6 December 2008

Take the Necessary Action on Releasing of the Young Baloch Ibrahim

REPOTED BY JAWED BALOCH FROM SARAVAN


Balochistan Human Rights Activists Association:Urgent: Take the Necessary Actionon Releasing of the Young Baloch Ibrahim Mehrnehad in Custody of IslamicRepublic of IranIbrahim Mehrnehad has been in jail for a long time by now. He is the youngerbrother of Ya'qoub Mehrnehad who was sentenced to death penalty last year byIslamic republic of Iran. The only issue that Ya'qoub had in his conscionce wasto be a civilian activist and human rights fighter against the unfairness thatBaloch people has been facing from a brutal undemocratic political establishmentin Iran under the islamic regime. Meanwhile the only issue that IbrahimMehrnehad has on his conscience is the resolute effort that he made forconvincing the authorities in Iran that his brother had committed nothing butonly raising his voice regarding the unfairness against civilians, keeping inmind that Ya'qoub was even carrying out his activities within the permittedboundaries.Now where the regime has silenced the voice of Ya'qoub for ever, the regime doesnot still consider its mission as completed, and continues its constantlyongoing suppression in every possible way. Is the voice of human rightsactivists and freedom fighters silenced for ever now? That is the question thatthe Islamic establishment in Iran must ask itself. How many Ya'qoubs they intendto kill, and how many Ibrahims they want to hold in their custody? We allalready know the only answer and response from the Islamic republic of Iran.Ibrahim who, as mentioned, was arrested innocently, was removed from the jail inZahedan to Kerman without further notice. He has not been dedicated an attorney,and his family has been permitted to meet him in jail only three times since hewas arrested.Even we are convinced that Islamic Republic of Iran would not waste a second forkilling any raised voice, we would like to call for attention of all humanrights organisations, the Amnesty International in particular, to take theurgent action for making all possible efforts for releasing Ibrahim. It is now,he needs us and our support. We fear justly for his fate, and therefore we allmust make a hast before it is too late, and before he faces the same destiny hisbrother Ya'qoub faced.

5 December 2008

Balochistan businessmen condemn Karachi killings

QUETTA: The business community in Balochistan has condemned violence against Baloch businessmen in Karachi and appealed to the federal government to protect the interests of businessmen.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Balochistan Anjuman-e-Ittehad President Rahim Kakar alleged that Baloch businessmen settled in Karachi for many years were now being subjected to ‘government-backed ethnic violence’.
Kakar said five Baloch people had been killed and dozens other injured in Saturday’s clashes in Karachi, and called the violence an effort to expel Pashtun businessmen from the city. He said the burial of the five victims in Karachi showed that Pashtuns considered the city their home.
“We believe Karachi does not belong to a single ethnic community. It is the business capital of Pakistan and people from all four provinces should be allowed to work there fearlessly,” Kakar said. He regretted the Balochistan government’s silence on the killing of its people by ‘certain elements’ in Karachi.
He also held the federal government responsible for the recent ethnic clashes, saying it had also made no efforts to protect the Baloch people in Karachi.
“We denounce President Asif Ali Zardari’s statement that all visitors to Karachi should be registered and will not accept the registration of the countrymen in their own cities,” he said, adding the government should register those “who came from India 60 years ago and their citizenship is still controversial”.
He said Baloch businessmen would use democratic modes of protest to express solidarity with their Baloch brethren working in Karachi

