BLF killed 20 construction workers in Turbat

QUETTA (AFP) - Gunmen have killed 20 construction workers in Pakistan s restive southwestern province of Balochistan, shooting them at point blank range after identifying they were not local, officials said Saturday.

Balochistan is plagued by violence, with separatists seeking greater control over the province s rich oil, gas and mineral resources, and gunmen have previously targeted outsiders seen as settlers.

The Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) claimed responsibility for the incident.

"Gunmen stormed the camp of labourers in Gokh Don area of Baluchistan late Friday night and killed 20 labourers," senior police official Tariq Khilji told AFP. He said those killed were all from outside the province -- 16 of them from Punjab and four from Sindh province. The incident, which occurred around 1,050 kilometres (650 miles) southwest of Quetta, was confirmed by Akbar Hussain Durrani, a senior administration official in the province.

"The labourers were working on construction of a small local bridge," he said. Hussain said some of the labourers reported being woken from their sleep by the sound of gunshots and screams.

"They had lined them up and shot them at point blank range after identifying their identity," he said.

Goran Baloch, a spokesman for BLF said the group would carry out more attacks.

< Duniya News >

Baloch Militants Killed 13 labourers in Bolan district

They were going home to celebrate Eid with their families. Little did they know that their lives would be snuffed out by cold-blooded murderers. Thirteen people – mostly day-labourers from Punjab – were pulled out of passenger buses and shot at pointblank range in an ethnically-motivated attack in Bolan district on Tuesday.

The Baloch Liberation Army, one of several proscribed groups responsible for most separatist and ethnic violence in Balochistan, claimed credit for the grisly killings in the Machh area of Bolan, some 80 kilometres away from Quetta.

The assault was carried out by 150-200 insurgents, who were dressed in the uniforms of paramilitary Frontier Corps and Balochistan Levies.

“The militants stopped five to six passenger coaches at two fake checkpoints on the main highway and snatched 13 passengers from Punjab after checking their national identity cards,” Bolan Deputy Commissioner Abdul Waheed Shah said. “The militants took them to the nearby mountains and shot them dead.”

Two of the slain passengers belonged to the security agencies: one was from Pakistan Army and the other from Kalat Scouts. The militants spared two Seraiki-speaking passengers.

Machh Assistant Commissioner Khasif Muhamamd Shai confirmed the incident and said the bullet-riddled bodies had been recovered.

The bodies were shifted to Quetta’s Civil Hospital in the afternoon. All the victims were shot in the head. They were identified as Ahmed Ali, Shakeel Ahmed, Muhammad Bakhsh, Muhammad Asif, Muhamamd Aslam, Saqib Ali, Hawaldar Arshad, Shahid, Shakeel Ahmed, Abdul Malik, Muhamamd Ashraf, Shaukat Ali, Lans Naik Safeer Ahmed. All of them hailed from different regions of Punjab.

Muhammad Yousaf, who lost a relative in the attack, said that most of the men were day-labourers who had gone over to Iran in search of work. “I was also scheduled to travel to Alipur in Punjab – but now this tragedy happened,” Yousaf told The Express Tribune at the Civil Hospital’s mortuary.

Another man who lost his brother and a nephew told journalists that they belonged to the impoverished Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab and worked at an optician’s shop here. “Four of my relatives were travelling to Rahim Yar Khan. The militants killed my brother and nephew and spared the two others,” he added.

BLA spokesman Meerak Baloch claimed responsibility for the killings. “These 13 people were either employees of the army or of other security institutions,” he told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The spokesman said the insurgents kidnapped 25 people, but later let seven passengers and five security personnel go. “An FC patrol party tried to follow us, so we killed two of them while another two were injured,” he added.

Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai and Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch condemned the incident and ordered the arrest of the killers

< Express Tribune >

7 Coal Miners killed by Marri's BLA

Seven coal miners, who were abducted by a Baloch militant outfit have been killed, Dawn newspaper reported.

