Reposted from BalochWarna | July 23, 2010 | News: Killing Baluchies (Baloch) is serving God: Pakistani Army"

Nasir Dagarzai, Rasool Baksh, Abid Saleem and Mehrab Baloch

"Killing these infidel Balochies is serving Islam," then one of them stepped forward and started shooting at me, said Nasir Dagarzai Baloch who miraculously escaped death the first time after being shot and dumped by the Pakistani army. He wasn't so lucky the second time as his killers made sure he wouldn't survive again.

Following is the story of teenage Nasir Dagarzai Baloch who was first abducted on January 23rd, 2011, along with other colleagues Rasool Baksh, Abid Saleem and Mehrab Baloch. On January 27, four days later, they were shot and dumped in Panjgoor area. Nasir Baloch miraculously survived, despite being critically injured and dumped, left for dead.

After initial treatment in a local hospital in Panjgoor, Nasir Baloch was shifted to Quetta for further treatment because his condition was worsening and he needed intensive care. At the Quetta Hospital Pakistan intelligence agencies visited him continuously. It was assumed that as soon as he got better he'd be abducted again. The doctors had put a rod in his broken leg and had asked him to visit in five months' time. Fearful of re-abduction, Nasir Baloch's family shifted him to his hometown and the rest of the treatment was carried out there.

After four months of slow recovery, on 25 May 2011, Nasir Baloch departed for Quetta to ask his doctor to remove the iron rod from his leg. He was travelling from Kharan to Quetta, Balochistan, by Al-Emirate Coaches; when the passenger bus arrived at Luckpass Police and the FC joint check point, it was stopped. Intelligence agency personnel, who were already waiting for the coach, boarded the bus and dragged Nasir and his brother, Gull Mohammad Baloch, out. They put them in their car and drove off. This happened in front of other passengers in the bus, the local police and FC (Pakistan's Paramilitary forces).

Nasir Baloch and his brother's whereabouts remained unknown until his bullet-riddled mutilated body was found from Western Bypass area of Quetta on July 17, 2011, along two other Baloch, who were later identified as Maqsood Qalandarani Baloch and Murtaza Sarparah Baloch.

During his recovery from earlier torture Nasir Baloch was visited by several of his friends and well-wishers who insisted that he tell them what he had gone through. Who abducted him and how did he survive? At the insistence of his friends, he narrated the following story. The friends did not publish his story earlier because they didn't want to risk his life. Now that he has been re-abducted and killed under custody, his friends decided to publish his story just to give a picture of the brutalities of Pakistan's so-called Islamic army and let the world know about the suffering of Baloch political activists who are still in custody of this savage military.

Nasir Baloch's narration in his own words: [warning this narration is graphic] "On January 23, I along with my three friends (Rasool Baksh, Abid Saleem, Mehrab Baloch) were sitting at my place when we heard a knock at the door. Mehrab has asked Rasool Baksh to check - who is at the door. As soon as Rasool Baksh went out nearly a dozen FC and Military personnel jumped the wall of the house and came in; they ordered us to put of hands up - we did as we were told. Some of the army men went to the next room and ordered all women and children to come out. When they came out they were made stand in a row and an old army officer shamelessly started taking off the earrings from the ears of the women and he also ordered them to handover their rings, watches and whatever else they had in their possession. Later they tied the mouth of women with clothes and locked them in the other room. They then blindfolded and started beating us with butts of guns and kicks; they also verbally abused us. They dragged us out of our home and put us in their cars. After a while of driving we felt that we were in a room being beaten by sticks, kicks, gun butts and they were swearing at us again.

When they open the piece of cloth from our eyes, there was this dark room; people were hanging [by the ceiling] upside down above us. Then, there comes this old white bearded man [Military official] the first day and he tells us: "Listen! I am in the stat of ablution from past 25 years. I have not committed any sins since my childhood. If anyone lies to me I can immediately feel, with the help of my afflatus, that this person is lying. So now! You guys tell me how many people have you killed?"

Mehrab and I replied simultaneously that we bear GOD our witness that we have never killed anyone. Upon hearing this, the old man takes out his knife and starts slitting the thighs of Mehrab; he literally cut a piece of flesh from Mehrab's thigh. Then he turns to me a starts slitting my chest with that sharp knife. Meanwhile I saw another soldier pushed Abid Saleem to the wall and started hammering his palms on the wall with a huge sharp nail. I heard Abdi Saleem screaming just once and then he lost his conscious - he just fainted before our eyes - but the brutal military official kept hammering his palms to the wall. Our other two friends were also watching what we were going through as they were sitting in the same room. Soon I lost my conscious too.

When I regain my conscious I saw this old brutal and savage soldier rubbing some white powder on my wounds; as soon has he rubbed this powder my entire body, mind and heard started burning. At one glace I saw Abid Saleem and Mehrab were tied with electric wires and they were being given electric shocks - I could feel their agony - they were moving just like a fish out of water. Then they started beating me with a flat plastic belt which Iron bolts had fixed to it, the torturers kept saying: "You're enemy of Allah, his prophet and Islam. You kill Punjabis, and we are only here to protect them; any Baloch who say wrong about any Punjabi, We will cut off his tongue" - they uttered all these words in one breath while still giving electric shocks to my friends and beating me with the plastic belt.

After all this torture and inhuman treatment they did not ask us any questions but the torture continued. We would lose our conscious and they would wait until we regain conscious and start beating us again. This continued all night.

The following morning the same old white- bearded man showed up again and asked us not to force him to commit any sin. "Tell me the truth! Who are your other friends in Panjgour"? Now we were half-dead; we could only hear but could not speak a single word. Then he ordered his men to untie our hands; as soon as our hands are untied - suddenly they attacked Mehrab and broke his arm before our eyes. They did the same to Abid Saleem and then broke my arm. We all fainted again and when I regain conscious - I saw Abid Rasool Baksh's body hanging by ceiling - they executed him in the same room where they kept us; he was dead.

Then they put me in a jeep - I was kind of happy and relieved that they are going to let me go - however, the car stopped after a while and they dragged me out of the car. I saw around twenty military men standing in line - then one of them stepped forward and started addressing the others: "since we the army of God, we are fighting for Allah almighty and these Balochi people are kaafir (infidels). They are fighting against Allah and his prophet on the saying of Israel and India that is why killing them in permissible and serving Islam". After the speech all the solders said "Allaho Akbar - God is great". Then one of the solders came forward and started firing live bullets at me. Soon I fainted again this time when I regain my conscious I found myself in the Hospital".

This is the story of the late Nasir Baloch who suffered at the hands of the soldiers of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was lucky enough to survive the first time, but his killers made sure that he wouldn't survive again to expose them. This story also illustrates the pain and suffering of other Baloch political activists that have been killed under custody and those who are still in the illegal secret prisons of the Pakistani army. This painful story provides enough evidence for the world to open its eyes, wake up and start taking notice of Pakistan's atrocities against the Baloch people. The criminal silence of international human rights organisations and the international community, as a whole, is encouraging the brutal Pakistani military to commit more crimes.

note: with some additional copy-editing by crisisbalochistan