‘don’t Use Visas As Political Weapon Against Baloch’ * Us Representative Concerned About Visa Problems For Baloch Leaders

Rohrabacher wrote to Secretary Napolitano that “our government needs to end its partnership with the ISI” in repressing the Baloch.

LAHORE: US Rep Dana Rohrabacher has sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano inquiring about the 2008 incident when the representative to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation for Balochistan, Noordin Mengal, was denied entry into the US, said a press release.
It said Mengal is a British citizen and carried a British passport, but was still detained entry at Newark’s Liberty Airport and put on a flight out of the US.
Additionally in 2010, Mengal was denied a visa to come to the US specifically to address a meeting sponsored by an organisation associated with a major university regarding human rights in Balochistan, the press release said.
Rohrabacher wrote to Secretary Napolitano that “our government needs to end its partnership with the ISI” in repressing the Baloch.
“The people of Balochistan oppose the Mullah regime in Iran and the military dictatorship in Islamabad. It appears that Mr Mengal has not been allowed to enter in US in order to avoid offending the Pakistani government,” Rohrabacher said.
“The people of Balochistan are not the enemy of the US; they are our allies in the region,” said Rohrabacher.
“We should not be throwing roadblocks against the enemies of our enemies by denying them entry in the United States.”
Rep Rohrabacher, together with Rep Steve King and Rep Louie Gohmert, introduced legislation on February 17, expressing the sense of Congress that the people of Balochistan have a “right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country”. Rohrabacher is chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which held a hearing on Balochistan on February 8. pr