Nazima Talibs -- the Balochistan university journalism professor who was killed April 27, 2010 just like Zamur Bugti and Janan Bugti were killed Janaury 31, 2012, in an extremely cowardly manner.
©Mustikhan Syndicated News Service
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