MUSLIM BAGH: Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto today [July 25] asked hostile elements in some pockets of Marri and Mengal areas to come down from the mountains, which, he said, was the only condition for working out a just settlement with them. Addressing a big public meeting at Muslim Bagh in Zhob district, he told them to forget about the idea that Pakistan could be further dismembered. Therefore, they should not waste their time in the mountains and face hardships unnecessarily. “This matter should come to a close now,” the Prime Minister added.

The Prime Minister urged those elements to prove with their deeds that they were true Pakistanis ready to serve the country. “If you come down from the mountains, you will be treated with magnanimity,” he told them. … Mr. Bhutto said that military operations had ceased in Baluchistan on May 15, and it was expected that they would respond to this gesture in the spirit it was made. But, he said, these elements took it as a sign of weakness and continued their provocations. At least two or three times Army units were ambushed. They gleefully boasted about killing their fellow Pakistanis but when the Army retaliated, they started … complaining of “Zulum”.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2024