Mehran Baloch pleads for peaceful burial of mother

LONDON: Baloch leader and exiled Marri tribal chief Mehrn Baloch has hoped that her mother’s dead body will be buried peacefully next to the grave of his father, the late Khair Bux Marri, and no politics will be played over it.

After offering the funeral prayer of his mother here at the Islamic Centre in Mitcham on Sunday, Mehran Baloch said that his mother passed away at the Wimbledon hospital after losing battle to cancer for the last few years.

Mehran Baloch, the youngest son of Khair Bux Marri who looked after his mother in Dubai and London, said it was his mother’s wish that senior PML-N leader in Balochistan, Nawabzada Changaiz Marri, should not attend her funeral prayer. The dead body was scheduled to be flown on Sunday from London to Dubai and then to Quetta for burial at the ancestral graveyard of Marris in the Marri area of Balochistan.

After the death of renowned Baloch nationalist leader and chief of the Marri tribe, controversy erupted about the future leader of the Marri tribe and the late Mrs Khair Bux Marri stood by Mehran Baloch and declared that Nawab Khair Bux Marri in his life had declared that Mehran will succeed him. That decision was not liked by Hyrbyair Marri and Changazi Marri for their own reasons but unfortunate scenes were witnessed when Nawab Marri’s dead body was being buried and frictions within the tribe came to the fore.

Hyrbyair Marri had issued a statement on social media and threatened that he will register a case against Mehran Baloch and his London based sister, who is married to Javed Mengal, for not allowing him to see the face of his dead mother. On Sunday, a large number of London based Baloch activists offered funeral prayers of the late Mrs Marri and eulogised her role for the Balochistan nationalist movement. Hyrbyair Marri stayed away but activists aligned with his group were present in the mosque.

Mehran Baloch said that no one was stopped from seeing his mother in the hospital or while she was in a hospital in Dubai. He said that he would not like to get into any “petty politicking” at this time of “national grief” but if someone thought that some wrong had happened then he should approach the authorities.

Mehran Baloch, who has not visited Pakistan in over 30 years, said he will be taking the dead body to Dubai and from there the Marri tribal elders will take the dead body to Quetta for burial.

“My mother was a pillar of support for my father who was a legendary figure. My father could not have fought for the rights of oppressed communities without the support given by my mother. She spent years in exile with and without my father and never wavered for a second. She always told my father that he was doing the right thing by speaking up for his people. She always told us not to compromise with the authorities for the sake of perks and privileges,” said Mehran Baloch.

He said that it was out of her ideological basis that she wishes that Changazi Marri should not attend her funeral and should not visit her grave either. “She was aggrieved that Changazi Marri went against the teachings of his own father and made compromises for his own person at the cost of tens of thousands of people. That’s something she was unable to live with and made this her last wish that Changazi should not be part of her farewell rituals,” Mehran told The News, adding: “With the passing away of my mother, the Baloch nation has lost an irreplaceable pillar of support.”