Unsung victims -Settlers in Balochistan

https://twitter.com/BLF_Online
Online account of BLF

http://www.eurasiareview.com/20042015-pakistan-enduring-tragedy-in-balochistan-analysis/
"In another such incident, at least two persons were killed and a child was injured when unidentified militants opened fire at a barber shop on Sariab Road in the provincial capital Quetta, on April 15, 2014. Superintendent of Police (SP) Imran Qureshi had disclosed that the victims belonged to Punjab and had been working on Sariab Road for a long time.
Some other major attacks (each resulting in three or more fatalities) inside Balochistan targeting settlers from outside Balochistan include:
August 6, 2013: At least 14 Punjabis, including three security personnel, were killed in an attack by Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) militants on five passenger buses in the Machh area of Bolan District. The buses were on their way from Quetta to Punjab when 200 militants intercepted them in Machh and abducted the passengers. The militants killed Punjabi passengers after inspecting their national identity cards (NICs).
July 6, 2012: At least 18 Punjabi-speaking persons, who were travelling to Iran, were shot dead and another two were injured, when Balochistan Liberation Tigers (BLT) militants attacked their vehicles in the Basoli area of Turbat District.
July 23, 2011: Five labourers of Punjabi ethnicity were shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Kisankuri area of Nushki town in Nushki District.
August 14, 2010: Unidentified assailants singled out Punjabi passengers travelling on a bus, killing 10 and injuring five near Ahd-e-Gham in Mach town, Bolan District.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a total of 159 settlers have been killed in Balochistan since the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, leader of the Bugti tribe and President of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), on August 26, 2006, in a military operation in the Chalgri area of the Bhamboor Hills in Dera Bugti District. The killings of settlers started only after the Bugti killing, when Baloch militant organizations such as the BLA, BLF and Baloch Republican Army (BRA), among others, began to voice anti-Punjabi sentiments in their slogans. The killing of Akbar Bugti led to a series of attacks on Punjabi and other non-Baloch settlers in Balochistan, as well as the destruction of national infrastructure.
Out of the 159 ‘outsiders’ killed, at least 146 were Punjabis. 33 Punjabi settlers have already been killed in the current year (data till April 19, 2015). In 2014, the number of such fatalities stood at a total of 17; in 2013, at 29; 2012, at 26; 2011, at 13; 2010, at 21; 2009, at 18; and one in 2008. No such fatality was recorded in 2007 and 2006. While Punjabis have been the main targets, other ethnic groups, like Urdu-speaking people from Karachi and Hindko-speaking settlers from Haripur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), have also been singled out in acts of ethnic violence. A media report published on June 28, 2011, noted, “Almost all non-Baloch are on their hit-list.” Muhammad Khalid of Balochistan Punjabi Ittehad stated, “The militants began to target the Punjabi settlers after Nawab Bugti was taken out by the military (in August, 2006). Before that there were occasional incidents in which Punjabis were targeted.”
Most of the Punjabi settler killings are recorded in South Balochistan (principally in Bolan, Turbat, Gwadar, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Sibi and Lasbela Districts) which accounts for 122 killings; followed by 24 in North Balochistan (mostly in Nushki, Quetta and Mustang District). The overwhelming concentration of such killings in the South is because of the presence and dominance of Baloch insurgent groups, while the North is dominated by Islamist extremist formations such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), who are primarily engaged in sectarian killings. "....

