Treason charge on Baloch ‘rebels’ who thanked Modi

ISLAMABAD: Three top Baloch separatists were booked in five cases related to treason and anti-state activities on Monday for welcoming PM Narendra Modi’s support for their cause and “inviting India to act against Pakistan”.

Cases were registered against Brahamdagh Bugti, Harbiyar Marri and Banuk Karima Baloch, the exiled Baloch separatists, at five different police stations of Khuzdar district of the restive Balochistan province, on the complaints of five petitioners. The three Baloch bigwigs were charged under Pakistan Penal Code sections dealing with “waging war or abetting waging of war against Pakistan”.

They were also charged with “concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war”, “concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment” and “assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty”.

The petitioners claimed that the trio had supported Modi’s August 15 I-Day speech. “People of Balochistan, Gilgit and POK have thanked me a lot in past few days, I am grateful to them,” Modi had said in the speech, following up on his earlier remark: “The time has come when Pakistan shall have to answer to the world for the atrocities committed by it against people in Balochistan and POK.”

Brahamdagh had praised Modi and India on his Facebook page after his speech, thanking them for raising their voice for the cause of the deprived Balochs. According to the FIR submitted at Saddar police station of Khuzdar, the exiled leaders, while praising Modi’s statement, invited the Indian government to “attack Pakistan in their interaction with different TV channels and newspapers”.

Brahamdagh, the disgruntled Baloch leader, has been in exile in Switzerland since the killing of his grandfather Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti by security forces in 2006. He is accused of heading the Baloch Republican Army, an armed militant organisation of Balochs resisting Pakistani security forces’ operations in the province.

Harbiyar Marri, the chief of the Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist militant organisation, had sought political exile in Britain while Karima Baloch, the chairperson of the Baloch Students Organization, lives in exile in Canada.

Sanaullah Zehri, Balochistan’s chief minister, had last week slammed Modi’s statement, alleging that the Indian government was supporting the ongoing insurgency in Balochistan.