Naela Quadri Baloch seeks India's help for forming 'Balochistan govt in exile'

President World Baloch Women's Forum and prominent Baloch nationalist leader Naela Quadri Baloch on Monday said the Balochistan Freedom Movement (BFM) activists want to form an "Azad Balochistan government in exile" and they want India, Afghanistan and other SAARC nations to support their government.

"We want to form an Azad Balochistan government in exile and we want India, Afghanistan and other SAARC nations to support the Bloach Government in Exile," she told ANI.

When asked about her (and BFM activists') expectations from India, Quadri, who landed in New Delhi after holding a conference with Afghanistan leaders in Kabul, said, "India should give us space and office to establish the government in exile. Besides, we express our deep gratitude to Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and (external Affairs Minister) Shushma Swaraj for raising their voices on the Baloch issue. We are also thankful to the Indian people and the Indian media."

"The Bloch Freedom Movement is going ahead successfully, the struggle is on, and we need your help," she added.

Asked if things had changed since Prime Minister Modi raised the Balochistan issue, she said, "Things are changing rapidly; things are changing rapidly at the international level - you have seen it at the United Nations, you have seen that other countries are coming to support the Baloch issue internationally."

Demanding the release of Baloch Students Organisation - Azad (BSO-Azad) spokesperson Shabir Baloch, who was "picked up" by Pakistani Security Forces during the Gwarkop military operation on October 4, Quadri said, "Shabir Baloch was picked up; before him Abdul Wahid Baloch (Baloch poet, writer and social activist) was picked up; and even before them and 30,000 Baloch activists were picked up, and tortured-mutilated bodies of some of them were found recently. The picked-up Baloch leaders and activists should be freed at the earliest."

As Cyril Almeida, a columnist and reporter for the Dawn, has been barred by the Pakistan Government from leaving the country after he reported on a suspected rift between civilian and military leaderships, Naela Quadri said, "Pakistan has become 'graveyard' for journalists.

Wishing the people of India 'Happy Dussehra', she said, "May Goddess Durga gives us strength that we could get Balochistan freed.