The coal miners were Pashtuns from Swat valley.

The Baloch Liberation Army,which Pakistan says is headed by London-based former Balochistan  education minister Hyrbyair Marri, had owned responsibilty for the abductions last week on his web site run from London.

Marri is also closely allied with a second deadly militant outfit called the Baloch Liberation Front, which is active in Mekran. The B.L.F. has killed 20 people in July alone, including 14 Punjabis, five Pashtuns and one Baloch.

Marri was tried for terrorism in London in 2008. Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari had played a role for his freedom since Zardari is a bosom buddy of Marri's elder brother Gazzain Marri.

Some U.S. sources say Marri might be re-arrested in the backdrop of terrorist violence in Balochistan.

<Masti Khan Report>

Blood of Non-Baloch For Balochistan: 8 ‘settlers’ shot dead in Quetta

QUETTA (APP): At least eight people, a police personnel among them, were shot dead at Sariab Road area of Quetta on Saturday, police confirmed.

According to police, two armed motorcyclists barged into a laundry shop located in Kaley Faizabad, Saryab Road area of Quetta near Haq Bahu building and opened indiscriminate fire at the people present there. As a result of firing five persons were killed on the spot while five others sustained injuries.The injured were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta for treatment where three injured people succumbed to their wounds raising death toll to eight.The sources in hospital, where emergency has been put in place, said the death toll may mount as some injured are in critical state. Police feared that the shooting incident could be outcome of personal enmity.


The injured identified as Gul Mohammad, a police constable his son Mohammad Ishaq, Shair Mohammad, Nasrullah, Mohammad Umer and Abdul Hameed succumbed to their injuries while on way to hospital.Condition of one Mohammad Shehzad who was shifted to Civil hospital Quetta is stated to be critical.


Initial investigations indicated that the victims were "settlers," he said, referring to people who have settled in Balochistan but come from other provinces of Pakistan.Police officer Salim Shahwani said that the victims were from Punjab province and were inside the laundry the time of the attack.


Meanwhile the citizens of Quetta have expressed grave concerns over uncontrolled target killing and performance of security forces to tackle the situation.There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Balochistan suffers from ethnic tensions, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims and a separatist insurgency which also targets non-natives.Small separatist groups at in impoverished Balochistan often target Pakistanis from other parts of the country. The separatists want autonomy and a greater share of the money derived from the province's natural resources like gas and oil.


<The Frontier Post>

Friends of Balochistan in US urge BLF to stop killing of innocent civilians

Some details of Punjabi killings in Balochistan is mentioned here. Now finally, A.F.B. take some notice of these killings.

Washington DC: (By Ahmar Mustikhan) That very day March 7, Lt. Col (Ret.) Ralph Peters was calling the Baloch to clean their house of human rights violators, reports from Mand Bullo said that five unarmed Punjabi civilians were gunned down by suspected Baloch militants.

"I am very concerned with Baloch extremists. Killing teachers and doctors is just dumb. It might feel good as revenge but it is not going to win you friends in Washington. Assassinating these folks is just hurting their movement," Peters, a staunch advocate of Balochistan independence, said in his interview to Eddie Walsh in the Huffington Post.

“The Baloch movement has either been hijacked by this group of hardliners or it has simply become an umbrella for all criminal sections of the society to pursue their personal goals under the pretext of nationalism,” the Baloch Hal said.

Sources from Mand Bullo in coastal Mekran confirm the fears expressed in the Baloch Hal editorial. They say that both the February 15 killing of the seven Pashtun day laborers and the March 7 killing of the five Punjabi youthful travelers were the handiwork of Shaukat Buledi, a former employee of international terrorist and mafia don Dawood ibrahim.

Shaukat Buledi is now belived to be the righthand man of B.L.F. chief Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch. The premier American Friends of Balochistan rejects any compromise with militants who target unarmed civilians and political workers, though it fully defends Baloch actions to defend their lives against Pakistan military and Frontier Corps.

