The South Asian�s Story on Asif Baladi

[Zulfiqar Shah]

Urge Peace with India, Kidnap Peace Activist in Pakistan
   
  While the Pakistani President talks about peace with India on one hand, peace activists working on Indo-Pak peace are under threat. One activist – Asif Baladi – has been kidnapped by ISI. 
   
  President Musharraf cannot have it both ways – he cannot claim to be working for peace with India on one hand and on the other hand intimidate grass root workers and intellectuals who are trying to establish an environment in Pakistan for peace with India. 
   
  A case in point is that of Asif Baladi.
   
  On May 21st, the Pakistani newspaper The Dawn reported a press conference in Hyderabad where Asif Baladi announced an “International Paigham-e-Sindh Conference” in March 2007 at the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai in Bhit Shah, saying that the purpose of the conference was to streamline Sindh's essential message of peace, love and harmony to the rest of the world that alone offers stability and co-existence in the region. 
   
  He said he believes in the unity in multiplicity of religions and equity of cultures, and is a follower of Ahinsa and that 100,000 earthen lamps would be lit at the shrine of the great Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai on the occasion of the conference.
   
  Ardeshir Cowasjee reported in the Dawn "Soon after this announcement he was picked up by ISI men while he was on the way to a friend in Karachi's Defence area." He goes on to add that "A Constitutional Petition No.1019/2006 filled, today, by Mr. Noorulldin Sarki, Mr. Gulam Mustafa Lakho and Mr. Ghulam Shah, Advocates, in the High Court of Sindh at Karachi for knowing the whereabouts of Asif Baladi on behalf of his son Jibran, which is fixed on 13th day of July 2006 for orders at Serial Number 10 before the Division Bench consisting of Mr. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali & Mr. Justice Muhammad Afzal Soomro."
   
  Leaders of the Sindh Nationalist Forum have threatened to launch a series of protest demonstrations if SNF chief Asif Baladi and other nationalist leaders were not released. They said that since the 80s state excesses had crossed all limits and many a leader of Sindh and Balochistan were being held incommunicado and subjected to torture.
   
  They said that the kidnapping of Asif Baladi and other nationalist leaders by agencies was a flagrant violation of human rights and warned that the consequences would be disastrous.
   
  They called upon the Sindhi nation, nationalist leaders, national and international human rights organisations to help secure the release of Asif Baladi and other nationalist leaders.
   
  They called upon friends of Sindh to evolve a joint strategy for launching a struggle against the arrest of nationalist leaders. They said that Mr Baladi was arrested as he had announced to convene the “Pegham-i-Sindh Conference” at the shrine of Shah Latif in March 2007.
   
  They said that his arrest was aimed at sabotaging the conference though its objectives were to promote peace, unity, mutual understanding and religious harmony.
   
  They said that the Pegham-i-Sindh Conference would be held on schedule despite the harassment and obstacles. They said that a peaceful protest movement would be launched in Sindh including protest demonstrations, sit-ins and hunger strikes to secure the release of Asif Baladi and other nationalist leaders.
   
  Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court issued notices to the federal and provincial attorneys for July 19 in a petition alleging illegal confinement of Sindh Nationalist Forum chairman and Jeay Sindh Tehrik activist Asif Baladi.
  Asif Baladi’s son petitioned that while in custody, he contacted his sister in Hyderabad asking her to send his passport and national identity card through one Sarwar, who would be visiting his Gulistan-i-Jauhar residence. The petitioner said Sarwar came to his residence with three or four people in a vehicle numbered AKD-583 on July 2. He introduced himself as a servant of Brig Saleem of the ISI but the petitioner did not deliver him that passport and the NIC.
   
  The petitioner said nothing was known about his father’s whereabouts since June 26 and no contact had been made by him after his phone call. He feared for the safety of the detainee and requested the court to order his recovery and production. The Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station had been informed of the disappearance but no case had been registered.
   
  A division bench comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mohammad Afzal Soomro asked the deputy attorney-general and the advocate-general to seek instructions from the authorities concerned to ascertain the whereabouts of the alleged detainee and inform the court by July 19, when the petition would again come up for hearing.
   
  While various organizations are rallying for the release of a peace activist detained illegally by an arm of Musharraf’s government, the President himself contends to bring peace by making vacuous statements regarding the dynamics of South Asia, urging India to see long term beyond Mumbai blasts in its strategies. 
   
  The President must understand that peace does not exist in a vacuum and strategies often break down when the realities of ground take over. And the ground reality is that much work needs to be done to break down stereotypes in India and Pakistan so that peace can be possible and be sustained – peace beyond the gimmicks of handshakes and press conferences. 
   
  This is exactly what the ilk of Asif Baladi is working on in Pakistan – just like many of their counterparts in India. Creating a grass roots reality where people view their neightbors as friends, as co-inhabitants. Peace cannot be achieved by intimidating them. 
   
  But maybe, Musharraf is not looking for peace. Maybe he is interested in ‘managing’ the forces of fundamentalism so that he can remain the man USA wants in Pakistan. So that he can stay in power by presenting the stick of extremism to the Pakistani society. 
   
  That is the question Mr. Musharraf needs to answer to his own people and to the Indians. Is he truly for peace? In which case, he needs to prove that by his actions. Beginning with releasing Asif Baladi and supporting the Second Visa-free and Peaceful South Asia Convention, the International Paigham-e-Sindh Conference and other such grass roots efforts. 
   
  Sanat Mohanty
  http://www.thesouthasian.org/archives/2006/urge_peace_with_india_kidnap_p.html 

 		
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