Yes, these are Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) refrigerator magnets!
Keep in mind that BLA is a shadowy outfit, characterized as a terrorist group by Pakistan, the US and the UK, that nobody ever owns up to being part of. In fact, at times it has also been accused (by Baloch nationalists) of being a figment of Pakistan's security agencies' imagination and (by the Pakistan government) of being a front for the Indian intelligence agency RAW. It is accused of several bomb attacks on military, oil, gas, rail and power installations in Balochistan as well as the killing of security personnel, government servants, policemen, teachers, doctors, labourers and foreigners as well as a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Punjabi settlers.
And you can own all that history for just $3.85 per magnet. They'll probably keep your grocery list securely pinned to your fridge as well.
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7 comments:
Well that flag isn't BLA property - although it has been used by them as their official flag - but rather a Baloch nationalist flag that has been used for quite sometime now. A variation of this flag was used in the '50s by Balochistan States Union (I know wiki will refer you to a rather different flag but I've got a book which shows this flag excluding the sun being used throughout the '50s and '60s.
@Shahid: Interesting. I wonder why that commercial site (that is selling the magnets) would choose to identify it as specifically only the BLA flag...
Perhaps because it is now openly accepted as BLA's flag. I've seen it flying on top of numerous buildings as well.
See e.g. this picture that depicts Lyari celebrating the Football WC. Notice the flag in the centre that uses a star instead of the sun but is a baloch liberation flag.
http://pakistaniat.com/images/Lyari-football-flags.jpg
The govt's own guest house at Gadani beach had it's wall graffiti-ed with BLA flags. Heh.
There should be a 'like' button on the posts as well. for when you just have no words to describe your feelings. And The headline is brilliant :-D
This is a cute post, but I think I need to post some thing here since it's the top post and these things are kind of important.
First off congratulations on finding the fake Pakistani "Daily Mail" website. I already found it sometime back, but have already been very careful around it because from time to time the dailymailnews.com is known to be infested with viruses. Be careful around it, sketch looking Pakistani websites seem to be a consistent breeding ground for trojans and viruses.
Second, it's interesting to see that you pinned down the people who wrote the conspiracy-to-match-fix story as psy-ops people. How much of our media has been reduced to a psy-ops game by a collection of middle aged damaged egos, especially those so bruised as to spin a cover story on the Lords match fixing.
And lastly, thanks for this little secessionist fridge magnet post. First coverage on the "separatists" of Gilgit Baltistan, and now a post on Baloch separatist merchandising?
Well done XYZ, you're doing your part for regional autonomy in Pakistan.
This is a flag of Balochistan Peoples Party
Hi Author
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