Glasgow City College student Majid Ali faces torture and death if returned to Pakistan. Majid Ali’s brother and other members of his immediate family have been taken and I am afraid very probably murdered by the Pakistani authorities as part of their relentless persecution of the Baloch people and desire to wipe out Baloch national identity. The UK Home Office intends to deport Majid. The people of Scotland must defend him.
There will be an emergency demonstration at the Scottish office, 1 Melville Crescent, Edinburgh at 13.00 tomorrow. I shall be going along. NUS Scotland are organising a letter-writing campaign to Scottish MPs to get them to put pressure on the Home Office. This is important.
It is appalling that London can seek to rip Majid from a Scottish community which values him, from a nation which respects its immigrant communities and their contribution, as part of Theresa May’s campaign to pander to the corporate media induced racism which regrettably has been introduced into many communities in England. It is a further example of why independence is essential to build a more ethical state.
The persecution of the Baloch has received little attention in the West. Peter Tatchell has done admirable work in trying to raise its profile in the UK, but with little traction. Like so many dreadful abuses, it is a direct result of wrongdoing by the British Empire. Baloch or Beluchistan was formally known as the state of Kelat, which Britain first invaded in 1839, destroying the city of Kelat in 1840 and murdering the ruler Mehrab Khan on the pretext he had given insufficient support to the British invasion of Afghanistan. Britain’s relations with Kelat thereafter were an appalling litany of broken treaties, culminating into the forceful and unwanted incorporation into Pakistan.
A few years ago I met the current Khan of Kelat at his home in exile in Wales and learnt a great deal about the dreadful persecution the Baloch suffer. In the course of my researches into British responsibility for the situation I cam across the crime of the massacre of Kotra. After the killing of Mehrab Khan, fighting continued until a truce was agreed with Mehrab’s 15 year old son Nasir. While the truce was in force, British forces silently surrounded Nasir’s mountain camp at Kotra and attacked before dawn, massacring 500. It is reminiscent of Glencoe, though this was a much larger massacre. In the National Archives of India I trembled as I held the manuscript order for the massacre in my hands.
We should do everything we can to save Majid Ali out of common decency, wherever he is from. But the knowledge of Britain’s historic responsibility for the situation should broaden and deepen our understanding of his plight.
Re the fire in Kiev
“Interior Ministry official Zoryan Shkiryak said police were investigating three possible causes of the fire — “violations of fuel storage regulations, technical malfunctions or arson”.
The owners of the depot, BRSM-Nafta, said in a statement they believed the fire was the result of an arson attack aimed at damaging its business.”
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/06/09/ukraine-crisis-fire-idINL5N0YV0Y020150609
Of course no one sensible is airing conspiracy theories until they get a few facts. Those who think loss of life is a joking matter need to look at themselves in the mirror.
Anon1,
I am afraid you are quite wrong about the capacity for discrimination of the security services. They spend a great deal of public money monitoring stuff of no import at all. They certainly still regard me as a noteworthy target, quite wrongly.
The idea that there is no Russian military in Ukraine is absurd. You might argue about the size, nature or the merit of this but to insist that Russia is not fighting seems naive beyond belief. Or just belligerent. Of course they are involved in the fighting. As are NATO through advisors and probably special forces of some kind.
What do you think they have militaries for? The Russians would be negligent if they didn’t have soldiers in there.
“that Hamas and the Palestinians have a legitimate right to resist Israeli aggression and occupation.”
Would that include implementation of the Hamas Charter in your view Mr Scorgie?
Do you believe Hamas have the right to maim and torture Palestinians while you and other commenters remain silent and turn the other way?
Do you believe Hamas’s legitimate rights to resist Israeli aggression and occupation and the Palestinian cause are damaged by Hamas’s other actions?
I do hope the answers to these questions are not unspeakable on your part.
The Kurdish Peshmerga are picking up UK nationals of Asian origin fighting with IS, The UK passport=holders had been informed that the Kurdish Peshmerga are Jewish non-Muslims. When the UK Asian mercenaries saw the Peshmerga praying they complained to their IS officers that they had been lied to and they duly shot them.
Yes the USUKIS intelligence agencies have good reason to monitor everything in case their propaganda gets punctured by truthseekers publishing information on the http://www.// They have so much to lose and we have so much to gain.
Craig
“They spend a great deal of public money monitoring stuff of no import at all.”
Of course one can say they are monitoring a zillion web sites through GCHQ. I presume you mean more. What level of monitoring do you think likely?
