by DR. NAAZIR MAHMOOD
Akhtar Baloch, also known as ‘Karaanchi Wala’, had his own mode of resistance.
He resisted cultural decay by frequently detailing the erosion of our heritage in his blogs for Dawn, which attracted readership both nationally and internationally. He also resisted human rights violations in Pakistan — especially in Sindh — through his work for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
He fought for the rights of marginalised citizens, ranging from small ethnic and religious groups to the transgender communities and people of diverse sexual orientations. An activist with an academic touch, he had a keen eye for old books, buildings and manuscripts. He frequented old book stalls as a compulsory ritual and rummaged through literature, collecting nuggets of humanism from poetry and prose. His death on July 31 — at the age of 55 — has left us poorer in an already depleted intellectual legacy for he was a fine journalist and a caring friend.
This is not an obituary, rather an attempt to give my readers a glimpse of what Akhtar Baloch stood for. Born in Mirpurkhas in 1967, he spent the first 30 years of his life there. During his college years, he participated in various literary and political activities. This was under the dark time of the Gen Zia regime.
Akhtar Baloch was an eyewitness to the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD). Even as a teenager he could feel the pain and oppression of the brutal crackdown that General Zia and his cronies meted out to all who dared to dissent. Akhtar Baloch’s literary pursuits started when he read extensively in Sindhi and then translated some selected Sindhi writings into Urdu. His love for languages honed his skills as a renowned translator and by the age of 30, he was already making waves as a journalist and a translator of repute.
Next, he headed to Hyderabad where he emerged as a fearless defender of human rights. The HRCP benefitted from his efforts as he became its provincial coordinator. His name did not go unnoticed by the oppressors as the country was now reeling under another military dictatorship led by Gen Pervez Musharraf. On Pakistan Day 2003, Akhtar Baloch was abducted by “unknown persons” who threatened him and tortured him for days before releasing him.
Dawn for more