Faiz Baluch Is A Victim Of Pakistan Geopolitics: Lawyer

LONDON: A refugee in Britain accused of calling for terrorist attacks on Pakistan was a 'casual

Baluch and Hyrbyair Marri, 40, are accused of calling for murder in the name of the Balochistan Liberation Army. — File

ty of geopolitics' due to the west's backing for former president Pervez Musharraf, a London court heard Monday.

Faiz Baluch, 27, was not a terrorist but was calling for self-defence of his homeland Balochistan, an oil-rich province in southwest Pakistan, said Helena Kennedy, representing him at Woolwich Crown Court.

Baloch was the victim of close ties between Britain and the Pakistani government under Musharraf, who was courted by both London and the US administration in its 'war on terror' after September 11, 2001, said Kennedy.

'Musharraf, an undoubted dictator, called the Baloch terrorists,' she told the southeast London court, typically used for high-security cases.

'And it is Faiz Baluch's case that the British government were drawn into that distortion purely for political reasons because Britain, like America, at the time, wanted Pakistan on side in the war on terror.'

'He will tell you that he believes he is a casualty of geopolitics. He is a casualty of that allegiance.'

Baluch and Hyrbyair Marri, 40, are accused of calling for murder in the name of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army, via websites and telephone links. Both men deny terrorism charges.

Hundreds of people have died in violence in Balochistan, on the border with Afghanistan and Iran, since an insurgency flared in late 2004, with rebels demanding autonomy and a greater share of profits from natural resources.

The province has also been hit by attacks blamed on Taliban militants and sectarian extremists.

Baluch's lawyer said his case was that 'the Baloch people are entitled to defend themselves against brute violence, death and destruction.'

'What he is saying to you is that if your survival is at stake you are entitled to defend yourself... If the Germans had marched into Britain we would have been entitled to resist,' Kennedy said.

Pakistani officials have previously accused rival India of sponsoring the separatist militants from its consulates in southern and eastern Afghanistan, a charge that New Delhi denies.

A widespread insurgency in Balochistan was brutally suppressed by the government during the 1970s with the loss of hundreds of lives.