Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Reactions- Pakistani Media on Modi’s Balochistan & PoK August 15 Speech and Indian Media


In a major policy shift Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made references of Pakistani atrocities in Balochistan and PoK twice in three days. First, he stressed in all party meeting held in New Delhi to discuss present turmoil in Kashmir, that it is appropriate time to raise the issue of human rights violations, abductions and killings of innocent citizens in Balochistan and PoK on international platforms. Then in his annual Independence Day speech on August 15, he thanked people of Balochistan and PoK for thanking him.
For observers and journalists it was unprecedented to hear about Balochistan atrocities from Indian PM. India’s opposition party Congress also lashed out at PM Modi for refereeing Balochistan in official address.
Let’s analyze Pakistani media’s reaction to Balochistan reference in Modi’s speech.
Sabeen Mahmood Baloch Rights activist
*** Leading Pakistani English daily Dawn (http://www.dawn.com/ ) and The Express Tribune (http://tribune.com.pk/ ) preferred to ignore Modi’s speech
*** Daily The International News (www.thenews.com.pk ) wrote editorial with title “Empty posturing”. The editorial is dedicated to prove that references of Balochistan in Modi’s speech are aimed at running away from unrest in Kashmir and its atrocities in Indian Kashmir.
*** The Express- Urdu daily (http://www.express.com.pk/ ) wrote editorial with title “Bharat ki Ishtaal Angeji” means India’s provocation. First part of editorial is dedicated to President’s speech narrating successes of Pakistan’s Operation Zarb-e-Azab in NWFP against Pakistani Taliban. Second half of editorial is dedicated to Indian Kashmir and ongoing unrest and agitations in it. Indian Forces using all means to crush Kashmiri youth. The editorial totally ignored Indian PM’s Balochistan and PoK reference and India’s allegations pertaining to Pakistani atrocities in Balochistan and PoK.
*** Pakistan Observer (www.pakobserver.net ) published editorial with title “Activate back channels with India”. As always it dismissed unrest in Balochistan as game plan of Indian Spy agency RAW and also rejected PM Modi’s statement that Balochistan wants freedom as ploy to divert attention from Kashmir unrest.
Interestingly the paper stressed the need to open up dialogue box to solve all contentious issues.
The Baloch Activists Reactions
As expected Baloch activists reacted positively to PM Modi’s Balochistan comments on August 15. Hammal Haider Baloch leader of The Baloch National Movement welcomed Modi’s statement and expressed that India shoulf raise the issue of Human Rights violations in Balochistan to UN.
Another prominent voice of Baloch movement Naela Qadri Baloch, the World Baloch Women's Forum president said that now India will raise the issue of Balochistan human rights to UN Security Council.
Indian Media on Modi’s Balochistan comments
Surprisingly Indian media scored self-goal on Modi’s Balochistan comments. The baseline of almost all Indian newspapers today is that, with such unnecessary statements on internal matters of Pakistan, India offered Pakistan golden opportunity to peep into India’s internal issues. But my real question to Indian media is that, did Pakistan wait for Modi’s Balochistan statement to peep in India’s internal matters? Pakistan has always reacted sharply to Godhra riots, scores of Hindu- Muslims riots, so called biased behavior with Indian Muslims and most importantly on Kashmir issue.
In such scenario, India lost numerous opportunities to reply Pakistani diplomatic assaults in “Tit for Tat” manner. And at present when Pakistan has crossed all diplomatic limits in praising Burhan Wani and Kashmir unrest, India must hit Pakistan where it pains most and i.e. Balochistan and PoK.
With India officially raising Balochistan issue, Pakistani military hawks and their political puppets are confronting to bitter truth and stark reality that Pakistan has much more to hide from world in Balochistan where almost 40,000 Baloch people are mysteriously missing and supposedly killed by Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) and Pakistani Army. One can find the whole verified data on Missing Balochs at http://www.bygwaah.com/

So, let’s talk about Balochistan and PoK!

Add to Google