Targeted killings have now created an atmosphere of fear and terror among settlers across the Province. According to the a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) dated October 15, 2014, more than 300,000 people have fled the Province over the past 10 years due to the growing unrest. Tahir Hussain Khan, President of the Balochistan Chapter of the independent HRCP asserted that 90,000 people who had fled were from Punjabi and Urdu-speaking communities, and had left to avoid violence by Baloch nationalists.
An unnamed Punjabi-speaking member of the Barbershop Owners’ Association in Quetta, way back on August 23, 2007, demanded that the Government provide them security as they were facing threats due to their ethnic background, and had claimed, “Since Nawab Akbar Bugti’s killing last year, more than 12 attacks have been made on barbershops. The number of attacks in interior Balochistan is higher.”
Of the 3,367 civilian fatalities recorded in Balochistan since 2004 [data till April 19, 2015], at least 837 civilian killings are attributable to one or other militant outfit. Of these, 325 civilian killings (202 in the South and 123 in the North) have been claimed by Baloch separatist formations while the Islamist and sectarian extremist formations, primarily LeJ, TTP and Ahrar-ul-Hind (Liberators of India), claimed responsibility for another 512 civilian killings, 506 in the North (mostly in and around Quetta) and six in the South. The 325 civilian killings attributed to Baloch formations include at least 146 Punjabi settlers since 2006. The remaining 2,530 civilian fatalities – 1,535 in the South and 995 in the North – remain ‘unattributed’. A large proportion of the ‘unattributed’ fatalities, particularly in the Southern region, are believed to be the result of enforced disappearances carried out by state agencies, or by their proxies, prominently including the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Aman Balochistan (TNAB, Movement for the Restoration of Peace, Balochistan). The large number of unattributed civilian fatalities strengthens the widespread conviction that the Security Agencies are busy with “kill and dump” operations against local Baloch dissidents, a reality that Pakistan’s Supreme Court has clearly recognized."

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/national/09-Jul-2009/punjabi-settlers-biggest-victims-of-bugti-aftermath
9 July 2009: The recent killings of three principals and a schoolteacher in less than two months came as a shock for the entire nation, especially due to their ethnic nature.
While the Taliban in the NWFP have resorted to torching girls' schools in order to deprive a generation of Pashtun girls from education, a nationalist militant group in Balochistan is currently bent on targeting and killing Punjabi educationists to push the province back into medieval times."


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/16-Punjabis-shot-dead-in-Balochistan/articleshow/6312201.cms
14 April 2010: Gunmen shot dead at least 16 people of Punjabi-origin in two separate incidents of ethnic killings in the insurgency-hit Balochistan province in southwest Pakistan on Saturday."

https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/12/13/pakistan-balochistan-militants-killing-teachers
"The 40-page report, "‘Their Future is at Stake': Attacks on Teachers and Schools in Pakistan's Balochistan Province," documents the killing of at least 22 teachers and other education personnel by suspected militants between January 2008 and October 2010. The report - based on interviews with teachers, students, victims' families and friends, and government officials in Balochistan - describes these attacks and their consequences for the quality of education in the province."

https://hamarabalochistan.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/mashkay-operation-some-more-details/
"Baloch militants victims are not only Punjabi settlersand punjab school teacher, these militants killed many Baloch too.These Baloch are declared as “State agent” or “Government informer” by these so-called freedom fighers, and this declaration give enough authority to these Baloch militants to kill him. Bahram Baloch is one of those Baloch who was killed by BLF after declaring state agent.
Mashkay is is the home town of BLF chief Dr Allah Nazar. Not only Bahram Baloch, According to HRCP releases list BLF is main culprit in killing Baloch activist and political leaders.
BLF terrorist group not only threaten the BBC corresponding but also killed Vsh TV reporter Abdul Qadir Hajizai. On July-6-2012, BFL killed 19 coach passengers Dasht area"


http://www.dawn.com/news/640059/settlers-caught-in-crossfire-2
28 June 2011: Nearly 1,200 settlers are estimated to have been killed across Balochistan, mostly in what are referred to as hit-and-run incidents and grenade attacks on their businesses and homes. According to Balochistan Punjabi Ittehad, some 200,000 people have fled Balochistan since early 2008 when the violence against various ethnic groups excluding Pashtuns peaked. Other estimates put the number at 100,000. In any case the migration has been significant.
Muhammad Khalid of Balochistan Punjabi Ittehad says “the militants began to target the Punjabi settlers after Nawab Bugti was taken out by the military (in August, 2006). Before that there were occasional incidents in which Punjabis were targeted”."


https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/09/29/bla-kills-3-oil-exploration-workers/
29 Sep 2011:
Three workers of an oil exploration company were killed and four others wounded in an armed attack in Balochistan’s Harnai district on Wednesday. Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a banned militant group, has claimed the responsibility.
According to details, attackers armed with sophisticated weapons ambushed the camp of a private oil exploration company in the Hazara Dam area of Harnai district. One worker identified as Muhammad Jamil died immediately while four others, Hassan Waheed, Ejaz Ali, Muhammad Hanif and Shahbaz received serous wounds.
They were rushed to a nearby hospital where two of the injured, Shahbaz and Ejaz, died. Soon after the incident, security forces cordoned off the area and started a search operation to arrest the attackers. Meanwhile, BLA spokesman Azad Baloch, called from an undisclosed location and claimed the responsibility for the attack.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHeisJIX38Q
21 Oct 2013: Baloch Republican Army freedom fighters attacked Jaffar Express in Naseerabad on October 21, 2013.  The train was travelling to Quetta from Rawalpindi when it was attacked by our freedom fighters with a remote controlled explosive device near Nothal in Dera Murad Jamali area of Naseerabad. The target of the attack was the compartments carrying the personnel of occupying Pakistani forces. The compartment was completely destroyed in the attack while many troops were killed and several wounded.