Khan of Kalat - asylum case UPDATE

Ruling expected in two or three weeks
Threats from Pakistan Embassy alleged
London and Cardiff - 1 December 2008
“The asylum appeal of the Baloch monarch, His Highness Beglar Begi, Suleman Khan Ahmedzai, concluded in Newport, Wales, on Friday 28 November,” reports human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell.
“The judge will now deliver a written judgement in two to three week’s time.
“I am hopeful that the Khan of Kalat will be granted refugee status, but the British asylum system is notoriously harsh. It is very difficult for anyone to be granted asylum nowadays. The government’s priority is to reduce asylum numbers. Often claimants with a well-founded fear of persecution are refused and deported back to their home countries.”
“Suleman Khan Ahmedzai says that he has received threats from phone numbers that he alleges are traceable to the Pakistani Embassy in London. It is definitely not safe from him to return Pakistan. There is a serious risk that he would be jailed or assassinated,” said Mr Tatchell.
A report about the Khan’s asylum hearing last Friday, from the South Wales Echo newspaper, follows below.
Further information contact:
The Khan of Kalat, Suleman Ahmedzai - 0786 4033 185
Peter Tatchell - 020 7403 1790
Royal leader fears death if deported to Balochistan
29 Nov 2008 - South Wales Echo
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/11/29/royal-leader-fears-death-if-deported-to-balochistan-91466-22368125/
The Royal leader of a Pakistani province told an asylum appeal hearing yesterday he feared assassination if he was deported.
His Highness Beglar Begi, Suleman Khan Ahmedzai, says he fled his homeland in Balochistan for South Wales to escape persecution by the Pakistani military and intelligence services.
Mr Ahmedzai, who is referred to as the Khan of Kalat, opposes Pakistan’s annexation of Balochistan in 1948. He arrived in Britain in June 2007 following the killing of another Baloch national leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in a military raid in 2006.
In October 2007, the Khan’s application for asylum in the UK was refused.
At yesterday’s appeal hearing, the 45-year-old father-of-three, who now lives alone in Cardiff, said despite sometimes having up to 100 armed bodyguards with him in Balochistan, his safety could not be guaranteed there.
“If the government wants to get rid of you, it will get rid of you,” he said.
He claims several death threats have been made to him directly and indirectly by telephone since he came to this country.
He claims these calls were made from the Pakistani embassy in London.
At the appeal hearing in Newport, Irwin Richards, the Home Office’s presenting officer, disputed the threats were ever made.
He told Immigration Judge A Cresswell: “Even if in the alternative you are inclined to accept these phone calls were received and made of a threatening nature there is no evidence to link such calls with the Pakistani embassy in this country.”
The appeal hearing’s decision is due to be handed down within the next few weeks.
Outside the appeal hearing, the Khan said: “I have three palaces, a house on five acres and other houses. Whatever I have is there (Balochistan). Other people come into this country on banana boats or on containers or underneath trucks but they become refugees for a better life.
“My everything is there and I have come to this country for my own safety.
“I want to make the international community aware of what is going on over there.”
He claims thousands of his people have “disappeared” over the years because of their opposition to the Pakistani authorities.
“There is a carrot and stick approach,” said the Khan. “I didn’t take the carrot because of my conscience.
“I was told whatever was taken from my grandfather in 1958, which was millions of acres of land, I could have some back.”
His cause is being supported by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
“The Khan is seen by many Baloch people as their head of state,” said Mr Tatchell.
“Suleman Ahmedzai is the direct descendant of the Khan of Kalat, the monarch of the state of Kalat, who signed a Treaty with the British government in 1876, making what is now Balochistan a British Protectorate.
“His grandfather was head of state when Balochistan secured its brief period of independence in 1947, before it was invaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948.
“He attended the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, with other world leaders, as the honoured guest of the British government.
“Refusing Suleman Ahmedzai asylum is symptomatic of a pattern of harassment of Baloch refugees by the UK authorities.
“Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have threatened to end all cooperation with the UK unless our government cracks down on Baloch dissidents exiled here.”
echo.newsdesk@mediawales.co.uk
Background to the Khan’s asylum case
Baloch royal leader seeks asylum
Khan of Kalat appeals this Friday
London - 27 November 2008
His Highness Beglar Begi, Suleman Khan Ahmedzai, the Khan of Kalat, aged 45, will appeal for asylum in the UK this Friday, 28 November, at a tribunal in Newport, Wales.
Regarded by many Baloch people as their monarch and head of state, he was refused asylum in October 2007.
Fridays appeal hearing will take place at 10am at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal Newport, Columbus House, Chepstow Road, Langstone, Newport , NP18 2LX (0845 600 0877).
Suleman Ahmedzai is head of the royal household and a national leader in Balochistan, where Pakistan is waging a war against the Baloch people - a war that has been condemned for its widespread human rights abuses by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (see the links to human rights reports below).
In June 2007, he sought sanctuary in the UK, fearing arrest and murder, following the killing of another Baloch national leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, by Pakistani forces during bombing raids in 2006. Bugti was former Pakistani Minister of Defence, and former Governor and Chief Minister of Balochistan.
Suleman Ahmedzai’s fears are well founded. A fellow nationalist leader, Balaach Marri, was murdered by Pakistani government agents in November 2007.
His asylum appeal is supported by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell:
“The Khan is is seen by many Baloch people as their head of state. His treatment by the British government has been squalid and disrespectful,” said Mr Tatchell.
“Suleman Ahmedzai is the direct descendant of the Khan of Kalat, the monarch of the state of Kalat, who signed a Treaty with the British government in 1876, making what is now Balochistan a British Protectorate.
“His grandfather was head of state when Balochistan secured its brief period of independence in 1947, before it was invaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948. He attended the Queen’s coronation in 1953, with other world leaders, as the honoured guest of the British government.
“Refusing Suleman Ahmedzai asylum is symptomatic of a pattern of harassment of Baloch refugees by the UK authorities.
“Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have threatened to end all cooperation with the UK unless our government cracks down on Baloch dissidents exiled here. This may be part of the reason why Suleman Ahmedzai has had such difficulty in gaining asylum.
“The government wants to appease the Pakistanis, in order to secure their continuing cooperation in the ‘war on terror’. It is embarrassed by the Khan’s presence in the UK and is trying to make things difficult for him.
“The UK government aided and abetted the illegal dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf, selling him military equipment used to prosecute Pakistan’s illegal war in Balochistan - a war that has involved the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Under threat of arrest and imprisonment, in 1948 Suleman Ahmedzai’s grandfather signed the treaty of accession which surrendered the independence of the Kalat state (Balochistan) and incorporated it into Pakistan. Both houses of the Kalat parliament - and Baloch public opinion - opposed the incorporation. The Baloch people have always been refused a vote on self-rule by successive Pakistani regimes. Ever since, for 60 years, Balochistan has been under military occupation and its people crushed by five bloody wars launched by Islamabad,” said Mr Tatchell

