Baloch leader Siraj Raisani was killed in a suicide attack that ripped through his rally last Friday. (Source: Facebook)
Balochistan Awami Party leader Siraj Raisani, who was killed in the Mastung bomb blast last Friday, was hailed by Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa as a “soldier of Pakistan” whose sacrifice the country would never forget. Major Gen Asif Ghafoor, head of Inter Services Public Relations, quoted Bajwa describing Raisani as a “die hard brave patriot Pakistani who shall be remembered for his commitment and contributions”.
It is not a label that the Pakistan Army has given to any other Baloch, not even to Mir Jam Mohammed Yousaf, who was Pervez Musharraf's hand-picked chief minister for Balochistan and belonged to a family of staunch Pakistan loyalists, and certainly not to the other Pakistani patriot, Nawab Akbar Ali Khan Bugti, who was taken out by the Army on Musharraf's orders in 2006.
It is also not often that the Pakistan Army chief flies all the way to attend a Baloch funeral.
His presence at Siraj Raisani's burial shows how the Pakistan Army is reinventing its presence in that troubled province.
The Mastung attack was the…
