Tuesday 30 October 2012

Asad Rahman dies after police beating

Asad Rahman, the well known social activist and legendary hero of the Baloch nationalist movement also known as Chakar Khan, died in Lahore on Tuesday.

Son of a former chief justice of Pakistan Supreme Court, Mr Rahman, 62, was an ardent advocate for Baloch rights, although a Punjabi himself. In the 1970s he was part of the London Group, a study circle in England that quit university to join Baloch fighters in the Marri hills to fight a guerrilla campaign.
Other prominent members of the London Group were Najam Sethi, the author Ahmed Rashid, Rashid Rahman (Asad's elder brother and now editor of the Daily Times in Pakistan), Dilip Dass and Mohammad Ali Talpur. You can read more about this extraordinary saga here.
In early September the Daily Times reported that Mr. Rahman, along with his 30-year-old son Mahmood, were badly beaten by Punjabi Police officers outside their home in Lahore - and later, in the police station - after they tried to save life of a rickshaw driver who had been injured in a road accident. It appears that he never recovered from the beating. The police officer accused of beating Mr Rahman, Sub-inspector Shabih Raza, was initially suspended from duty, but has since been transferred to active duty at another police station.

You can read a fuller obituary for Asad Rahman, written by Malik Siraj Akbar, here.

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