3 December 2008

Drop all charges against Marri and Baluch, Protest at london

Drop all charges against Marri and Baluch
Stop abusing the anti-terror laws
Human rights campaigners are not terrorists
London – 1 December 2008On Monday 1 December, the Baloch ‘terrorism’ trial resumed in London.Friends and supporters of the defendants, Hyrbyair Marri and FaizBaluch, staged a protest outside the court, calling for the trial tobe halted and the charges dropped.
Although the police and court officials were needlessly bullying,forcing the protesters to leave the court grounds, the supporters ofthe defendants made their point and were seen by court staff and byeveryone who came to the court and who passed by it.
The Balochistan human rights campaigners Hyrbyair Marri and FaizBaluch are being prosecuted on terrorism charges, which are widelybelieved to have been concocted by Pakistani intelligence.
Monday’s protest was supported by Baloch and Sindhi rights campaignersfrom Pakistan and by members of CAMPACC, the UK Campaign AgainstCriminalising Communities, which opposes abuses of the anti-terrorlaws.
Mr Marri and Mr Baluch are represented in court by two of the UK’sleading human rights barristers, Henry Blaxland QC and Dame HelenaKennedy QC.
Mr Marri is a former MP and government minister in the regionalassembly of Balochistan – a previously independent state, which wasinvaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948, and which has ever since beenunder illegal Pakistani military occupation . Mr Baluch is his campaignassistant.
“The Pakistan High Commissioner , speaking on behalf of the newdemocratic government of Pakistan , says his government wantsreconciliation in Baluchistan and opposes the prosecution, effectivelycalling for the charges to be dropped,” says human rights campaignerPeter Tatchell , who helped coordinate Monday’s protest.
“Previously, the acting Interior Minister of Pakistan, Rehman Malik,announced that terror charges against Mr Marri in Pakistan have beencancelled; stating that the case against him had been politicallymotivated by the Musharraf dictatorship. This discredits the wholebasis on which Marri and Baluch have been charged in London.
“The trial is another abuse of the anti-terror laws, wherebylegitimate human rights campaigners end up on trial.
“It appears that the UK government has been blackmailed into arrestingthese men and harassing other Baloch exiles and refugees. It isreported that Pakistan’s military and intelligence services havethreatened to end all cooperation with the UK government in the ” waron terror ” unless critics of its war in Balochistan are silenced andjailed. That is probably why Marri and Baluch are on trial.
“The UK authorities seem to have decided these men are expendable forthe sake of the ‘greater good’ of tackling terrorism by maintainingclose relations with the Pakistani military and intelligence services.
“Marri and Baluch have campaigned for self-determination forBalochistan and helped expose Pakistan’s annexation and oppression ofthe Baloch nation. They are defending their people against militaryoppression and economic exploitation. Pakistani military chiefs wantthem prosecuted because they have been such effective campaigners,exposing to the world Islamabad’s tyranny in Balochistan.
“For nine years, the UK’s Labour government aided and abetted theillegal dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf , selling him militaryequipment that was used to prosecute Pakistan’s illegal war inBalochistan – a war that has involved the perpetration of war crimesand crimes against humanity and which has been strongly condemned byinternational human rights groups,” said Mr Tatchell.

