QUETTA, June 4: Balochistan National Party-M chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal has said that the reconciliation process launched by the government can succeed only if the military operation is ended, political prisoners are released, ‘missing’ persons are traced and displaced people are rehabilitated in their districts.

Addressing a public meeting in Hub on Wednesday, Sardar Akhtar said talks could be held with the government only if violence was stopped and a situation of normalcy created in the province.

Threatening to launch another long march to save Gwadar, he said the Baloch people would not allow centre’s control of the port.

He said the Balochistan issue could not be resolved till the rulers accepted the Baloch people’s right on the province’s resources.

He said it was unfortunate that the rulers had failed to understand Balochistan and there had been discord between them and the Baloch people.He said all military rulers, from Ayub Khan to Pervez Musharraf, had used the state apparatus to suppress the Baloch political movement but the resistance of the sons of the soil had foiled their plans.

The BNP-M leader said the Baloch people had rendered immense sacrifices over the past six decades. Those who sacrificed their lives in the ongoing military operation played an important role in the struggle to protect the land and resources of Balochistan.

He said recognition of rights and acceptance of ground realities were the only way to resolve political issues. He said military operations or arrests could not alienate the people from their political leadership and the gathering in Hub showed that the Baloch people supported BNP-M’s struggle.

Sardar Akhtar said that while the government claimed that it would allay the feeling of deprivation of the Baloch people it had decided that the centre would keep control of Gwadar. This was not acceptable to the Baloch masses, he added.