KARACHI, March 26: Veteran Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Ataullah Mengal has urged the Baloch people to get united and struggle for the defence of their motherland and restoration of their national rights.

Talking to a delegation of Karachi-based Baloch Rights Council (BRC), which called on him in his native village of Wadh, the Baloch nationalist asked the Baloch youth not to waste their energy on petty issues because “time is running fast; we must strengthen our resistance at this crucial stage.”

He told them that the Baloch resistance was emerging stronger with each passing day, despite all sorts of state repression. “Balochistan has been turned into a colony, all its resources have been usurped and the Baloch are being treated as slaves in their own land,” a BRC press release quoted Sardar Mengal as saying.

He said the Baloch people could not achieve their rights, including the right of self-governance, unless they joined the national struggle. About a single Baloch party, he said that one should not get involved in petty issues and debates. The more important thing is to strengthen the resistance movement.

He advised the youth to prove themselves as the real Baloch, recognise their foes and friends and prepare themselves to fight the “real enemies who have conquered our land and its resources”.

The BRC delegation included its chairman Nasir Karim Baloch and secretary-general Nisar Husain. —Staff Reporter