Balochistan Human Rights Watch

Balochistan Human Rights Watch:

The Security forces in Islamic Republic of Iran’s regime kidnapped a Baloch man from Berahoui tribe from his home and returned his tortured and dead body to the family.



According to the reports obtained by activists in Balochistan Human Rights Watch, the security forces of Iraianian Islamic Republic in Zahedan, attacked a home in Zahedan Thursday 27th november 2008 at 8:00 and arrested two men ‘’Bahman Rigi’’ and ‘’Mohammad’’ son of Chakar from Berahoui tribe. Mohammad was beaten almost to death and unconsciousness while family members were winess to the brutality. The men were taken away and moved to an unknown place.
The family members, while extremely worried for the destiny of Mohammad, addressed the authorities for the reason why he was arrested and where he had been moved to. As it is commonly used procedure by the security forces, the family received no information about the case nor about the background. 4 days after the arrest Monday 1st december, the security forces contacted the family and explained that Mohammad was a ‘’Crystal’’ drug addict, and he has passed away because he had no access to the drug while he was in detention. The family was ordered to hurry up for taking his body, otherwise the body would be burried without further notice.
Mohammad’s family refuse all false claims from the security forces saying that he was a drug addict, and are sure that he died because of being subjected to extreme torture. Mohammad was 37 year old and father of 4 children. The family of Mohammad, flowingly, received the body. There were clear and extensively obvious physical traces on his body proving that he was tortured, such as cranial fracture, holes under his feet, bruise on his body and fractures between the fingers.
The security authorites, in addition, explained that Mohammad was involved in the ‘’episode of Ahmad-Abad Boulevard in Zahedan’’ (1) where several persons belonging to Jerizahi family of Rigi tribe were wounded and killed. As the security authorities have claimed, they received the intelligence report from Rigi tribe saying that Mohammad was involved in the episode, while the head members of Rigi tribe have denied any link between Mohammad and the mentioned episode, and in this regard, they consider it as a false accusation and as a tool and factor used by the regime for making conflicts between different Baloch families and tribes(2).
We in ‘’Balochistan Human Rights Watch’’ condemn the barbaric act of killing of inocent Mohammad and would like to draw the attention of all freedom fighter/seeker individuals and organisations to an urgent call for acting against the Islamic republic of Iran’s deliberate policy making more and more conflicts between different tribes and families in Balochistan

