Germany: Baloch marcher reached Hamm city after four days of walk, Media remain silent

HAMM: The international Baloch campaign group ‘Free Balochistan Movement’ marchers have reached to Hamm city of Germany on Tuesday evening.

The group of few men accompanied by a little Baloch girl named ‘Mahgunag Baloch’ have been marching for past four days to highlight Pakistani state atrocities in Balochistan.

The pro-freedom Baloch activists are marching toward Berlin where they say they’ll hold a protest demonstration against Pakistani state terrorism in Balochistan in front of German parliament and request the international community to support the Baloch struggle for freedom.

On their way from Dusseldorf they have already held demonstrations in Mettmann, Wuppertal, Essen and Dortmund cities of Germany. They say the local people are sympathetic and supportive but the local German media has remained silent so far. “We are expecting some media coverage as few media persons have assured us they’ll write about our march as we get closer to Berlin”, one of the organisers told Balochwarna News.

At Mettmann and Dusseldorf a German rights activist and author Claudia Wädlich Heidelberg who walked with Baloch marcher a full day, spoked about the ‘forgotten issue of Balochistan’.

She said, “Balochistan is hardly known. Most people ask where is this country? But it is a very large land with vast deposit of natural resources. It has even been an independent state after the removal of British colonial rule and was later occupied by Pakistan because of its strategic importance and natural richness.”

She went on to say, “The Baloch people have gold, they have oil, gas and copper. The Pakistani regime aims to exploit their resources and would want get rid of the Baloch people because they simply do not want to be subject.”

She said, “The Pakistani government suppresses the Baloch. The Pakistani government supports terror, also the IS. Although they get funds by the United States for fighting terrorism but they use it [US funds] to train the IS and al Qaeda and Taliban in their camps.”

She said the Pakistani forces were involved in abductions, torture and murder of Baloch activists and their elite. “Many elites are forced to live abroad,” said adding that they are fleeing from this oppression.

She also talked about Pakistan’s kill and dump policy in Balochistan under which Baloch activists are abducted and tortured to death and their brutally tortured bodies are thrown on road sides and city across Balochistan.

She said, “I attended the Baloch Long March from Düsseldorf to Wuppertal the first day to draw attention to this problem.” She said I aware that the Baloch activists are marching to Berlin and that she’ll join them again when they get closer to Berlin. “We will deliver a message to [German] Parliament,” She added.

Claudia along with some other scholars has founded an NGO ‘friends of Balochistan’ to highlight the Balochistan conflict and Pakistani state atrocities against Baloch people.

She admires the Baloch people for their tolerance and secular nature. “Baloch are very cultivated, very peaceful and secular. That means, they tolerate Christians, they tolerate Hindus, while the Pakistani regime is an extremist regime,” She said.

She said the Pashtuns, the Sindhis and especially the Baloch have to suffering extremely. The regime [Pakistani state] has all the power in order to supress these and unfortunately, other nations look away. “Most people know nothing about Balochistan issue, because our media is silent about it. It is also prohibited for journalists to enter Balochistan,” Claudia Wädlich Heidelberg said.

She remarked that an unknown genocide of the Baloch people, especially of the educated youth is taking place. “They [Pakistan forces] abduct them, they torture them, they kill them, they throw them into the landscape. Most of these Baloch living in exile in London, in Germany, in Sweden and other parts of the world wish to draw the attention to their situation.”

Meanwhile the resilient Baloch activists continued their march on Tuesday despite the scorching heats waves across Europe. “We held a demonstration at Dortmund and distributed leaflets among local residents in the morning before starting our march toward Hamm,” said Beebagr Baloch one of the organisers of the march.

At Dortmund little Mahgunag Baloch made a passionate appeal to Baloch people in living in Germany to join the long march of Free Balochistan Movement to expose Pakistan and Iran’s genocidal policies against Baloch people.

The Baloch marchers held their second demonstration of the day at Kamen town in Germany and headed toward Hamm where they will spend their night before resuming the 5^th day of their march on Wednesday morning.