From Pakistan To Cardiff: The King Of Kalat

REPORTED BY BALOCHONLINE.COM


A royal asylum-seeker wants to stop the Taliban and win independence for hisBaluch people ... if only he could escape from South Wales. In an anonymouspebble-dashed semi-detached house on the outskirts of Cardiff, a powerfullybuilt, bearded man with a green prayer cap looks through a folio of 19th-centuryletters sent by the British Government to his kingdom . Jerome Taylor reportsStashed in overflowing plastic bags and a tattered brown suitcase, some are evenwritten on pieces of animal skin. Rummaging through the case, he pulls out alarge piece of parchment, stained yellow with time and covered with lines ofelegant Persian script."This is the first treaty that was signed between my people and the British in1841," he says. "It was the first piece of paper signed by the British thatrecognised the state of Kalat."Welcome to the humble Welsh abode of His Royal Highness Khan Suleman Daud, the35th Khan of Kalat.Until three years ago, Khan Suleman's house was a sumptuous desert palace on awindswept ridge in Baluchistan – the mountainous and mineral-rich Pakistaniprovince where separatists have waged an insurgency to carve out their ownindependent state for much of the past 60 years.Whenever the Khan left his palace in his two armour-plated, gold Humvees, hewould be accompanied by dozens of armed bodyguards. One of western Pakistan'smost influential tribal leaders, he commanded the loyalty and respect ofthousands of Baluch tribesmen and had long angered Pakistan's militaryestablishment by campaigning for independence, though he opposes armedresistance.The Khan was forced to flee after being targeted for speaking out against thePakistani military's well-documented human rights abuses. He now whiles away hisdays as an anonymous asylum-seeker in south Wales, separated from his people by4,000 miles and trapped in the seemingly everlasting limbo of Britain'simmigration system.He left Pakistan after the military assassination of Akbar Khan Bugti, 79, thesoft-spoken, Oxford-educated, separatist leader accused by the Pakistanis ofco-ordinating the shadowy Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA)."I want more than anything to return to my homeland, but I cannot at themoment," said the Khan. "If I returned to Pakistan, my life would be in dangerbecause the military regard me as a threat. And yet, everything I have is backin Kalat. Back home, I have palaces, vast amounts of land, the respect and loveof my people. Here I am in limbo, living in a three bedroom house in Cardiff."That someone as influential as the Khan has ended up as an asylum-seeker inBritain – a country that he says "betrayed" the Baluch people – offers a21st-century snapshot of colonial fall-out.Locating Khan Suleman's kingdom on a map of the world is difficult but, lessthan a century ago, the Khanate of Kalat was a thriving confederacy of tribesspread across much of what is now western Pakistan, southern Afghanistan andsouth-eastern Iran.Populated by fiercely independent Baluch warriors, Kalat retained much of itsindependence from the British as the Raj's political agents spread throughoutthe sub-continent, toppling, bribing and replacing its regional leaders as theywent.Regarded as too wild to tame but a useful buffer against Russians, the Baluchwere allowed to keep their sovereignty. Although successive treaties chippedaway at their territory, the Khans of Kalat remained the region's most powerfulindependent rulers.As the Partition of India loomed, Khan Suleman's grandfather, Ahmad Yar Khan,was assured that the Baluch would be allowed to keep their independence. A dealwas struck whereby Kalat and the new state of Pakistan would be independent ofeach other but would share currency, foreign policy and defence equally.Yet, after just six months of independence, the Pakistani military stormed inand forced Ahmed Yar Khan to cede his khanate to Pakistan. Forgotten by theWest, Baluchi separatists have since fought five insurgencies to try to clawback their independence from Pakistan's central government, which has respondedwith massacres, large scale disappearances and torture."The British treated us treacherously and pushed us into a union withPakistan," said the Khan as he prepared a traditional Baluchi dish of roastchicken and spicy meat cutlets. "We had no desire to be part of Pakistan but wewere ignored and the agreement was eventually forced down our throats. Till thevery last moment, they kept us in the dark. All the time we were assured thatthe Baluch would keep their independent state but instead we were sold down theriver."Yet Britain's historical behaviour in his homeland is not the only thingbothering this tribal leader."I applied for asylum on 14 July 2007," he said. "I even put myself forward forthe fast-track scheme, yet here we are, nearly two years later, still waitingfor a response. I have been stonewalled by virtually every official we have comeacross." When the Khan went to register as an asylum-seeker in Croydon, he wassurrounded by buzzing immigration officials, keen to see his passport which says"His Highness". "It is very different to how other Pakistani leaders have beentreated."The Government welcomed other exiled Pakistani politicians such as Nawaz Sharifand Benazir Bhutto during their own spells in the wilderness. Both former primeministers spent years in London during their spats with the then-militarydictator, Pervez Musharraf, but never had to apply for asylum.The Khan had never intended to remain in Britain. At a loya jirga (tribalgathering) called after Bugti's assassination, he vowed to take the plight ofhis people to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in a bid to applyinternational pressure on the Pakistanis over their treatment of the Baluch.He was placed on a watch list by Mr Musharraf but managed to fly out undetectedfrom Karachi to perform the Hajj. When his British visa was rejected, he appliedfor asylum fearing deportation back to Pakistan. As a prospective asylum-seeker,he is unable to travel to The Hague and campaign for his people.The Khan believes the British have agreed to remain silent over Baluchistan andkeep him in limbo in return for Pakistan's co-operation in hunting down UK-bornIslamic radicals.Britain is the only country other than Pakistan to have proscribed the mainBaluchi separatist movements as terror groups. They only did so in 2005, afterMr Musharraf threatened to withdraw from talks aimed at securing the extraditionof Birmingham-born Rashid Rauf, the suspected ringleader of the transatlanticairliner bomb plot who was eventually killed by an unmanned US drone last year.The only Baluch nationals living in the UK to be charged under terrorlegislation were acquitted last month. Faiz Baluch, 27, and Hyrbyair Marri, 40,stood accused of being members of the BLA and encouraging terrorism overseas butthe jury found them not guilty. Their supporters claim the prosecution aimed tocurry favour with the Pakistanis.A devout Muslim, the Khan is critical of Islamic radicalism. But he worriesthat the continued repression of the Baluch, coupled with the de facto silencingof their tribal leaders, is forcing many formerly secular separatists into thearms of the Taliban instead.The Taliban have held little sway over the Baluchi tribes other than in andaround the provincial capital, Quetta. But Islamic radicalism appears to bespreading through the region. Two weeks ago, the Pakistani Taliban leadersannounced the creation of a new group, "Tehreek-e-Taliban Baluchistan".Marooned in his Cardiff semi, The Khan says he desperately wants to halt theradicalisation of the Baluch but no-one, it seems, is willing to listen to aking with no kingdom.Source:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/from-pakistan-to-cardiff-the-king-of-kalat-1645740.html