Balochistan’s War Comes To Canada By Tarek Fatah, Toronto Sun

“The bodies surface quietly, like corks bobbing up in the dark. They come in twos and threes, a few times a week, dumped on desolate mountains or empty city roads, bearing the scars of great cruelty. Arms and legs are snapped; Flesh is sliced with knives or punctured with drills; genitals are singed with electric prods … All have a gunshot wound in the head.”

For years, human rights activists have accused Pakistan’s military of carrying out extra-judicial murders of political opponents in the country’s largest province, Balochistan.

Islamabad denies these accusations, but now a conscientious objector, a Pakistani soldier, has released a grainy video to Baloch nationalist websites, which appears to confirm their worst fears.

The 90-second clip shows a Pakistan army convoy in typical Balochistan terrain of dry parched land with mountains in the background.

A group of soldiers take a Baloch prisoner from a truck and drags him a few feet.

The prisoner is then set free, but he barely takes six steps when a soldier shoots him three times in the back, killing him on the spot.

The Baloch prisoner collapses face down.

The Pakistani soldier then stands above the body and pumps four more bullets to finish off his prey.

He walks away towards the convoy, but then apparently decides his work is not yet done.

He comes back to the lifeless Baloch man on the ground and shoots one last parting shot into his dead body before running back to the truck.

This in human rights circles is known as Pakistan’s “kill and dump” policy in Balochistan.

Declan Walsh, the Pakistani bureau chief for the New York Times, who is banned from entering Pakistan and works out of London, has described the war in Balochistan as “Pakistan’s secret dirty war”.

Citing alleged war crimes being committed by the Pakistan army, Walsh wrote in the Guardian as far back as 2011:

“The bodies surface quietly, like corks bobbing up in the dark. They come in twos and threes, a few times a week, dumped on desolate mountains or empty city roads, bearing the scars of great cruelty. Arms and legs are snapped; Flesh is sliced with knives or punctured with drills; genitals are singed with electric prods … All have a gunshot wound in the head.”

On Sunday, the war in Balochistan, symbolically speaking, came to Mississauga when a handful of Baloch Canadians set up a protest outside an event organized by hundreds of former Pakistani military officers who have moved to this country.

Delusional as it may sound, they were celebrating their make-believe victory over India in the 1965 war and spreading propaganda and anti-India hatred to the next generation.

As the Baloch chanted slogans against the Pakistan army, they were taunted as “Indian agents” and “traitors to Pakistan” by the former Pakistani army officers arriving in luxury cars.

I heard one man decked out in a tuxedo and driving with a Florida licence plate, boast: “This (military) operation in Balochistan should continue, we will shoot every one who would come in our way.”

Another guest, upset that I was with the Baloch Canadians, wrote to me:

“We enjoyed the amazing victory dinner and soon hope Pakistanis will slaughter remaining Baluch terrorists in Pakistan.”

At least one of these former Pakistan military officers works for Toronto police and attended the event in uniform.

I asked him if he was representing the police, but he said he could not speak to the media.

This begs the question: How did Canada become a safe haven for Pakistan’s military officers despite numerous reports that the country’s army is engaged in war crimes in Balochistan, and that elements within the army back the Taliban and jihadi groups fighting us?

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/09/09/balochistans-war-comes-to-canada