2 December 2008

Royal leader fears death if deported to Balochistan

The Royal leader of a Pakistani province told an asylum appeal hearing yesterday he feared assassination if he was deported.
His Highness Beglar Begi, Suleman Khan Ahmedzai, says he fled his homeland in Balochistan for South Wales to escape persecution by the Pakistani military and intelligence services.
Mr Ahmedzai, who is referred to as the Khan of Kalat, opposes Pakistan’s annexation of Balochistan in 1948. He arrived in Britain in June 2007 following the killing of another Baloch national leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in a military raid in 2006.
In October 2007, the Khan’s application for asylum in the UK was refused.
At yesterday’s appeal hearing, the 45-year-old father-of-three, who now lives alone in Cardiff, said despite sometimes having up to 100 armed bodyguards with him in Balochistan, his safety could not be guaranteed there.
“If the government wants to get rid of you, it will get rid of you,” he said.
He claims several death threats have been made to him directly and indirectly by telephone since he came to this country.
He claims these calls were made from the Pakistani embassy in London.
At the appeal hearing in Newport, Irwin Richards, the Home Office’s presenting officer, disputed the threats were ever made.
He told Immigration Judge A Cresswell: “Even if in the alternative you are inclined to accept these phone calls were received and made of a threatening nature there is no evidence to link such calls with the Pakistani embassy in this country.”
The appeal hearing’s decision is due to be handed down within the next few weeks.
Outside the appeal hearing, the Khan said: “I have three palaces, a house on five acres and other houses. Whatever I have is there (Balochistan). Other people come into this country on banana boats or on containers or underneath trucks but they become refugees for a better life.
“My everything is there and I have come to this country for my own safety.
“I want to make the international community aware of what is going on over there.”
He claims thousands of his people have “disappeared” over the years because of their opposition to the Pakistani authorities.
“There is a carrot and stick approach,” said the Khan. “I didn’t take the carrot because of my conscience.
“I was told whatever was taken from my grandfather in 1958, which was millions of acres of land, I could have some back.”
His cause is being supported by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
“The Khan is seen by many Baloch people as their head of state,” said Mr Tatchell.
“Suleman Ahmedzai is the direct descendant of the Khan of Kalat, the monarch of the state of Kalat, who signed a Treaty with the British government in 1876, making what is now Balochistan a British Protectorate.
“His grandfather was head of state when Balochistan secured its brief period of independence in 1947, before it was invaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948.
“He attended the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, with other world leaders, as the honoured guest of the British government.
“Refusing Suleman Ahmedzai asylum is symptomatic of a pattern of harassment of Baloch refugees by the UK authorities.
“Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have threatened to end all cooperation with the UK unless our government cracks down on Baloch dissidents exiled here

