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The State vs The People – Notes on the History of Pakistan

'Masses are known to have wrought miracles in history; nothing is beyond them'. No entity, group, nation or state whatever the basis for its creation or existence can have priority over the intrinsic rights of the people it integrates to itself for supposedly higher and noble aims. Imposition of languages, culture, ethics and values however…

ByMir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Philosophy POLITICS

“Practice First, Then Theory:” The Zapatista Little School Shares Lessons Learned During 19 Years of Self-Governance

The first night of my homestay during the Zapatista Little School, my guardian and her husband asked if their students had any questions. My classmate and I both had experience working with the Zapatistas, so we politely limited ourselves to the safe questions that are generally acceptable when visiting rebel territory: questions about livestock, crops,…

ByKristin Bricker

INTERVIEWS POLITICS

“Dirty Wars. The world is a battlefield”: An interview with Jeremy Scahill

Jeremy Scahill found his way into journalism by volunteering at the independent news channel Democracy Now! where he assisted the investigative journalist Amy Goodman. His apprenticeship with Amy Goodman put Jeremy Scahill on good ground and he soon covered stories all over the world, predominantly in conflict zones like Iraq. The defining story and reason for his…

ByJeremy Scahill

Balochistan’s Leaderless Resistance

In April 2010, Baloch guerilla commander Dr Allah Nazar gave a ceremonious reception to Jagoo at a Balochistan Liberation Front’s (BLF) camp in Balochistan’s Awaran district. Those BLF fighters, who hadn’t seen Jagoo before, gossiped in hushed tones about his identity. “He fixed a machine gun. A bullet had been stuck inside the gun and…

BySajid Hussain

INTERVIEWS POLITICS

The Philosophy of Liberation: An Interview with Enrique Dussel (Part I)

Enrique Dussel invites me in through the black gates that lead to his office at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma Mexicom. I am 45 minutes late but he wants to put time aside for me despite my delay. “You have come all the way from Pakistan after all,” he says. “It would be a shame if…

ByEnrique Dussel

“Benefit of Doubt”: On the Murder of Dalits and the Baloch

On October 9, 2013 a division Bench of the Patna High Court (PHC) absolved all the 26 persons of Ranvir Sena (RS) accused of massacre of 58 Dalits, including 27 women and 10 children in Laxmanpur Bathe village in Bihar's Jehanabad district on December 1, 1997of all the charges; 16 of them had been awarded…

ByMir Mohammad Ali Talpur

“Black Humour”: On the Politicians Promise

I am convinced that if promises were bombs there wouldn’t be a soul left alive here. Promises come cheap and are the handiest tool to bamboozle people into believing fantasies they would otherwise reject as garbage. Here even the solemn but empty promises of courts recovering Baloch missing persons, of trying Musharraf for treason, of…

ByMir Mohammad Ali Talpur

“Take no prisoners”: On Extra-Judicial Killings in Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan

A few days back I.A. Rehman Sahib Director Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in his piece, “Of prisoners’ rights” (November 14th, Dawn) wrote about the recent Federal Judicial Academy seminar, attended by luminaries of judiciary here, on prisoners’ vulnerability. Among other problems faced by the prisoners the overcrowding of jails in Punjab and Sindh…

ByMir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Background Notes On the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons March

In 1999 when Pakistani military dictator Prevez Musharraf seized power, his first target was Balochistan. He declared a war against Baloch people across Balochistan by arresting prominent Baloch leaders and threatening others to hit them in way they would not have imagined. He threatened the Baloch that it was not the 70s forgetting the fact that…

ByFaiz M Baluch

The Journey of Love Continues: Notes on Voice of Baloch Missing Persons Long March

The grueling historic long march by the relatives of Baloch missing persons and extra-judicially killed persons having started on October 27th finally reached Karachi on the 22nd of November. They spent 27 days on the road walking thirty kilometers or more daily without a break. They were no extreme sports practitioners who would easily survive the rigors…

ByMir Mohammad Ali Talpur