Thread by @oolabmys

The #London Group and the 1970’s fights

*****
... a group of young Pakistanis, students of #Cambridge , #Oxford and other English universities.
They studied literature and politics. They believed in the saying of the time, ‘the private is public’, and that life is (1/28)

inseparable from social commitment.
They shared the dream of those years; of making a better, fairer world by educating the masses, enhancing consciousness and knowledge among the disadvantaged classes, and bringing revolution to the streets and squares.
This group of (2/28)

some 25 men and women began to publish a journal, #Pakistan Zindabad.
Some years ago, the Pakistani activist, Asad Rehman, told the journalist Malik Siraj Akhbar:
‘We had very little knowledge about what was going on in #Balochistan . We did not know about the military (3/28)

operations of 1948, 1958, or the ones from 1962 to 1968. Like any other Pakistanis outside Balochistan, we had no knowledge of these things. Information in those days was completely suppressed... I mean, just look, whatever happened in East Pakistan, West Pakistanis (4/28)

were completely blank. They knew nothing about East Pakistan.
Similarly, about Balochistan, I can tell you we did not know about the forceful annexation or the military operations.
The journal that circulated in London and one or two other English cities, ended up in (5/28)

the hands of their compatriots and was read secretly in their homeland or copied by the underground press run by young Left-wing militants there. Passed from hand to hand, copies of Pakistan Zindabad came to be read by Sher Mohammad Marri and Nawab Khair Baksh (6/28)

Marri.

As Rehman recounts, ‘When Sher Mohammad Marri and #Nawab Khair Baksh Marri read our magazine, they felt we were talking about identical issues which they were also trying to address at the time such as nationality rights, ethnic rights. So they sent Mohammed (7/28)

Bhaba to London to contact us. Mohammed Bhaba was the son of Hameed Bhaba. His was a family that was settled in South Africa and connected with the #African National Congress (ANC).
Hameed Bhaba was a very good friend of Zulfiqar Ali #Bhutto . They had socialist ideas (8/28)

and they got in touch with Khair Baksh Marri through Ali Baksh #Talpur . Bhaba approached us through a mutual friend.
We had lengthy discussions with him. He then gave us the offer from Khair Baksh #Marri , saying that if we really wanted to do some revolutionary work (9/28)

and implement the kind of ideas that we had, then he could provide us an area conducive for such work (in Balochistan).’
Only seven of the group accepted this proposal from Marri, who was also nicknamed ‘General Sheroff’ because of his alleged links with Soviet #Russia (10/28)

. Of those seven, two withdrew just before leaving, so only five arrived in Pakistan in 1971: Asad Rehman and his brother Rashid, Najam #Sethi , Dilip Dass and Ahmed Rashid. They were joined in the mountains about a year later by Mohammad Ali Talpur, who was not part of (11/28)

the original London Group.
The guy found himself in #Karachi , one fine morning, with two heavy suitcases full of books and a typewriter, ready to join with that equipment, a nomadic guerrilla in the mountains.
In October 1971, Mir joined the group in the mountains of (12/28)

Balochistan, after a message from Mohammed Bhaba. Not only did he meet Bhaba but also Ahmed Rashid and Asad Rehman, who became later known as ‘Chakar Khan’. Najam Sethi and Rasheed Rehman, the other members of London Group, were instead based in Karachi, entrusted with (13/28)

the duty of collecting funds, ensuring medical treatments and raising public awareness for the Baloch’s cause.
According to Asad Rehman, ‘What we brought to the Balochistan movement was modern thinking and technique on guerrilla war. We had read a lot of books on Che (14/28)

Guevara, General Vo Nguyen Giap, even the non-Communist generals of Cyprus. We had an idea of guerrilla war and conventional wars.
Historians regard the 1973 revolt as one of the darkest pages in Pakistan’s history
General Tikka Khan, swore that he would ‘take out’ the (15/28)

rebels in 72 hours. Instead, a bloodbath ensued that was to last for four years. After the dissolution of the Mengal government and the wave of arrests that followed, the Balochs responded by going back to the mountains.
General Sheroff was arrested and it was #Mir (16/28)

Hazar Khan Marri who took the reins and organised the resistance, using the old camps of the Parrari movement.
Bhutto sent into Balochistan four army divisions to fight few more than 50,000 men with old and rudimentary weapons compared to those of the Pakistani army. As (17/28)

if this was not sufficient, he asked for Iran’s help yet again, playing on the threat of a possible insurrection by the #Balochs in Iran. The Shah sent money, around $200 million, and 30 combat helicopters, needed by the Pakistani army to unearth the rebels embedded in (18/28)

hostile terrain.
Losses were heavy on both sides; that is all that can be said for sure. The numbers involved are uncertain and vary widely depending on who is telling the story.
In the book Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted People, V.S. #Naipaul (19/28)

spoke to one of the London Group members who recalls, ‘People were dying all around you. People had lost their livelihoods and their families.
In September 1974, the army attacked an encampment at Chamalang.
Most of the warriors crossed the border to Afghanistan taking (20/28)

their women, children and the old to safety.
From there, they continued the fight.
The military operations forced many Baloch, mainly Marris, to migrate to Afghanistan. Disappearances were rife then too; among the missing were Asadullah #Mengal, son of Ataullah, and his (21/28)

friend, Ahmad Shah, who were abducted on 6th February 1975. Dilip Dass son of Air Commodore (ret) Balwant Dass along with Sher Ali Marri was picked up by army intelligence at Belpat in early 1975 and their fate remains unknown.
The war ended in 1977 when Bhutto was (22/28)

deposed by #General Zia-ul-Haq’s coup. Zia freed all the Baloch leaders, offered the rebels amnesty and indicated he was ready to negotiate.
The amnesty did not, however, include the members of the London Group who were destined to remain abroad for years longer.
Nawab (23/28)

Khair Baksh came to Afghanistan in December 1981 and lived for a decade there with some 12–13 thousand Baloch refugees until the overthrow of Dr Najibullah by the Mujahideens in 1992.
At the beginning of the 1990s, their situation was becoming intolerable. The (24/28)

Mujahideen were continuing to kill the Balochs, not sparing their women, and threatened to kill Nawab Khair Baksh Marri. He decided to return home. Pakistan’s prime minister at the time was Nawaz Sharif. Under pressure from Taj Jamali, leader of the Balochistan regional (25/28)

government, #Sharif sent two C130s to bring Marri and his closest followers home.
At that same time, Ataullah Mengal also returned home at Sharif and Jamali’s request. A press conference was suggested at Islamabad where Sharif, Mengal, Marri and Nawab Khan Bugti would (26/28)

be present. The prospect of tribal leaders engaging in politics with the government’s blessing was, however, seen a serious compromise.
Governments came and went in Balochistan while Nawaz Sharif was ever-present but he began to view the tribal leaders with (27/28)

suspicion.

Balochistan Bruised, Battered and Bloodied Francesca Marino

(28/28)