Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

The Latin quote Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium means, “I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.” It embodies the Baloch sentiments and what they are working towards today; only a heartless person will fault them for this course because since 1948 they have been at the receiving end of state brutality. The […]

Whenever Balochistan’s woes are trumpeted publicly by the state, Baloch people expect intensification of repression and atrocities because it relies solely on coercion for the ‘resolution’ of all problems. Civilian governments have always played second fiddle to the army’s agenda and the present surge of interest in Balochistan is unequivocally tilted in favour of strengthening […]

And I, like a fool, had presumed that the desk-thumping during the May 13 briefing session, condoning and complimenting complicity and incompetence was the limit of absurdity, spinelessness and cravenness but then I am hardly to blame because Netanyahu had not yet gotten 55, yes 55, standing ovations from the US Congress for all the […]

“It is not the strength but the duration of great sentiments that makes great men.” This axiomatic quote of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), the German philosopher-poet underlines the overwhelming importance of consistency and persistence in any honourable struggle. Persistence and constancy eventually succeed.   Black Africans suffered immeasurably in an apartheid era South Africa, and there […]

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s pronouncement that “the Constitution will take its course if the prime minister fails to take steps with immediate effect to resolve the crisis in Balochistan,” warning that imposition of emergency could be one of the options to restore sanity to the province has sparked a wave of consternation among the […]

The ineptness of politicians, the unchecked power of the military, the rapaciousness of the haves, the rise of fundamentalism, the apathy of the public in general and the abuse and misuse of the media have damaged the social, economic and political fabric here to the extent where no amount of darning can repair it. The […]

Today is Mothers Day, and the tears and anguish of mothers for their missing children will poignantly highlight the stark contrast between them, their missing children and the content mothers and their safe children. It should make the world earnestly start caring for the agonised mothers and understand its obligation to put an end to […]

The recently beheaded body of Dr Khalil Asjad Dale, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), kidnapped by the Taliban from Quetta in January, was found in Quetta on Sunday, April 29. A letter with it audaciously declared: “This is the body of Khalil who we have slaughtered for not paying the ransom […]

The misplaced euphoria in some circles about the recovery of some missing persons recently on the Supreme Court’s orders in Quetta obscured the larger problem and the real issue — namely, the accountability of those responsible for illegal abductions and killing of Baloch activists and making them pay for these crimes. This it seems was […]

Ikram Sehgal in “Of Empire and Army” says, “There has been a Baloch president and a Baloch prime minister. During their time in office, none of the Baloch nawabs and sardars made any effort to ameliorate the conditions of their own people.” He forgets that the establishment ‘accommodates’ only those Baloch who connive in denying […]