Balochistan: Ex-guerrilla commander shot dead in Turbat

QUETTA:  Unknown armed men shot dead an ex-guerrilla commander in Nasirabad area in district Kech Balochistan on Wednesday.

According to details armed men killed Mohammad Bakhsh Baloch aka Jaggo in Turbat and fled the scene. Jaggo struggled for freedom of Balochistan for several years and lost his brother, son and nephews for the independence of Balochistan.

Meanwhile, Gwahram Baloch, a spokesperson of the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) has accepted responsibility for killing Jaggo and charged that he was ‘an important agent of Pakistani forces.’ The BLF spokesperson also alleged that Jaggo assisted Pakistani forces in attacking Baloch sarmachars and carrying out operations in Baloch areas.

He said, ‘Jaggo has violated all the traditions and betrayed the blood of martyrs by surrendering before the Pakistani forces,’

Mohammad Bakhsh aka Jaggo was one of the first members who joined BLF and started struggle against Pakistani forces in Balochistan. He lost many of his relatives including his brother, son and nephews. However, later Jaggo and his friends developed political difference with Dr Allah Nazar Baloch and parted ways from the BLF.

Commander Mohammad Bakhsh, Master Sattar and Master Saleem Baloch along with their other several ideological friends founded their own armed organisation, the Baloch National Liberation Front (BNLF), to continue the struggle for freedom.

The BNLF was politically supported by Baloch National Movement (Shaheed Ghulam Mohammad) a fraction of Baloch National Movement that separated from the BNM (currently led by Khalil Baloch) after the martyrdom of the founder of Baloch Nation Movement Waja Ghulam Mohammad Baloch – who was abducted along with Shaheed Sher Mohammad and shaheed Lala Munir Baloch in 2009 and later the trio were killed in custody. The three Baloch leaders were among the first victims of Pakistan’s notorious kill and dump policy.

Supporters and members of BNM (SGM), however, always complained that the BNLF was facing a lot of difficulties in maintaining their activities due to lack of resources. Since there has been a lot of negative propaganda against the BNLF that is why no mainstream armed group was willing to support them.

After several years of struggle for independence commander Jaggo and master Sattar abandoned the path of armed resistance and disappeared from the scene. Master Saleem Baloch continued the struggle from the platform of BNLF for a while but later joined the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) and is still fighting for the independence of Balochistan.  The Baloch National Movement (Shaheed Ghulam Mohammad) merged with the Baloch Republican Party (BRP).

Very little has been known about ex-guerrilla commander Jaggo and master Sattar since they abandoned the freedom struggle until Wednesday, January 10, 2018, when the Baloch Liberation Front spokesperson issued a statement saying they have killed Jaggo for collaborating with Pakistani forces.

BRA rejected the BLF’s claim: a few hours later the Baloch Republican Army’s spokesperson Sarbaz Baloch has issued a statement to media and said that the Baloch Republican Army killed Jaggoo in Nasirabad area of Tump district, but the BLF wrongfully claimed responsibility for the killing, which is ‘against all moral values and principles of resistance.’