KARACHI: NP chief terms army action in Balochistan ‘a war’
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 20: Dr Hayee Baloch, chief of the Balochistan-based National Party, has accused the government of having waged a full-fledged war against the Baloch people using modern weapons of destruction to turn the province into a colony to usurp its resources.
Describing the current situation as grim, Dr Hayee, a former senator, condemned the government’s onslaught against the Baloch populace in the first week of this month, saying it seemed as if Baloch people were not the citizens of Pakistan.
He deplored that hundreds of Baloch people in the Bugti and Marri areas had been targeted in the offensive, causing heavy casualties and widespread destruction. Among the victims were women, children and elderly people, he said, adding that a large number of families had to flee their ancestral lands to escape the military operation.
“It is barbarism and height of brutality unleashed on civilians by the military rulers,” he said.
He accused the government of playing ‘dirty tactics’ by kidnapping and arresting Baloch activists. In this context, he named many prominent leaders, and said even relatives of certain Baloch leaders were now being picked up who include Mir Murtaza Bugti (Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s nephew), Bilal Bugti (Senator Shahid Bugti’s brother) and bothers of Senator Rauf Baloch.
The NP chief alleged that the rulers were doing this all “to loot and plunder the province’s natural resources.
He expressed his astonishment over the government’s resorting to describe the Baloch national struggle as a ‘separatist movement’ to discredit the crusade.
The Baloch leader was of the view that under the guise of the terms ‘terrorism’ and ‘separate movement’, the government wanted to perpetuate its dictatorial policies it had imposed on the people of Pakistan.
In fact, he claimed, these tactics were aimed at hiding their misdeeds and prolong their brutal rule. However, such tactics could not deter the Baloch people from continuing their national struggle for their political and economic rights, denied by successive rulers.
He made it clear that Baloch people would never compromise on their legitimate right of self-governance.
Dr Hayee said there had been great resentment among the people of other provinces against the brutality being meted out to Baloch people by the government.
He reiterated his party’s stance that Balochistan issue, being purely a political one, could be solved only through political means.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Baloch National Movement Mr Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, in a statement issued here on Thursday, also condemned the ‘state terrorism’ in Balochistan, saying that in the recent bombardment there, thousands of Baloch people, including women and children, had been killed, and injured and made to flee their homes.
He appealed to the United Nations and other international organisations, as well as European countries, to help stop the atrocities being committed by rulers against Baloch people.