Martyr remembered, brother faces U.K. jail

Selig Harrison shames Americans for arms supplies to Pakistan.By Ahmar Mustikhan, Freelance JournalistGlowing tributes were paid to Nawabzada Bala'ach Marri at a meeting at Busboys and Poets in Washington DC on Saturday afternoon. The victim's brother Hairbiyar Marri and Faiz Baloch face jail in the U.K. for trying to organize Baluch resistance against military brutalities.WASHINGTON DC: Glowing tributes were paid to the Shaheed-i-Baluchistan Nawabzada Bala'ach Marri at a meeting in downtown Washington DC Saturday afternoon.Baluch activist Nabi Baloch, who became close to the Baluch Che Guevra after meeting him in London in 2001, said Marri had shunned worldly comforts to adopt the path of struggle so that the Baluch people could live their life in freedom.“He could have gotten the chief ministership or the governorship handed to him on a silver platter,” Baloch said at the Busboys and Poets memorial meeting organized by the American Friends of Baluchistan. He said the the slain leader and his father, legendary Baluch leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, had for decades challenged the Pakistan army injustices in Baluchistan.On th occasion, the A.F.B. demanded a Congressional Fact Finding Mission to Baluchistan.Selig S. Harrison, Asia Director of the DC-based Center for International Policy, in his message to the American Friends of Baluchistan, said, “Americans should be ashamed that U.S. military equipment supplied to Pakistan in the name of the “war on terror” has been blatantly diverted and misused to inflict widespread human rights atrocities on ethnic minorities fighting for their legitimate rights.”Harrison, who could not attend the meeting because of his wife's sickness, congratulated the A.F.B. for commemorating Marri's passing, and said the struggle of the Baluch people for their rights in the face of repression bu successive regimes that have been directly, or indirectly, controlled, by the armed forces, deserves the admiration and support of the United States and the international community.The Baluch in Texas-sized Baluchistan province in southwest Pakistan have repeatedly risen up in arms against the annexation of their land in March 1948—seven and half months after the British left India divided in August 1947.“Bala'ach Marri personified this struggle with his courageous leadership of Baluch resistance forces against the might of the Musharraf regime's U.S.-supported Army and Air Force,” the U.S. scholar said.Harrison, in an oblique reference to friction in the Baluch nationalist movement, said to the extent that Baluch leaders are able to cooperate and resolve their internecine factional and personal conflicts, the Baluch movement will merit the respect and support of the international community, adding he will continue his own efforts to help build that support.Personal rivalry was a major contributing factor in the Baluch losing their statehood in March 1948 and remains a bane of Baluch politics to this day. The De Jure Ruler of Baluchistan, Khan of Kalat Beglar Begi [Prince among Princes] Suleman Khan Ahmedzai appeal for asylum is still pending in a U.K., while Nawabzada Hairbiyar Marri, a brother of the slain leader, faces a terror trial in the U.K. for trying to repulse the Pakistan army. But the two are not on talking terms.“Bala'ach symbolized a Baluch national movement that has been led with remarkable determination for five decades by his father Khair Bux, Attaullah Mengal and other Baluch patriots. This movement will undoubtedly be broadened and deepened in the years ahead as part of the larger unfinished struggle of all the ethnic minorities to win justice in Pakistan,” Harrison said.Baluch nationalists say historically they had no truck with Pakistan, as the word itself was coined barely 70 years ago while Baluchistan, or the land of the Baluch, has a history of many centuries. Marri and his father Nawab Marri have long demanded the Baluch right to self determination.London-based human rights activist Peter Tatchell, in his message, said Baluchistan is where Pakistan is waging a war against the Baluch people – a war that has been condemned for its widespread human rights abuses by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch."For 60 years, Baluchistan has been under military occupation and its people crushed by five bloody wars launched by Islamabad,” Tatchell said. He said Pakistan's illegal war in Baluchistan is a war that has involved the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity.“We remember with pride and honor Bala'ach Marri and all those people who have sacrificed their lives in the cause of justice and freedom. Their courage and ideals live on, in the hearts of all people who seek a better, fairer world,” Tatchell said.He added, “Freedom for all nations and peoples struggling for their liberation from tyranny. Their victory has been long delayed, but it can not be denied.”Iqbal Tareen, coordinator of the Forum for Justice and Democracy in Pakistan, recalled the humble beginnings of the Pakistan army and its growth into a virtual empire that dominates all facets of Pakistan society. “The army today owns one-third of the national assets, from gas stations to sugar mills,” he said.But he said the most ominous aspect of politics in Pakistan was the shadowy political wing of the Inter Services Intelligence who are in plainclothes and answerable to none.Fauzia Deeba, an activist of the World Sindhi Institute, said the question of Baluchistan was basically a human rights question where Baluchistan is one of the richest lands in the world, but its people live in abject poverty.“I saw a family in Baluchistan which had just one bag of dates to survive the entire year,” Deeba said. "The elders were not letting children play as the kids would then feel exhausted and demand food.”Baluchistan has one of the highest infant mortality rates anywhere in the world.In conclusion, the A.F.B. hoped the new Obama administration would undo the wrongs done to Baluchistan by successive U.S. administrations.“The first baby step is to send a high-level Congressional Fact Finding Mission to investigate the killing, tortures, the case of 900 missing Baluch, the loot and plunder of Baluchistan resources over the last 60 years, the forcible annexation of Baluchistan in March 1948 and the horrific nuclear tests of may 1998 that left thousands of Baluch lands destroyed,” the A.F.B. said.In an oblique reference to the I.S.I. role in the Mumbai mayhem, the A.F.B. said, “Whether it is the Deccan Mujahideen, Kashmir Mujahideen or Afghan Mujahideen, the source of these jihads are one. Whether it is Mumbai on November 26, 2008 or Sarlath in Baluchistan on November 20, 2007 and whether it is Nawabzada Bala'ach Marri or the more than 150 people killed in the Mumbai mayhem, there is enough evidence against Pakistan's I.S.I.”The A.F.B. said the victims of terrorism in Mumbai included Hindus, Jews, Christians and Muslims and they were all brothers and sisters of the secular Baluch people “because we are all humans.”The A.F.B. said it considers President Asif Ali Zardari blood and bone of the Baluch nation, but the I.S.I. and army G.H.Q. would never allow him to make peace with the Baluch or India. “There was almost a coup last July when an executive order was issued to put the I.S.I. under civilian control,” Mustikhan recalled.Meanwhile, the A.F.B. chided the British authorities for the terror trial of Nawabzada Hairbiyar Marri and Mr. Faiz Baloch and said the only sin of the two was to defend Baluch rights against the onslaught of the Pakistan army – the fourth largest in the world and one armed with nuclear weapons.“President Zardari has publicly apologized to the Baluch people and the new government in Islamabad has clearly said the cases against Marri and Baloch were politically motivated. The continued prosecution of the two violates the principles of fair play and simply defies human logic,” the A.F.B. said.Peter Tatchell has organized a protest rally on Monday at Woolwich Crown Court, to show the British government, police and public that people care about the fate of Marri and Baloch.Tatchell has requested all people who believe in fairplay and justice to defend Balochistan and oppose thismiscarriage of justice.Court address and directions:Woolwich Crown Court2 Belmarsh RoadLondon SE28 0EY020 8312 7000