http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/27739/balochistan-2-there-is-more-to-balochistan-than-the-states-high-handedness/
"May 21, 2015: Like the labourers that were murdered earlier in April, who, to the surprise of many, included ones from Sindh. But those following Balochistan closely know that even Hindko-speakers and Urdu-speaking settlers have been a target for some time now. The insurgents also go after other Baloch, “informants” obviously, but people seen as pro-Pakistan; even anyone going to contest in or cast votes for an election is threatened. It is often remarked that the Pakistani national anthem isn’t heard in schools there. Muzaffar Jamali, a principal of one such school, was attacked by the insurgents and his 10-year-old son was killed in 2012, for allowing the singing of said national anthem.
This wasn’t a one-off incident either. Schools, and teachers in particular, have been the targets of insurgents all along. This is similar to the TTP’s agenda. HRW’s report Their Future at Stake recorded killings of 22 teachers by 2010. Attacks on schools were so rampant that government schools opened for only 120 days of the year.
Lastly, journalists in Balochistan are also threatened by the Baloch insurgents for favourable coverage, and killed when necessary. All security forces personnel and state employees are the more legitimate targets, including kidnapping and execution-style attacks.
The kidnapping and execution of security personnel is – as was the case with targeting schools, alleged informants or supporters of government, opposing figures and relative minority groups – a trait the Baloch insurgency shares with the TTP.
The insurgency is divided into factions that clearly don’t see eye to eye, and their quarrels have manifested in attacks on, and killings of, each other’s militants. Despite appeals for the militants to work together against the state, by Mr Talpur for instance, the divisions have not gone away."


http://newsweekpakistan.com/nine-punjabi-laborers-killed-in-balochistan/
20 October 2014: Suspected separatists in Balochistan killed nine laborers on Sunday in what appeared to be an ethnically motivated attack, officials said.
The gunmen stormed a poultry farm in the early hours of Sunday in Hub, kidnapping 11 laborers, according to senior local administration official Fawad Soomro, who said the hostages were then questioned over their ethnicities.
“They blindfolded the nine workers belonging to Punjab province and shot them while setting the two Baloch workers free,” he said. He added that the freed Baloch workers made their way to a local police station to report the crime."

http://tns.thenews.com.pk/punjabis-or-collaborators-murders-in-balochistan/#.Vo95OPHFsnO
"November 2, 2014: Human Right Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in one of its fact finding missions in 2011 found out that the so-called settlers, ethnic Punjabis, Sindhis and Urdu-speaking, who have lived in Balochistan for generations, and some for centuries, have been hounded out of Baloch-majority areas by threats and violence by insurgents. At times they have been ousted by opportunistic property mafia keen to capture land and buildings of the settlers. The more intimidated the settlers the more likely they were to accept any price for their property as they seek shelter elsewhere.
“From some schools in Quetta around 2,000 settler children have left. From interior Balochistan all settlers have left. Only those who cannot go anywhere else and say they have roots here and nowhere else have not moved away,” found the mission.
A senior Baloch journalist based in Quetta seconds the findings of the mission. “In majority of Baloch-dominated districts of the province, Punjabi settlers have been almost wiped out. In Nushki district, there were almost 20 Punjabi barbers in 2006. Today there is not even a single barber; they were either killed or moved out of the district.”
He says the Punjabis are considered as ‘collaborators’ or ‘spies’ of Pakistan army and FC."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/workers-killed-attack-pakistan-balochistan-150411055357829.html
"April 15, 2015: Armed men have attacked a dam construction site in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least 20 workers and wounding three, according to a senior government official. Pasand Khan Buledi, commissioner of Makran division, said a large group of armed men attacked a labour camp near the dam construction site in the Gobdan area of Turbat district early on Saturday.
Buledi said 16 of the dead were from Pakistan's Punjab province and four were from Sindh province.
He said the eight guards, all from Balochistan, were unharmed in the attack."


