Quetta University teachers protest against Nazima Talib's murder. Photo courtesy Dawn
Another senseless death. Photo: courtesy BBC
Elaborating on the note posted to my yahoogroup this morning:
Condemn the cold-blooded target killing of Prof. Nazima Talib, gunned down while on her way in a rickshaw to the Department of Mass Communications of Balochistan University where she taught for 23 years. BLA claims credit… How can they hope to succeed if they kill educationists? Her murder is a devastating reminder of how the innocent pay for the political ambitions of the ruthless.
See also reports in CriticalPPP on the murder of Prof. Nazima Talib and report in Dawn today about the professor’s burial in Karachi. She leaves behind an elderly widowed mother and a son, 24.
HRCP says: “It is unfortunate that most of senior Baloch leaders have not condemned these ruthless killings strongly enough, some of them present conspiracy theories to divert the blame from the Baloch organisations… The discontent among the Baloch youth could not be assuaged though several months passed since the government made commitments to take measures to win over the Baloch nationalists, especially the young Baloch, under the Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan Package. The murder of the woman teacher at the Balochistan University should serve as a reminder to the powers that be that they need to act immediately and decisively to make things improve in the Balochistan province”. Complete statement at HRCP blog
TALES OF DEPRIVATION IN MINERAL-RICH PROVINCE in The Daily Tawar, Baluchistan, translation posted at NewAgeIslam
The Baloch people have a right to self-determination – A damning indictment of Pakistan’s continued military presence and human rights violations in Balochistan by the British activist Peter Tatchell, advocating Balochistan’s right to self-determination in Opendemocracy (thanks Anthony Barnett for flagging this)
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: Anthony Barnett, balochistan teacher killed, BLA, critical ppp, nazima talib, New Age Islam, Opendemocracy, Peter Tatchell |
Journeys to democracy 
A courageous and moving expression of solidarity with Professor Talib and other victims of violence. Please send us some of your work for Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies.
Peace,
Masood Raja
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Thank you. You are welcome to use my writings in your journal, with due credit.
Further thought: When violence is used for ‘liberation’ or ‘religion’, it becomes criminalised, a free for all, made worse by the failure of the state to provide law and order and to punish the guilty. Prof. Talib’s murder reminds me of the murder of a primary school teacher in Mohmand Agency in 2007, that I wrote about. Khatoon Bibi was killed for having been born into the wrong gender. Prof Talib was killed for being born into the wrong ethnic group – “Violence against women: ‘Justice, Taliban style'”
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beena-issues/message/985
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Please also see Urooj Zia’s article in the Himal Southasian blog –
Action and reaction?
http://himalmag.com/blogs/blog/2010/04/30/action-and-reaction/
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Thanks. And i have also added your blog to our blogroll.
Masood
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No one can, absolutely no one, can find words to describe this gruesome act of killing. It is outrageous. Shameful. That the Baloch society will sink so low as to allow its members to kill a woman is something I had hardly thought. The group of this tribe are known to have held enormous respect for the honor of women. This will keep haunting the legacy of Baloch nation in this country.
I have deplored the fact that our media has largely an incomprehensible quiet on the simmering issue of Balochistan. While the Baloch nationalists have their own grievances, the non-Baloch communities who are bearing the brunt of a shadowy showdown between the state and militant Baloch groups are helplessly looking at their messiah. And he is certainly not coming— in near future. The most serious issue plaguing Quetta city is that of sectarian killings. The other day I said this to the famous correspondent of DAWN that the latent conflict will someday spiral out of control, this cooker will explode in a way that will terminate the deafening silence that Pakistanis have maintained. The issue has to be addressed and highlighted so as to shake everyone’s complacence that is all is well here. NO. NOTHING IS. You have to act or be ready to perish as a nation.
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[…] surprisingly, though, the media and the Pakistani bloggers (Like Beena Sarwar and Urooj Zia and many others) have condemned this killing and these politics of hate and murder. […]
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