Gulzar Imam’s media trial is against International Laws: FBM

QUETTA: The Free Balochistan Movement in a statement to the media expressed its concern over the arrest of Gulzar Imam and said that the Pakistani state was trying to use him against the Baloch Independence Movement in a smearing campaign and media trial.

” When a country arrests soldiers of another country during the war, they are given POW (Prisoners of War) status, but Pakistan captures Baloch youths and either kills them in custody and throws their dead bodies away, or its state-controlled media conducts media trial of Baloch prisoners, which is a violation of international war laws,” FBM statement read.

The statement said that when Saddam Hussein in Iraq captured American pilots and soldiers in the first Gulf War and forced them to speak against America during their media trial on Iraqi TV,  the International community condemned this act of Iraq all over the world because it was illegal to put the soldiers of an enemy country on the media trail.

In occupied Balochistan, Pakistan has been violating the laws of war for the past seven decades but the world is silent on such illegal actions and it has encouraged Pakistan to continue its rampage against the Baloch people.

The FBM statement further said that we are not surprised by such illegal acts of our enemy states, because the enemy forces will never want Baloch to become a powerful nation and restore its lost sovereignty and independence.

Similarly, despite being concerned about Gulzar Imam’s arrest we are not surprised because stakeholders within the Baloch freedom struggle also have their shortcomings. Many events have taken place in the past few years which were counterproductive for the freedom struggle. Pro-freedom organisations were divided under a well-thought-out strategy to legitimise their blunders.

Later alliances were formed from those elements who were expelled from their organisations for violating the discipline and conspiring against the freedom struggle.  The alliance is now suffering further division and chaos from within because it had no foundation.  How can one expect positive results from negative actions and attitudes?

Hence, the arrest of Gulzar Imam by the Pakistani state is also a by-product of this counterproductive process and the recent statements and accusations made by the parties against each other after this incident have raised new questions.

That is why it is important that instead of pushing this issue under the carpet, all the characters, events, allegations and statements should be investigated so that the Baloch nation will know the facts and conspiracies of enemies, this will also deter the enemy states to cause further irreparable damage to the Baloch movement in the future.

The FBM said that it has become important for the enemy for its survival, not to allow Baloch national strength to get together by dividing the Baloch. It has, so far, succeeded not because of its cleverness but because of our carelessness.

Our survival is in the unity of the fragmented national strength of the Baloch nation and the restoration of the independence of Balochistan by uniting all Baloch areas including Iranian and Pakistani-occupied Balochistan, for which the first condition is strict discipline and the empowerment of political institutions.

The statement added that the Free Balochistan Movement has always endeavoured to promote cooperation within pro-liberation Baloch political parties to accelerate the struggle for independence and under this policy, FBM formed a committee in October 2021 and started contacting for establishing a working relationship within the pro-independence Baloch political parties.

“We are committed to continuing our efforts and contacts for establishing a working relationship within all pro-independence forces in the liberation movement.”