http://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan/2016/06/160625_balochistan_bodies_hk
June 26, 2016: BLF tortures and kills 3 dissenters


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vdLwxJem2w
http://in.reuters.com/article/pakistan-baluchistan-india-exclusive-idINKCN11Z049
Sep 29, 2016:  In his first video interview in five years, Allah Nazar Baloch, head of the ethnic Baluch group Baluchistan Liberation Front (BLF), also vowed further attacks on a Chinese economic corridor, parts of which run through the resource-rich province.
...
Frontier Works Organization, the army-run company building most of the CPEC roads in dangerous areas, said 44 workers had been killed and about 100 wounded in attacks on its CPEC sites over the past two years.
"We are attacking the CPEC project every day. Because it is aimed to turn the Baluch population into a minority. It is looting, plundering and taking away our resources," Baloch said.
..... 

Charges of abuse have also been levelled at rebel groups, including the BLF, which are accused of targeting non-Baluch citizens as part of their rebellion.
Baloch denied BLF killed civilians, but said his group did go after "traitors".




https://www.dawn.com/news/1288817

Oct 7, 2016:  At least seven people, including two personnel of the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), were killed and over 20 others injured when two explosions caused by bombs planted on a railway track ripped through two bogies of the Rawalpindi-bound Jaffar Express near the Aab-i-Gum area in Bolan district on Friday. The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the blasts.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1195394/zikri-leader-shot-dead-kech/
https://www.dawn.com/news/1288816/blf-claims-killing-of-zikri-spiritual-leader

 Oct 8, 2016:  The spiritual leader of the Zikri community was shot dead in the Balgather Gadagi area of Kech district on Friday.

According to Levies officials, Syed Mullah Akhtar Mullai was gunned down by men on a motorcycle.

“Armed men attacked the spiritual leader of the Zikri community when he was returning home after solemnising the nikah of one of his devotees in the area,” an official said. The attackers escaped after the murder.

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

In a statement issued to the media, the group said it had taken Syed Mullai into its custody some time back and later released him on the guarantees of some elders of the area, but he had again begun working against the BLF.


http://balochwarna.com/2017/04/18/balochistan-two-collaborators-of-pakistani-intelligence-agencies-killed-in-turbat/ 
18 April 2017:

Two men were shot dead in Turbat town of Balochistan on Monday evening, Balochistan local media reported.

A spokesperson of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), meanwhile, called and informed various news agencies that Baloch fighters have targeted two collaborators of Pakistani intelligence agencies near Baloch hospital in Turbat last night.

“BLA accepts responsibility for the attack,” he said adding that we have made it clear repeatedly that China-Pakistan projects are aimed at expelling the Baloch from their motherland. Especially, the Gwadar CPEC project is tantamount to the collective destruction of the Baloch nation.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1332896 
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/05/gunmen-kill-10-labourers-balochistan-gwadar-170513111330168.html 
13 May 2017:
Gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on construction workers, killing 10 in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said Saturday.
...

The attack has been claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an armed separatist group that has been fighting for an independent homeland for the ethnic Baloch.

"We accept responsibility for the Gwadar attack," BLA spokesperson Jeander Baloch said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera.


http://dailytimes.com.pk/balochistan/20-May-17/three-more-labourers-gunned-down-in-turbat 
20 May 2017:

Suspected militants on Friday gunned down three workers building a Chinese-funded ‘Silk Road’ highway in Balochistan, days after a similar attack killed 10 labourers, officials said.

The men killed on Friday were part of a team working on a major highway in the Hoshab area of Turbat, linking the port-city of Gwadar to Quetta, said Sarmad Saleem, a regional official. “One laborer died on the spot and two others succumbed to their injuries in hospital,” Saleem said.

They were making a trip to a marketplace in the small town of Hoshab, 280 km from Gwadar, to buy daily supplies, said an official of the paramilitary force overseeing security in Balochistan.

The assailants managed to flee on a motorcycle.

http://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan-41996162 
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/244464-15-bullet-riddled-bodies-found-in-Balochistan 
https://twitter.com/BLF_Online/status/930796962542211072 
14 Nov 2017:  Baloch insurgents claim responsibility for killing 15 Punjabi laborers