Balochistan People’s Party

The Center for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran, headed by lawyer and Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi, has issued its quarterly report on human rights for the period ending in September 2008.

The Center reports that in Iran "the realm of private freedoms is becoming more limited day-by-day, and possible and desirable venues for political and social activities are becoming more restricted."

The report cited government harassment, including arrest and jail sentences for university students, journalists, teachers, and political and social activists. It also warned of a worsening situation for religious minorities in Iran.
The Center for the Defense of Human Rights reported an increase in human rights abuses involving the Sunni inhabitants of Sistan va Baluchistan province, the arrest of Friday prayer leaders of Sunni mosques, and the demolition of religious schools and centers. It also spoke of the continuing harsh repression of members of Iran's Baha'i community.

Recently Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that all ethnic and religious minorities coexist peacefully in Iran. The Center for the Defense of Human Rights report belies that assertion.

President George Bush says that a key to safeguarding freedom –- including religious freedom -- "is to aid the rise of democracy":
"One of the defining features of any democracy is that it makes room for people of all backgrounds and all faiths. Democracies allow people with diverse views to discuss their differences and live in harmony."

Mr. Bush says that the U.S. has a message for those in Iran and elsewhere who suffer because of their beliefs: “You are not alone ... We work for the day when we can welcome you into the family of free nations. We pray that you and your children may one day know freedom in all things."

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Baloch Human Rights Council is organising a protest rally in front of the Central Mosque London on Friday 28/ 11/ 08. The protest is aimed to expose the barbaric and heinous crimes of the Iranian Shia regime against the Baloch on religious, sectarian and ethnic grounds. The protest is also aimed to raise the consciousness of the broader world community and Muslim world against their silence towards the Iranian regime’s crimes against humanity.

Every week the clerical regime of Iranian Shias is torturing, executing innocent Baloch, youth, social activists, students, politicians and Sunni religious scholars.

All Human Rights activists, peace & freedom loving groups and individuals are requesed to attend the protest gathering to show solidarity with the oppressed Baloch people.

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Pakistani leader fears death if sent from Wales

Nov 28 2008 WalesOnline

THE Royal leader of a Pakistani province told an asylum appeal hearing today he feared assassination if he was deported.

At a hearing in Newport, South Wales, his Highness Beglar Begi, Suleman Khan Ahmedzai, says he fled his homeland in Balochistan to escape persecution by the Pakistani military and intelligence services.

Mr Ahmedzai, who is referred to as the Khan of Kalat, is an opponent of Pakistan’s annexation of Balochistan in 1948.

He arrived on British shores in June 2007 following the killing of another Baloch national leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in a military raid in 2006.

In October 2007, the Khan’s application for asylum in the UK was refused.

At the appeal hearing today, the 45-year-old father-of-three said despite sometimes having up to 100 armed bodyguards with him in Balochistan, his safety could not be guaranteed there.

“If the government wants to get rid of you, it will get rid of you,” he said.

He added: “The Pakistani state even provided Benazir Bhutto with protection. Most prime ministers and presidents were very protected but from 1947 to Benazir Bhutto you can see a lot of assassinations of prime ministers and presidents.”

The Khan now lives alone in Cardiff with his family remaining in Balochistan.

He claims several death threats have been made to him directly and indirectly by telephone since he came to this country. He claims these calls were made from the Pakistani embassy in London.

At the appeal hearing, Irwin Richards, the presenting officer from the Home Office, disputed the threats were ever made.

“Even if in the alternative you are inclined to accept these phone calls were received and made of a threatening nature,” Mr Richards told Immigration Judge A Cresswell, “there is no evidence to link such calls with the Pakistani embassy in this country”.

“I would ask you to find in conclusion there is no evidence to show the Pakistani authorities have an adverse interest in the appellant.”

The decision of the appeal hearing is due to be handed down within the next few weeks.

Outside the appeal hearing, he said: “I have three palaces, a house on five acres and other houses. Whatever I have is there (Balochistan).

“Other people come into this country on banana boats or on containers or underneath trucks but they become refugees for a better life.

“My everything is there and I have come to this country for my own safety.

“I want to make the international community aware of what is going on over there.”

He claims thousands of his people have “disappeared” over the years because of their opposition to the Pakistani authorities.

“There is a carrot and stick approach,” said the Khan. “I didn’t take the carrot because of my conscience.

“Maybe I should have taken it but I couldn’t because of my conscience.

“I was told whatever was taken from my grandfather in 1958, which was millions of acres of land, I could some have back.”

His cause is being supported by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

“The Khan is seen by many Baloch people as their head of state,” said Mr Tatchell.

“His treatment by the British government has been squalid and disrespectful.

“Suleman Ahmedzai is the direct descendant of the Khan of Kalat, the monarch of the state of Kalat, who signed a Treaty with the British government in 1876, making what is now Balochistan a British Protectorate.

“His grandfather was head of state when Balochistan secured its brief period of independence in 1947, before it was invaded and annexed by Pakistan in 1948. He attended the Queen’s coronation in 1953, with other world leaders, as the honoured guest of the British government.

“Refusing Suleman Ahmedzai asylum is symptomatic of a pattern of harassment of Baloch refugees by the UK authorities.

“Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have threatened to end all cooperation with the UK unless our government cracks down on Baloch dissidents exiled here.

“This may be part of the reason why Suleman Ahmedzai has had such difficulty in gaining asylum.”

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BLA denies getting foreign assistance

29.11.2008 ; dailytimes.com.pk/

QUETTA: The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a banned militant organisation, on Friday refuted media reports quoting Islamabad-based state intelligence agencies that it is getting external assistance for its operations in Balochistan.

Talking to Daily Times, Bibarg Baloch, the BLA chief spokesman, said his organisation did not get any external support from the neighbouring states, as reported in the media while quoting the Islamabad-based intelligence sources.

However, the BLA would delightedly accept any kind of help offered to it by countries that sympathise with the Baloch people in their struggle for 'independence', he said.

"We have not been very lucky in terms of getting external support like Islamabad. But we welcome such support from friends of the Baloch people as we await such assistance. If Pakistan can misuse the external assistance it gets for fighting terrorism to crush the Baloch then what is wrong if we operate with the help of similar assistance," he said, adding that if the Baloch had really been getting external support, they would not have been vulnerable to attacks by the army and other security forces.