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Date: January 21, 2006
TAMPA, FL – Expressing concern at the
developments in Balochistan over the past six weeks, the Hindu
American Foundation (HAF) noted a recent incident where Pakistan
Armed Forces tried to intimidate remaining Baloch Hindus in
Balochistan to leave the province. Newspaper reports have
described how a helicopter gunship of the Pakistan army fired
rockets on a Hindu locality in the Bugti area of Balochistan
on Jan. 20, 2006.
According to Nabi Baksh, a spokesperson of
the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), two women and four children
were injured in this attack. However, despite the air strike,
the Baloch Hindus of the locality have refused to leave the
area. Hindus have been targets of attack in Pakistan over
the past six decades, reducing their presence in the country
from 15 to 24 percent to less than two percent.
The support of resistance fighters who came
to the rescue of the beleaguered Hindus is to be applauded.
Reports mention that resistance fighters immediately mounted
an attack on government buildings and posts of the security
forces, thereby forcing security forces to divert their attention
from the Hindu locality and focus on defending their posts
which came under attack.
According to Agha Shahid Bugti of the JWP,
the Pakistani Army attacked Dera Bugti’s urban area
with heavy weapons and killed nine people, including two women
and five children.
Pakistani security forces moved into Kohlu
district on Dec. 18, 2005 and broke a tenuous peace between
Baloch nationalists and the Pakistan Government. This peace
had lasted nine months since the violent confrontation in
Dera Bugti, which had claimed over 60 lives including those
of 33 Hindus. It is reported that the present operations in
Balochistan began as a sequel to the Dec. 14, 2005 rocket
attacks on Kohlu town when President Pervez Musharraf was
on a visit to lay the foundation stone of one of the three
new military cantonments to be set up in the province -- fiercely
opposed by Baloch nationalists.1
On December 27, 2005, India noted with "concern"
the military action in Balochistan saying Pakistan should
"exercise restraint" and address the grievances
of the people of the region through peaceful discourse. Pakistan
had rebuffed India and has continued to target the area.
Ramesh Rao, a member of HAF’s Executive
Council emphasized urgency that “the United States,
a strategic partner of a reluctant Pakistan in the war against
terrorism, rein in the Pakistan government and its continued
program of eliminating dissent and minorities’ demand
for recognition in Pakistan.”
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