Bhutto was one of the main culpirts behind Baloch genocide in the 70s: FBM

SHAAL (QUETTA): The Free Balochistan Movement in a statement to the media has criticised the Pakistani judiciary for a recent verdict declaring that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was hanged without a fair trial. 

The FBM in its statement said that because of conflicts between the army and Bhutto, the army used Bhutto for the Baloch national genocide and then hanged him. “Bhutto may be innocent to the so-called Pakistani judiciary but us, the Baloch, even if he was sentenced to death ten thousand times it would not remove the guilt of his unpardonable crimes and involvement in Baloch national genocide.

It should be remembered that in 1973, the occupying army of Pakistan used unrelenting force in Balochistan and committed the Baloch genocide. They carried out offensives in Malli areas and martyred 72-year-old Baloch fighter Lavang Khan and his companion in a fierce battle.

Later on, the Pakistan army in its effort to dismantle the Baloch national resistance extended its offensives and aggression in Sarawan, Jhalawan, Kohistan Marri and in most areas of Koh-e-Suleman region in Balochistan.

 However seeing the intensity of the Baloch freedom movement, almost a year later in July 1974, the occupying army of Pakistan, under Bhutto’s reign, started massive aggression and indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population in the vast area of Chamalang in Kohistan Marri region.

 The Shah of Iran also sent Iranian AH-1 Huey Cobra Helicopters operated by Iranian pilots and financially supported the Pakistani army to continue their military atrocities which resulted in the martyrdom of thousands of innocent Baloch men, women and children.  Thousands of people were arrested, imprisoned and severely tortured while nearly Eight Thousand people were disappeared and were never seen again.  

It should be remembered that the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi had family ties because of which Iran joined Bhutto’s bloody campaign in Balochistan and became complicit with Pakistan in the Baloch genocide. Not only did Iran provide Cobra helicopters to Pakistan but Iranian pilots themselves used these helicopters and were guided by the Pakistani army to bomb Baloch villages, kill innocent people and destroy their livestock. In addition to Iran’s helicopters, almost four divisions of the occupying Pakistani troops took part in the Chamalang Massacre.

The occupying army surrounded the entire region from Dera Ghazi Khan to Sibbi and from Dadu to Nushki and carried out the Baloch genocide with great intensity. Even today, the continued atrocities remind the Baloch nation of the cooperation of both the Iranian and Pakistani occupying forces against the Baloch national existence and their efforts to eliminate the Baloch people.

Recently, Some of the selected members passed a resolution in the Balochistan Assembly to give Bhutto the status of a national hero, but unlike these stooges, the common Baloch people consider the perpetrators of Baloch national genocide like Bhutto as mass murderers.

 All these stooges of the army brought to parliament under cronyism relate to the example of Alexander the Great in Iran when he punished Bessus the killer of Darius III saying, “If you cannot be loyal to Darius, how can you be loyal to a Macedonian king?” In the same way, the occupying Pakistani army used some Baloch agents and mercenaries but these so-called Baloch have become supporters and complicit of the occupying army in Baloch genocide. Their anti-Baloch actions prove that these people do not learn lessons from history. Hence, by ignoring the history, they are inviting its wrath.

The statement added that the Pakistani judiciary wanted to appease the Pakistan Peoples Party, which is why they Bhutto, one of the most notorious characters in Baloch genocide.

The PPP and the military have once again imposed their collaborator, Sarfaraz Bugti, on Balochistan, which shows that not only do they want to continue the Baloch genocide but they will bring intensity to the ongoing atrocities in Balochistan. These hired killers are empowered Pakistan army to continue and intensify the Baloch genocide and to carry on the plundering of Balochistan’s natural resources.