An email to Balach Marri (2002)
Crisis Balochistan | January 18, 2012
By Shazad Baloch
"Do you have a computer with internet access? . . . I want to send an email to someone. Can you help me to send that email?"
Today while reading and deleting old emails, one caught my attention"”suddenly taking me back ten years. It was 2002 and a student of Degree College had come looking for me. He appeared disturbed and I could see from his expression that he was about to cry"”I could see tears in his eyes. I invited him to sit and asked, "Is everything okay?"
"Yes," he replied, but did not speak for a few minutes. He looked around the room as if searching for something that he had lost and finally asked, "Do you have a computer with internet access?"
In 2002 only a few people in Quetta had a computer with an internet connection. When I said yes, he smiled and asked if I could do something for him. "I want to send an email to someone. Can you help me to send that email?" He showed me a slip of paper. Ah! Written on it--the email address of Balach Marri!
I agreed and we started to write an email. In 2002, elections were held in Pakistan and Balach Marri had become a member of the Balochistan Assembly. We began our email by congratulating Balach on becoming a member of the Pakistan Parliament"”and a slave of that parliament. We said we were sorry for losing a good Baloch son of soil"”a great son of Balochistan. We wrote that he had abandoned his struggle. Our last words were "History will not forget you for cheating the Baloch nation and accepting the slavery of Pakistan. Balochistan Zindagbad ghulamie murdagbad!" (Long live Balochistan and down with slavery!)
"Inkalab dar inkalab hakhri fata tak!" (Revolution, revolution till victory!)
These were our last words to Balach Marri.
We sent off the email and my friend was happy. He left my room as if he had fulfilled his responsibility. I, however, was uncomfortable because Balach Marri was a nawab and I did not think he would find time to reply to his email. But the next day when I opened my email, I saw a reply.
I will not write more"”I am simply pasting in the response of Balach Marri.
My dear Baloch, Mr. Unknown or . . . Baloch,
I really hope you feel about Balochistan what you are saying. But my dear let me tell you a few things:
1. It was not my decision to stand for the MPA seat; it was the people's decision.
2. I don't believe in the Pakistani parliamentary system because it is unfair and unjust for Baloch and we don't have any representation on the national level.
3. Being elected does not make me a servant of Pakistan or its army because I am the representative of my people, Baloch people. And I became a MPA not by the power of Pakistan but by the power of the Baloch people.
4. Most important is I need friends who trust in me and don't judge me on every step but see what I do for them and, inshaallah, I believe that my struggle for the Baloch and our rights will stay with me all my life.
I don't really want to prove to you or anybody else my loyalty to the Baloch cause, but one thing I would like to say, always make your decisions on more experience of a subject. Early decisions are usually not so correct, and one day you might think otherwise.
Hope it might help you to understand me.
But still thanks for your concern.
Balach Marri
Balochistan Zindabad
* * *
(A note to readers who are unfamiliar with the history of Balochistan: Balach Marri resigned from the Balochistan Assembly after two sessions. He was killed in November, 2007, while fighting for the freedom of Balochistan. Balach Marri is regarded as one of the most important figures in modern Baloch history.)
Balach Marri at protest, 2002
Balach Marri pictured with Brahamdagh Bugti, 2004
Balach Marri pictured with Nawab Akbar Bugti, 2004
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