It is also a big leap to then say that they spend the amount of time here as Habbakuk does. Which was the suggestion.
Lighten up Resident Dissident. There was no reference to the loss of life and the smiley face told you everything you need to know. As to the firemen and workers who have lost their lives I feel for their families and much respect for the dangerous work firemen do. My brother-in-law is a fireman. I do think though that the firemen should have been provided with masks.
Mmmm, I’m a spy, you’re a spy. We’re all informing on ourselves and each other, thanks to the internet. Time was when M15 used to have to steam open Greenham protesters’ mail personally. Now we’re giving it to them in free access pixels.
And much good may it do them.
Phil
Don’t say that in Russia – revealing such “secrets” is now an offence following last week’s Presidential decree!
“Of course no one sensible is airing conspiracy theories until they get a few facts.”
It did not stop you when you questioned the integrity of Reprieve. Still waiting.
Phil, agreed. Habbakuk’s been here, and been as consistent as any one else, since 2012. The vicious contentless vitriol of many of the posts attacking him are dull enough to make them double-plays in anyone’s book.
I must say that if I’m a spy then I must be an incredibly ineffective one!
For example, Giyane/Anno, apparently also ‘CrazedwithHate’, do you realise that your post about Jenner made me, who is sure that Jenner has a case to answer, want to recoil from the whole business? I doubt it, but that was the effect.
“It did not stop you when you questioned the integrity of Reprieve. Still waiting.”
Read previous post on the subject and a dictionary please.
Foul frog, a big leap eh? Are we a little jealous of the long reach of the green legs of MI6/5?
Technicolour
Habbabkuk and Anon1 defended Janner in the strongest possible terms. Sorry to put you off. Is it my believing in God and practising Islam or is it my strong language expressing my disgust at the trolls defending paedophiles?
Giyane: did they? How bizarre (understatement). I’ll look for it, unless you can help me by providing links. Of course, in the courts, someone needs to defend him, in a legal sense, and of course, in a legal sense, he is innocent until proven guilty, under a law which I uphold.
NB Nothing to do with Islam (why would it be? Would anyone ‘Islamic’ use the same words?)
NB You do not and cannot know that he is a ‘paedophile’. The most you can know, unless you have personal testimony, which should be given to the police, is that the press and witnesses have made a case that there is a case to answer.
For the security services, every bit of additional tasking, whether it is significant or not, spells additional staffing and funding.
What we certainly know is that the Crown Prosecution Service has said that the evidence against Janner is such that he should have been prosecuted when he was still mentally competent.
Very bad news. Despite the early day motion and numerous representations, Teresa May is having Majid Ali deported at 11pm this evening.
No.
Do you know anyone who can get funding to go with him?
Sorry to hear that Craig. It is typical of Theresa May. She cares not a jot for any follower of Islam (unless he or she is very rich).
To be prosecuted in Scotland, would Janner have to be extradited?
@Phil
9 Jun, 2015 – 9:55 pm
The British security services spend most of their time and resources protecting the Establishment/money interests rather than the British public, of whom they are totally contemptuous (the Kincora Boy’s Home scandal is a good place to start).
When it comes to anyone perceived as a threat to Establishment interests, the security services go after them full throttle, and that includes people like Craig, who they will attempt to discredit, intimidate, blackmail, and in some instances murder.
Craig is well aware of all this and should be applauded for his bravery in speaking out.
With modern technology we now live in a mass surveillance state – a wet dream for the spooks – yet this criminal activity by the security services has been going on practically ever since they were formed, and particularly so since the birth of the neo-cons (ask Scargill, or Foot, or Livingstone, or also many on the right of politics who get targetted if they’re perceived as a threat to the Establishment).
In the hall of mirrors that is the internet, there are now armies of these spooks, all taking a pay cheque (from the tax payer) to ‘steer the conversation’ and pervert democracy.
I travelled extensively throughout eastern Europe and the USSR during the Cold War. When it comes to police states, Romania under Ceausescu was probably the worst, although East Germany came a close second.
Britain in 2015 is now not far from this.
I’m probably in that leaking goldfish tank again.
Giyane
It’s not entirely clear but you now seem to be alluding to me as a state agent and Technicolour of being an Islamophobe just because we don’t think Habbakuk is MI5. Are you back on the weed?
RobG
Well thanks for that. Contrary to what I clealry say above I obviously had no idea what the security services do. Or perhaps you just write without reading what you respond to.
I strongly suspect I have far more of a first hand knowledge of how the state deals with dissidents that some whiny paranoid twat on the internet.