Baloch National Front

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The Baloch National Front is a political alliance of eight Baloch nationalist groups, including the Baloch Students Organization (BSO) and Baloch National Movement (BNM). [1]

The Baloch Students Organization is a student organisation that campaigns for the students of Pakistan's Balochistan Province. It was founded as a student movement on 26 November 1967 in Karachi and remains the largest ethnic Baloch student body in the country. It got divided due to ideological differences. BSO Pajjar and BSO Mengal affiliated itself with the parliamentary framework of Pakistan. Dr Allah Nazar, founder of pro independence wing, In 2002 while he was studying in college, he created a breakaway faction — BSO–Azad — that advocated struggle for an independent Balochistan based on pre-colonial Baloch country. The Pakistani government banned the BSO Azad on 15 March 2013, as a terrorist organisation, an action condemned by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

The Baloch National Movement is a Baloch nationalist political organization. Ghulam Mohammed Baloch served as the party's president before his murder in April 2009. The party is also a member of the Baloch National Front.

The BNF was formed in February 2009. Ghulam Mohammed Baloch of the Baloch National Movement served as the Front's Secretary General until he was killed in April 2009. [2] [3] Currently Karima Baloch, the chairperson of Baloch Students Organization – Azad, is the Secretary of the Baloch National Front. [4]

Ghulam Mohammed Baloch politician

Ghulam Mohammed Baloch was a Baloch nationalist politician. At the time of his assassination in 2009, he was serving as the president of the Baloch National Movement, as well as the General Secretary of the newly formed Baloch National Front. He had earlier served as a chairman of the Baloch Students Organization. His dead body was discovered on 9 April 2009, five days after being detained by Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps. The killing led to riots around Balochistan. He had been detained several times in the past by Pakistani intelligence agencies due to his political activities. He also played an important role in securing the release of abducted American UNHCR official John Solecki just days before his death.

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References

  1. Zia Ur Rehman, Hunger strike, The Friday Times, 9 May 2014.
  2. Urooj Zia, The question of Balochistan, Himal South Asian magazine, June 2010.
  3. Syed Farooq Hasnat (2011), Global Security Watch—Pakistan, ABC-CLIO, pp. 109–110, ISBN   978-0-313-34698-9
  4. Kumar Anshuman, Balochistan: And the Mountains Echoed, OPEN Magazine, 30 September 2016.