January 06, 2009	Tuesday	Muharram 08, 1430

LONDON, Jan 5: A refugee in Britain accused of calling for terrorist attacks on Pakistan was a “casualty of geopolitics” due to the West’s backing for former president Pervez Musharraf, a London court heard on Monday.

Faiz Baloch, 27, was not a terrorist but was calling for self-defence of Balochistan, said Helena Kennedy, representing him at Woolwich Crown Court.Baloch was the victim of close ties between Britain and the Pakistani government under Gen Musharraf, who was courted by both London and the US administration in its war on terror after Sept 11, 2001, said Kennedy.

“Musharraf, an undoubted dictator, called the Baloch terrorists,” she told the southeast London court, typically used for high-security cases.

“And it is Faiz Baloch’s case that the British government were drawn into that distortion purely for political reasons because Britain, like America, at the time, wanted Pakistan on side in the war on terror.

“He will tell you that he believes he is a casualty of geopolitics. He is a casualty of that allegiance.”

Baloch and Hyrbyair Marri, 40, are accused of calling for murder in the name of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army, via websites and telephone links.

Both men deny terrorism charges.

The province has also been hit by attacks blamed on the Taliban militants and sectarian extremists.

Baloch’s lawyer said his case was that “the Baloch people are entitled to defend themselves against brute violence, death and destruction.

“What he is saying to you is that if your survival is at stake you are entitled to defend yourself... If the Germans had marched into Britain we would have been entitled to resist,” Kennedy said.

Pakistani officials have previously accused India of sponsoring the nationalists from its consulates in southern and eastern Afghanistan, a charge that New Delhi denies.—AFP