Balochistan Under Siege
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur The headline, “Election security: Balochistan braces for surgical operation” in a national daily left me amazed at the deviousness media uses in its reporting of distressing events and issues to make them look completely innocuous, or even praiseworthy. The crafty employment of words and phrases is truly beguiling and lethally [...]
Dervishes And Phonies
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur The caretaker prime minister (PM) Justice (retd) Hazar Khan Khoso reportedly was to undertake a trip to Balochistan for convincing the ‘disgruntled Baloch leaders’ to participate in the general elections. The caretakers, like their predecessors, are clutching at imaginary straws. This essentially vain effort reminds me of a Sheikh Saadi [...]
Exceptional Sight But Absolute Lack of Vision
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur Ironically, an irony that escaped him, Sardar Akhtar Mengal’s decision to participate in the forthcoming elections coincided with March 27, the day Baloch nationalists observe as a ‘Black Day’, because that day in 1948, Balochistan was forcibly annexed, depriving the Baloch of their freedom. Interestingly, on March 25 on arrival he [...]
‘Tis an ill wind indeed!
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur The Alamdar Road massacre, like all other horrific atrocities of the religious extremists, is a reprehensible crime against humanity. Unfortunately, the Muslim world’s religious divide has over time intensified, with South Asia being the worst hit. The South Asian Muslim is a victim of his/her inferiority complex in comparison to [...]
Turning Balochistan Into a Cemetery
By Mohammad Ali Talpur This is not the first time that a military operation has been carried out by the Frontier Corps (FC), a paramilitary force, in southern Balochistan’s Mashky, Awaran District. The FC launched another operation just two months ago. Unlike the current offensive, this earlier, mid-October operation was denounced from the floor of [...]
Wreaking Vengeance
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur Every year, since 2005, some motivated Dakota Indians make a 300-mile trek on horseback in frigid winter temperatures to revive the memory of the 1862 travesty of justice when 38 of their ancestors were executed at Mankato in the biggest mass hanging in US history. To mark the sesquicentennial anniversary, [...]
Incorrigible
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur In the 1951 movie Hulchal starring Dilip Kumar and Nargis, Yakub played a supporting role as a prisoner. In one scene, he is surrounded by cronies; one of them with a wont to come up with absurdities says something foolish and Yakub shaking his head says, “Array O Kaanay, na [...]
Charting the Uncharted
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances existing already, given and inherited from the past” — Karl Marx. Haiyrbiyar Marri’s ‘Baloch Freedom Charter’ has generated a needless controversy in the [...]
The Same Bread With the Same Broth
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur The army through General Kayani has stated its position on the Balochistan issue in a one-liner that says, “Army fully supports any political process as long as it is within the Constitution.” This was in response to the Balochistan National Party President Akhtar Mengal’s recent moves and statements during his [...]
A Ray of Hope?
By Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur Sardar Akhtar Mengal’s unexpected capitulation and appearance before the Supreme Court (SC) has pleased a few but angered a majority of the Baloch. He has climbed down from his position of demanding an independent Balochistan. In the Daily Times of May 8, 2009, its then Quetta correspondent Malik Siraj Akbar reported [...]