Balochistan: Pro-freedom Baloch youth dies while traveling

QUETTA: The family sources of Babo Marri has confirmed that he ’embraced martyrdom’ on August 21 while traveling.

According to the family’s statement, Babo Marri was an ideologically mature and dedicated activist of the Baloch struggle for independence.

Babo Marri was a younger brother of Shaheed Wahid Bakhsh Marri and Shaheed Qasim aka Asad Marri who were martyred by Pakistani forces in 2001 and 2006 respectively.

His brother Shaheed Wahid Bakhsh Marri was martyred along with Shaheed Gulbahar Baloch and Shaheed Sobdar Marri on January 6, 2001, in Kalat Balochistan when the Pakistan army tried to arrest them. However, they preferred death over surrender and fought till their last breath.   

Another brother of Babo Marri, Qasim Marri was shot dead in New Kahan Quetta on 29 December 2006 when he along with another friend were walking toward the bus stop.

In this incident also the Pakistan intelligence agencies tried to abduct them but upon resistance, they open fire killing Qasim aka Asad Marri on the spot while critically injuring his friend.  

Thus Babo Marri has become the third brother and one of the many members of his family who sacrificed his life for the Baloch liberation struggle. Other members of Babo Marri’s family have still dedicated supporters of the Baloch freedom movement as they have been from the past many decades.

Also, in 2001 Pakistani forces abducted Noor Marri an uncle of Babo Marri and subjected him to brutal torture for several years.  When he was eventually released he had lost his mobility and was unable to speak properly. He died a few years after his release due to long illness and paralysis.

28-year-old Babo Marri was born in 1992 at Faiza Marri’s house in a Refugee settlement camp, also known as Marri camp, in Helmand, Afghanistan when Faiza Marri was in exile with thousands of other Baloch, led by late Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, the leader of the Baloch independence movement.

Just as Babo Marri was born in a refugee camp, so did his martyrdom occurred during migration from his homeland Balochistan in his effort to get rid of slavery and in his struggle for the freedom and sovereignty of the Baloch nation.