1 December 2008

Still Iranian Regime Torturing Innocent Young Baloch After Execution of Yagoub Mehrnehad






REPORTED BY JAWED BALOCH FROM SARAVAN

Yaqoub Mehrnehad, 28, a cultural and human rights activist from the capital city of Zahedan, Sistan-Balochistan, was arrested on May 2007 by Iranian security forces. He was taken to an unknown location and never explained what his crimes were. Nor was he given any opportunity in the court to prove his innocence before the court of law. He was torutured and tormented by the Iranian security officials. Amnesty International, London based human rights organization, expressed its concerns of his illegal arrest and safety.

He was the founding head of, “The Voice of youth justice associations” which is a non-governmental organization; his activities were purely about the promotion of Baloch culture and education. The main aim of his organization was to reach out Baloch youth in order to help them in many fields including education. He was a writer and a reporter of Mardomsalari, a Tehran based newspaper.

On August 4, 2008 he was executed in the city of Zahedan, Balochistan, Iran.

After execution of Yagoub Mehrnehad, the Iranian regime has been arresting his fellow Baloch who are associated with his organization, Voice of Youth Justice Association. Many of arrestees come from various parts of Balochistan, among them five members were arrested in the city of Saravan on October 2008.

The following persons are still languishing in Iranian prisons without any proper trial:

Behrooz Nusrat zehi,
Behzad Rigi,
Waheed Nusratzehi,
Shambeh Askani,
Gulbaig Mullazahi,


The family members of these detainees fear that the regime would eventually hang them after a show trial.
Iranian Government links these people to Jondulla, an armed resistance group and claimes that they all have connections with this group, however, in truth, they all from Sedaye Edalat (The voice of Justice association). During the past few months, it is learned that the detainess were subjected to severe toruture by the regime's officials. The Voice of Justice Association said that its members were arrested and taken to unknown location and the regime has not provided plausable explanation about their arrest.

Baloch of Sistan-e-Balochistan are predominantely come from the Sunni sect of Islam, and ethnically differ from majority Persian population. Various human rights reports point to the ijustices and mistreatment of the Baloch people in the hands of Iran's theocratic regime.