INDIA WILL HELP FREE BALOCHISTAN says Ahmar Mustikhan by NITTEN GOKHAKEY
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a promise to the people of Balochistan from the ramparts of The Red Fort on August 15, 2016…
The time has come for Modi ji to redeem his pledge…
So why aren’t we doing it?
The Pakistani Punjabis have been persecuting the Baloch since 1947; the Baloch have been marginalised, killed, decimated, destroyed in one Army action after another!
Baloch women are captured and traded as sex slaves by this same Pakistani Army
Incidentally the Pakistani Army also ensures that the drug routes via Balochistan remain open!
And if that was not enough, now comes the horror of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor that begins in Gwadar and meanders through Pakistan to end at Sinkiang in China…a corridor that spells doom for the Baloch people!
India needs to help the Baloch now…before Balochistan is converted into a Chinese province…
“India should consider pro-Baloch activists as its sons and welcome them with a hug”
US based brave pro-Baloch Freedom writer, activist Ahmar Mustikhan often organizes protests to expose Pakistan’s hypocrisy in the US. He believes, Balochistan needs India’s support to ward off the dark forces of history.
Mustikhan speaks to Our Own Nitten Gokhaley on what he expects from India for the Baloch people…
Will he get it?
By Nitten Gokhaley
Balochistan rich in natural resources like gas fields, gold, copper, and oil. It also has a sexy strategic location as it forms the northern tip of the Strait of Hormuz.
However, it happens to be Pakistan’s most underdeveloped region.
Thus, people from this area feel Pakistan is exploiting them.
It’s the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan and was forcibly annexed by Pakistan in March 1948.
People in this region are known as Baloch. There’s a cultural, social, and ethnic difference between Baloch and other people in Pakistan.
The world remains surprisingly unaware that Baluchistan is home to an insurgent movement that aims at fighting for independence from Pakistan since the last 60 years. Even some foreign journalists working in Pakistan remain unaware of the political and social history of the Balochistan region. Several pro-Baloch educationists, intellectuals, and journalists have been shot dead or fallen prey to Pakistan’s kill and dump policy. Even women and children are not spared.
Amnesty International’s Pakistan report released in 2015-2016 highlighted the violence faced by people in Balochistan. Pakistani authorities systemically target the region’s population.
Various national and international pro-Baloch organizations from Pakistan, the US, and the UK often try to highlight the atrocities and violence faced by Baloch people. They hardly get the limelight. But, since 2016, the friends of Balochistan got another support in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As a paradigm shift in India’s approach towards its notorious neighbor, Prime Minister Modi spoke about the sufferings of Baloch during his Independence Day speech. Modi happens to be India’s first PM to openly condemn Pakistan for everything that it has been doing against people in Balochistan. This was nothing less than a helping hand for Baloch activists who consider India as their friend since several decades. These activists in the US and the UK often fight for India’s causes as well.
The discussion about Baloch nationalist organizations cannot be complete without mentioning Ahmar Mustikhan. He’s a senior journalist based in the US and has more than three decades of experience in working with newsrooms from Pakistan, the US and the UAE as well. The senior journalist also contributes columns to Indian publications. Ahmar Mustikhan recently interacted with us and shared his opinion on several issues.
His organization, the American Friends of Balochistan, brings together Americans of Baloch descent with Americans of Indian, Afghan, Bengali descent to advocate the human, educational, social and political rights of the people of Balochistan, including their birthright to self-determination. The outfit has got people from different walks of life, including former US
While sharing details about his journey so far, says Mustikhan “I left Pakistan at age 41, and landed at the JFK airport one day before my 41st birthday, in October 2000, because it was not possible to work for Balochistan’s freedom as a writer living in Pakistan. The country is not a secular democracy like India; it’s an Islamic republic. In India, you can be a separatist and at best be jailed or put under house arrest. In Pakistan, you get buried in mass graves if you oppose the regime. I was the first person to speak about Balochistan at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2001. I had been warning Americans ever since I arrived in the USA that Pakistan cannot be trusted and Islamabad’s support to Islamic radicals will come and haunt their Western societies.”
Mustikhan recently made it in the headlines when his organization had conducted protests outside the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC against Pakistan’s inhumane behavior with Kulbhushan Jadhav’s family during the last month.
While speaking about protests, he said, “Protests are only a small part of our work here in the USA. Our protests are mostly held in Washington DC. We did hold one big rally at the UN in New York during 2016. Last year during our protest in spring days after a military court sentenced Kulbushan Jadhav to death, we also demanded justice for Jadhav. As you know our stand is that Kulbushan Jadhav was abducted from Chahbahar by the Jaishul Adal and sold to ISI for money. I have openly stated the main foreign aggression in Balochistan is the Pakistan army occupation and presence. It is Pakistan Army, Military intelligence, and Frontier Corps, in addition to a host of Pakistan agencies who play a holi of the blood of my Baloch people in Balochistan. They have painted our mountains red with the blood of the best sons of Balochistan. On the other hand, Pakistan accuses the RAW of doing all this. No Indian or Hindu has ever harmed a single Baloch in history, so the Baloch are not against India or Jadhav.”
Balochistan needs India’s support to ward off the dark forces of history
“I believe that without India and our Hindu brothers, it is simply not possible for Balochistan to ward off the dark forces of history. I can proudly say the overwhelming majority of Baloch love India and Indians and vice versa. Initially, Indian Americans were shy of associating with Balochistan, thinking that it will strengthen the Pakistan narrative that India is involved in Balochistan but that changed since Premier Narendra Modi openly spoke about Balochistan from the Red Fort. My argument is Balochistan is the business of Indians and Hindus. The Hinglaj Mata Shakti Peeth and the relics of Mehrgarh are proof of what I am saying.”
On being asked about his opinion regarding America’s decision to reconsider its aid, the renowned columnist said “The American Government, under Trump rule, has criticized Pakistan for offering deceit and lies in exchange for more than $33 billion that it got in the form of aid during the last fifteen years. The US’s Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley also expressed similar opinion recently. This is something that I have been saying since 2001. The US has finally managed to read between the lines. Pakistan has given our Baloch port of Gwadar against our wishes to China but has not even allowed the US to open its consulate in Quetta.
I may be born a Baloch to a business family in Rangoon, forced to become a Pakistani when my parents left Burma after the military coup, and am now an American living in Washington DC area. But my heart is in India. If you listen to my heart beats, each of them is saying Vande Mataram. I am grateful that my Indian brothers and sisters appreciate my efforts. War or violence is not the option for any problem, but international pressure can force Pakistan to change its behavior. It is my plea that India should not look at Balochistan differently and should look at it as she looks at Kerala or West Bengal. The time has come for Premier Narendra Modi to talk about Balochistan with every world leader openly. I hope Shrimati Sushma Swaraj will direct all embassies to support Balochistan fully, said Mustikhan while urging India to help all the pro-Baloch activists.
While appealing for contributions, Mustikhan said: “If only one percent of the Indian population may listen to his call for help and contribute $1 or more to his cause on https://mustikhan.com we will have enough to get the US Congress pass resolutions in favor of Balochistan’s freedom.”
