Sher Mohammad Marri

Sher Muhammad Bijarani (Marri) was a Baloch nationalist tribal chief. He fully favoured a struggle against Pakistan. He had very close link with Kabul, Moscow. Sher Muhammad Marri also known as Babu Shero, Shero Marri, General Sherof and Baluchi Tiger.

Guerilla Warfare

Sher Muhammad Baloch was a Baloch nationalist tribal chief and militant. He fully favored a struggle against Pakistan. He had very close link with Kabul, Moscow. Sher Muhammad Baloch was also known as Babu Shero, Shero Marri, General Sherov and Baloch Tiger. He was the first Baloch who gave the Baloch armed struggle a new shape by following the tactics of modern guerilla warfare against the occupiers of Balochistan.

After the second conflict the Pakistani government sent the Army to build new garrisons in the key trouble areas of Baluchistan. Sher Mohammad Baluch led like-minded militants to start a guerrilla warfare against the establishment of these posts by creating its own posts of insurgency spreading over 45,000 miles (72,000 km) of land from the Mengal tribal area in the south to the Marri and Bugti tribal areas in the north. The insurgents bombed railway tracks and ambushed convoys. The Army retaliated by destroying vast areas of the Marri tribe. This insurgency ended in 1969 when Yahya Khan abolished the "One Unit" policy and the Balochs agreed to a ceasefire. This eventually led to the recognition of Baluchistan as the fourth province of West Pakistan in 1970.

Pakistan was conscious of developments in and around Baluchistan. The revolt in Oman, the coup in Iraq, Soviet influence in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Yemen had caused great anxiety to the Pokistan Government particularly about the vulnerable province of Baluchistan. Baluchistan had always been important in Moscow's Central Asian Policy. It had made inroads into the province and found fertile ground for achievement of its strategic goals. Baluch "progressive" elements, mostly students and the educated middle class - often sons of feudal chiefs were more susceptible to communism than other classes of people in Baluchistan.

Likewise, growing Soviet influence in the northern highland Afghanistan was of special concern to Pakistan. The politics of Pakistan, more so of the provinces of NWFP and Baluchistan, could not remain uninfluenced by what happened in Afghanistan. In Kabul Premier Mohammad Dawood, a cousin of King Zahir Shah was a leading protagonist of Pakhtoonistan and up against Pakistan. He demanded self-determination for the Pashtoons and Baluch. Despite his Royal Family origin, it seemed, he had the support of some Soviet-backed "radical" groups.

The Baluch Sardars too were demanding autonomy. Sultan Ibrahim Khan, maternal uncle of the Khan of Kalat and Prince Karim solicited support from Premier Dawood of Afghanistan to equip a large Baluch army of 80,000 fighters. According to Selig Harrison "the central government charged that Abdul Karim and an uncle of the Khan had been secretly negotiating with Afghanistan for support of a full-scale Baluch rebellion and had assembled a force of 80,000 tribesmen., However, the only evidence put forward to substantiate these charges was the fact that the Khan's Afghan wife had gone to Kabul for a holiday". The Khan's wife, the niece of Begum Syed Jamal Uddin Afghani and relation of the royal family of Afghanistan had visited Kabul. As regards Sultan Ibrahim it is not known whether he went on his own or was directed by the Khan. Sultan Ibrahim, like Dawood, was a Mohammadzai. In 1948 he had opposed accession to Pakistan. In late 1950s he probably thought that the situation was ripe to make a bid for autonomous Baluch homeland with the active support of Premier Dawood.

But things had changed a great deal during the intervening years. The Pokistani Army was there in strength in the interior of Baluchistan, not only in the cantonments. Many Baluch leaders like Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti, Mir Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo, Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal and Khair Bakhsh Marri were serving different terms of imprisonment for having supported Nawab Naoroz Khan's rebellion. Some of them were released and booked again on other charges. They eventually engaged themselves in organizing and supporting guerrilla activities against the government of Pakistan.

Among them was Gen. Shero, a towering, hulk of a man, who already had undergone a total of fourteen years imprisonment for "seditious activities". He claimed to be a Marxist. His nickname was Sherov. On release from imprisonment he organized a powerful guerrilla force. He had two "commands", the Northern and the Southern. The Northern Command of Marri-Bugti area was under his personal supervision. Here he was assisted by Mir Hazar Ramkhani who was in charge of recruitment and training. The Southern Command in Jhalawan district was headed by Ali Mohammad Mengal.

