A reply to Nodan Baloch’s baseless accusations

By Shahdad Baloch

On 24 and 25 December, Balochistan Times and The Balochistan Post respectively published an opinion piece by Nodan Baloch which read more like a hate piece and a smear campaign than anything else. Publishing this piece was obviously an endorsement by the editors of the two web portals. This following piece is a reply to Nodan’s allegations. I will not get into a blame game and name people but will try to educate the readers about vision and struggle of Hyrbyair Marri in my words and how I see it.

The writer also mentioned Hunza Marri a son of late Sardar Khair Bakhsh Marri who according to Nodan’s article lives in Poland and is a business tycoon. I do not know much about Hunza Marri but the little knowledge I have of him is that he is certainly not a business tycoon and unlike Gazain Marri and Changiz Marri has not compromised and return to join Pakistan’s politics. One must appreciate his wisdom and courage of staying away from dirty politics of Pakistan so far.

A synopsis of armed conflicts across the globe reveals that Africa is a war-affected continent. In West Africa, the long-running conflict between the Casamance separatist group and the Senegalese regular army although abated has not been resolved. Besides, there has also been skirmish along the porous borders of Mano River countries swarming with mercenaries who fought during the Liberian, Sierra Leone and Ivorian civil wars.

The operations of the religious terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria may spill over into other neighbouring countries in West Africa and spark off sectarian wars. The Arab Spring has reignited some West-African insurgencies and counterinsurgencies. A typical example of such campaigns was the engagement of the Malayan regular army with the Tuareg separatist rebels in the Northern Mali as a corollary of the Libyan war which ended with the demise of Muammar Gaddafi. Keeping these wars in view Hyrbyair Marri has took a more optimistic approach to the Balochistan freedom movement by diminishing the probability of war conflict between the armed groups of Iranian and Pakistan occupied Balochistan and hampering all efforts of regional and global players to drag the Baloch liberation movement in other regional conflicts by negating the concept of proxy war. Those to use the national struggle as a proxy war are in my opinion the real war profiteers, not freedom fighters.

The war profiting and the war profiteers not only gain the economic profit but they are most often tasked to spread the war on the patterns that the company, group and institution hired them for economical gains. The accusation against Hyrbyair Marri in Balochistan Time and The Balochistan Post media tools is based on biased approach ignoring the facts and figures. The writer engages in shallow accusations without doing any research on the topic. The writer’s mere accusations and repeating the cheap propaganda and smear campaign of Pakistani media against pro-freedom Baloch leadership. The writer used a sentence which, ‘why the multimillionaire Hairbiyar Marri dined in five-star hotels’. Such article would read better in Pakistani media, not web pages that claim to represent the Baloch nation or highlight the plight of Baloch people.

The first counter-argument through the article ‘war profiteer’ is that if money and prestige are the goals for Hyrbyair Marri than he could easily attain both because he belongs to a powerful tribe in Balochistan and holding the territory in Kohlu Balochistan which is the land of hydrocarbons, means enriched with oil and gas, the business of which made American famous business magnate, John D Rockefeller whose wealth soared and he became the richest person in the country, controlling 90% of all oil in the United States at his peak. If becoming a millionaire was the ultimate aim of Mr Marri than he would have been the John D Rockefeller of Balochistan because of the largest and untapped of oil and gas reserves in his birthplace followed by his powerful tribal influence in the region for whose appeasement Pakistan would easily bow before such personalities for mutual gains. But Mr Hyrbyair Marri and his father veteran Sardar Khair Bakhsh Marri has always been deterrent against Pakistan’s plan to plunder the natural resources of Balochistan.

Moreover, Hyrbyair Marri was the youngest minister of Balochistan Assembly and holder of prestigious ministership the ministry from which politicians have accumulated billions of rupees, but for Hyrbyair Marri the restoration of Balochistan’s independence has been the utmost and ideal task. The power and money appeal those people who thrive for them and have never seen the pleasure of money and power but since his childhood, Hyrbyair Marri has witnessed both.

Who is Hyrbyair Marri what is his demand and approach, could easily be traced from Balochistan liberation charter in which Mr Marri called for equitable distribution of resources among the Baloch nation, the BLC defines the natural resources of Balochistan as the resources of the Baloch nation, not to any individual. The war profiteers mainly are proxies in today’s age because they get the handsome amount for being mercenaries but Hyrbyair Marri has always opposed the concept of bringing Baloch liberation movement under any definition of proxy war. Despite living in UK and meetings with American congressmen, Hyrbyair Marri has never led the Baloch movement as a part of the war against ISIS, despite the fact that several are thriving for the pleasure of America to be the part of their partner on the war on terror for their goals and gains. Likewise, the regional players in South Asia are doing their utmost effort to dilute the Baloch liberation movement like the demand to hands off from claim of the territory occupied by Iran but Hyrbyair Marri has always played a role of deterrent against these pressure politics and sustained the cause with pure terms of maximum freedom.

Witnessing Hyrbyair Marri as an obstacle for those who want to gain some profits from the war of independence, are now making rogue arguments of accusing Mr Marri of being war profiteer which reflects the shallow mindset who could do everything and anything to sabotage the purity of movement by switching it as a ‘proxy tool’ for the interests of regional and global players like Iran. The article ‘War profiteer’ published those two web portals put the same allegations on Mr Hyrbyair Marri as the state of Pakistan is frequently accusing and misguiding Baloch nation. But the entire nation is well aware of the facts that how Hyrbyair Marri is defending the cause of Baloch for freedom of Balochistan from Iran and Pakistan.

Finally, are the writer Nodan and the web portals that published his article serious that living in Europe means one should automatically be labelled as a war profiteer? There are many Baloch who lives in Europe and may also own cars and houses. Someday even the writer might end up in Europe like the admins of the web portals that are promoting his baseless accusations against pro-freedom leaders.