By Lalit K JhaWashington, Oct 13 (PTI) The US should support the Balochpeople and other oppressed groups in Pakistan, who are beingsubject to grave human rights violations for demanding theright to self-determination, a senior American lawmaker hassaid.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said Pakistan needs toremember what happened in 1971, referring to developments inthen East Pakistan which later on became Bangladesh afteryears of Pakistani human rights abuses and persecution of thelocal population.
Resource-rich Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but leastpopulated province, has been wracked by a long-runningseparatist insurgency which has seen brutal repression byPakistani security forces and enforced disappearances.
"When the people of Bangladesh wanted to be a littleindependent of the Pakistani government, have some way tocontrol their own lives and control their own government, theywere brutally repressed by the Pakistani government, and thatis what led to, basically, the uprising of the people inBangladesh when they freed themselves," Rohrabacher saidyesterday in the US House of Representatives.
That same type of oppression is continuing not onlyagainst the Baloch, but also against the Muhajirs who cameover from India after Partition, he said.
Rohrabacher said the Muhajirs do not want to besubjugated by "this corrupt, militaristic, pro-terrorist"government of Pakistan.
"We should be siding with people like that who want theirindependence and believe in these same values that we believein," he said, adding, the US needs to be supporting theBaloch.
"The Baloch are also persecuted, mainly persecuted by thePakistanis who have them under their thumb, and they murderpeople constantly," he alleged.
"This is the history of Pakistan. Right now they aredoing it to the Baloch, to the Sindhis, you name it. You havegot just a group of people, except for the Punjabis and thenothers, the Pashtuns, who control that government inPakistan," Rohrabacher said. PTI LKJ KUN AKJKUN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.