January 30, 2006	Monday	Zilhaj 29, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 29: A big rally was staged here on Sunday to protest against the ongoing military action and the alleged human rights violations in Balochistan.

The rally was organized by the Karachi-based Balochistan Yekjehti Committee to express solidarity with the struggle by Baloch people in that province.

Baloch people in large numbers from various areas of Karachi, including Lyari, Malir, Golimar, Manghopir, Mauripur and Grex participated in the rally. They were carrying portraits of Baloch leaders, including Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Sardar Attaullah Khan Mengal and Anwar Bhaijan.

The protesters converged on Baloch Chowk (Chakiwara) at 3:30pm before starting a march in different Baloch-dominant localities of Lyari. They were chanting slogans against the military action and in support of the national rights of Baloch people.

Many prominent Baloch leaders, including Yusuf Mastikhan, Usman Baloch, Yusuf Naskandi, Rauf Sasuli, Saleem Baloch, Zahid Husain, Hameed Sajna and Wahab Baloch, participated in the rally and march, which appeared to an impressive show of solidarity.

The protesters marched through the streets of Baghdadi, Shah Beg lane, Kalri, Gul Mohammad Lane, Nawa Lane Kalakot and other localities for three hours and returned to Chawkiwara where they were addressed by Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s nephew, Murtaza Bugti, and leader of the Baloch Unity Conference Ghulam Mohammad Baloch.

Murtaza Bugti thanked the participants and all Baloch people living in Karachi for expressing their solidarity with their brethren in Balochistan who, he said, were facing army action for demanding their due rights on the resources of their own province.

He said Baloch people could no more be befooled in the name of development as they were fully aware of the rulers’ ‘nefarious designs’. He further stated that plight of Baloch people was the same everywhere in the country, adding that the rulers’ intention of loot and plunder was now exposed.

He claimed that owing to the military operation, as many as 10,000 Bugti tribesmen had to flee their houses and take shelter in Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and other safe areas.

He said that the Baloch people’s struggle for their national rights had now entered the decisive phase, and time was not too far when the rulers would have not option but to recognize the rights.

Condemned the military operation, he asked the government to stop using the brute force against civilians in Balochistan, and declared that the Baloch people would never withdraw from their due rights.

The Baloch leader told the emotionally-charged crowd that thousands of people were being dislodged from their ancestral lands in that province, and urged the UN and the international community to take direct action to save the innocent Baloch people from the ‘atrocities by the Pakistan army’.