The A.F.B. says it does not differentiate between Baloch killed by Pakistan military and intelligence services and unarmed civilians and political activists killed by the Baloch militants as the color of human blood is the same.

In this connection some in the A.F.B. have sought help of Mehran Baluch, who is Balochistan’s unofficial representative at the UN Human Rights Council, and his brother-in-law Brahumdagh Bugti, 31, president of the Baloch Republican Party.

The two leaders can not only help rein in the militants in Balochistan, but can also discipline individuals in Canada who publicly insult veteran leaders like Sardar Ataullah Mengal by calling his stance as “unrealistic.”

At least one American met Mehran Baluch in Dubai in recent months to relay to him the A.F.B. concerns after which Mehran Baluch publicly stated militants do not have the right to become judge, jury and executioner. .

Rashid Baloch, a senior A.F.B. official, shares these views. Baloch is disgusted criminals in B.L.F. have brutalized his once peaceful town of Kech as they do not spare even extremely poor workers from other ethnic groups on the lines of Tamil Tigers.

<Pakistan Christian Post>

Two Punjabis gunned down in Mand

File Photo

QUETTA: Two men from Punjab were shot dead in the Mand district of Balochistan on Monday. According to police, unidentified men ridding a motorbike opened fire on the two men in the Mand area of Turbat. Both passengers, who were identified as Qasir and Asif Javed, were killed on the spot. Police say it could be a case of target killing as the victims belonged to Lahore and Sargodha. They said both men were waiting for a Karachi-bound bus when they were attacked. staff report.

<Daily Times>

Blood of Non-Baloch For Balochistan:Prof. Safdar Ali Kayani

In 1980 he came to Quetta and joined University of Balochistan as a lecturer and remained on the same post till 1981. In 1981, he was promoted to the seat of Assistant Professor and in 1984 to Associate Professor. Meanwhile, in 1984, he took the charge of "Chairman of Botany Department and then in 1998 he became the Meritorious Professor. Afterwards he achieved the status of "Dean Faculty of Sciences" and then became the "Dean Faculty of Biological Sciences". In 2000, he was promoted to "Dean of Student Affairs, and in 2005, he became a "Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Balochistan"..

He was killed by BLA,he was 60 years old at the time of his murder.


<Dawn News>

Blood of Non-Baloch For Balochistan: Shafiq Ahmed Khan

Shafiq Ahmed Khan (55) was elected member of provincial assembly for the first time in 2002 elections on a PPP ticket. He also succeeded in reaching the assembly in 2008 elections and was allocated portfolio of Education Ministry. Shafiq was one of the most popular personalities of Quetta. He has left four daughters and a widow.

In Quetta, Unidentified armed persons assassinated Balochistan Education Minister Shafiq Ahmed Khan and seriously wounded his relative. Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) has accepted the responsibility for the killing.

<The Nation>

Blood of Non-Baloch For Balochistan: Professor Fazal Bari

Quetta, March 22 Renowned educationist Professor Fazal Bari was gunned down here  and the Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.

Professor Bari, Principal of the Tamir-i-Nau Public Model school and a former chairman of the Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, was going to the school when the gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at his car near Bhosa Mandi, killing him on the spot and injuring his driver Abdul Sattar.

<Dawn News>

Blood of Non-Baloch For Balochistan: Nazima Taliba

Balochistan is the least development area of Pakistan. Allot of non-Baloch people who left their "developed province" and came in Balochistan to serve. From last few years, among these allot of people got bullets from the terrorists. The series of  "Blood of Non-Baloch For Balochistan" is dedicated to all those Non-Baloch who did not belong to Balochsitan,came here to serve and gave their lives. Their biggest crime was 'they were not Baloch or not born in Balochistan'!!!

Nazima Taliba, assistant professor at Balochistan University,was killed 29 Apr 2010 by B.L.A.She was the first woman who was target-killed in the province.

<Dawn News>