The southern Command was further sub-divided into Northern and Southern Sectors. The Northern Sector comprising Kalat and Mastung districts was under the command of Lawang Khan. The Southern Sector covered Khuzdar and Wad. It was under the direct command of Ali Mohammad Menga1. Each of the two Headquarters were manned by a command force of 400 persons. They could also call hundreds of reservists on short notice.

It was believed that by July 1963, Sher Mohammad had established 22 base camps in Marri-Bugti and Mengal areas. He avoided pitched battles and resorted to harassment of the Army in the classical guerrilla warfare fashion. He laid ambushes on army convoys, army engineers engaged in road construction and army signals deputed on telephone maintenance.

The army hit back with force to subdue the "Ferraries", outlaws Sher Mohammad was a rich man and owned several large almond orchards. He was not a proletarian even though he claimed to fight for their cause. A Western writer has stated that during anti-insurgency operations the army destroyed his orchards. This, however, is denied by the army. At the beginning of 1968, the Army, under the command of Major General Tikka Khan, GOC 8th Division, struck the "Ferraries". Sher Mohammad put up a stiff resistance. Meanwhile, the government took some administrative measures to break the power of the Sardars, and the sons and relatives of the Sardars who in its view, were behind the apparently populist insurgency. Prominent tribal Sardars, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal and Khair Bakhsh Marri were deposed from chieftainships. The governor of West Pokistan Nawab Amir Mohammad Khan of Kalabagh appointed other men in there places who were favorably disposed towards the Government. Even the British had not changed the Sardars in such an arbitrary manner as Kalabagh did.

In 1963 the new appointees, Dodha Khan, an uncle of Khair Bakhsh Marri and Karam Khan Mengal, the uncle of Sardar Ataullah Mengal's father were assassinated by the "Ferraries". The killing of the nominated chiefs was to undermine Government's authority. On this the Government reaction was strong. It immediately ordered the army to deploy troops in strength in the troubled area. The army took punitive action against the "Ferraries" without tangible results. These tactics created hatred against the army and the Punjoks. The Baluch seemed all the more united now. In fact, military operations, supported by the air-force, made them die-hard. Gen. Shero's movement gained momentum and Baluch youth from the urban centers started joining the "Ferraries" in the hills. The Baluchistan people Liberation Front (BPLF) became stronger. The "Ferraries" published an underground newspaper called "Spark" in Baluchi, Urdu and English languages. Strangely enough "Spark" gained currency among the Baluch as well as Bengalis.

In 1967, Governor Amir Mohammad Khan and President Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan fell out. Ayub replaced him with General Mohammad Musa Khan, formerly Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army. He was a respected Persian-speaking Hazara gentleman from Quetta. There was also a change in Government's attitude towards Baluch leaders. The Government announced general amnesty and decided to release Baluch leaders and about 1,300 "Ferraries" in the process of normalization the Government also reinstated the former Chiefs to Chieftainship. In return for amnesty the Government expected that the "Ferraries" would lay down their arms at a public ceremony. However, it was against the traditions of the Baluch to lay down arms, and that too publicly.

During Yahya's rule West Pokistan province was dissolved and former provinces were restored. As for Baluchistan it emerged as a full fledged governor's province. Baluch nationalists, including Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo and Sardar Ataullah Mengal were released. Baluch nationalists ceased their hostilities when their principal demands including disintegration of One Unit had been met by Yahya Khan. But they did not dismantle their "Command Headquarters". Nor did they disband guerrilla formations. They rather worked harder to expand their Command structure, mustered larger forces and became the defecto authority of Marri-Bugti area. By 1969 Sher Mohammad had developed a strong Command Force of about 900 which was gradually growing in numbers despite some splits in the Mengal area. On the arrest of Sher Mohammad the Command of guerrillas went to his lieutenant Mir Hazar Khan who worked covertly.

Death

Babu Shero died on 11 May 1993 in a Mumbai (then Bombay) hospital, in India, due to illness.

Popular Quotes

“” …….I have seen a little Baloch girl who was sold in punjab by pakistani soldiers for just 5 rupees…..we are slaves….”” Scripts from General Shero’s interview by Channel 4, London, 1980’s.

See also

References

• Interview of Sher Mohammad Marri, Sher Mohammad Marri and Ahmed Shuja, Pakistan Forum, Vol. 3, No. 8/9, Focus on Baluchistan (May - Jun., 1973), pp. 38–40, Middle East Research and Information Project
• Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories, & Literature By Albert J. Jongman, Alex Peter Schmid, ISBN 1412804698

External links

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Persondata
Name	Marri, Sher Mohammad
Alternative names
Short description	Tribal cheif and military figure
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
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