Karachi; Slain Baloch nationalist leader Sher Muhammad Baloch’s son, 19-year-old Waqas Ahmed Baloch has rejected the charges levelled by Federal Advisor on Interior Rehman Malik, and said that his father was patriotic and had never been involved in anti-state activities.

Waqas Ahmed Baloch, a first-year student at the Government College of Economics Karachi, said that Malik’s claim that Sher Muhammad was wanted in Iran was news to his family, his party and even the government itself. According to him, if the government had known of such allegations, his father would have been handed over to Iran while he was still in custody.

“Agencies kept my father in custody for nine months in 2006,” said Waqas Ahmed. “After he was released, my father told me that he had been illegally held in Karachi and Sibi, and released after cases of minor nature were registered against him. My father was not involved in any anti-state activities,” he maintained.

Sher Muhammad Baloch was born on May 8, 1972 in Tehsil Mand district Turbat. He later migrated to Karachi, moving into Hasan Aulia Village Rexer Line in Old Golimar, Karachi’s oldest locality. He graduated from National College Karachi in 1994 and actively participated in student politics as a member of the Baloch Student Organisation (BSO). He later joined the National Worker Party headed by Abid Hasan Minto.

In 2002, he contested elections to the Sindh Assembly from PS-92 (Karachi) as a candidate of the Sindh Democratic Alliance, a component party of the National Alliance, a formation which was headed by former caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and former president Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari. Apart from Waqas Ahmed, the deceased had two daughters, aged four and 13, and another nine-year-old son, all of whom go to school. Along with relatives from Karachi and Balochistan, Sher Muhammad had visited Iran to meet relatives from their community.

Waqas Ahmed appeared at a Balochistan National Party (BNP) press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, and complained that the government was adding salt to the wounds of the family as they made allegations at a time when the entire Baloch community was mourning his death. According to him, the attitude of the government was surprising, not just for his family but for the whole nation.

The BNP also criticised Rehman Malik for accusing Sher Muhammad of being against the state, and rejected all such allegations. BNP leader Jehanzeb Baloch, ex-MNA Rauf Mengal, and BSO chief Mohiuddin Baloch termed the allegations as false and misleading. They pointed out that Sher Muhammad had been acquitted in two cases, including the Quetta terrorism case, and had been granted bail in three other cases. “Sher Muhammad Baloch was a Pakistani,” they declared. “We can only talk with the government if the army operation is halted.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=174201

Read also BBC Urdu Story about Sher Mohammad Baloch