ISLAMABAD, Sept 4: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Monday told Baloch politicians and other leaders that the possibility of a foreign hand creating law and order problems in certain parts of Balochistan could not be ruled out.

Sources said that the president informed the leaders that the government had sealed six points through which arms and money were being sent into the restive province.

According to the sources, the president said that sophisticated weapons were being funnelled to Bugti areas from abroad through Rahimyar Khan, Sanghar, Jacobabad, Waziristan, Zhob and Chagai and the sealing of the points had stopped arms supplies.

The meeting was attended by the governor and chief minister of Balochistan, federal and provincial ministers, PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and 35 members of the national and provincial assemblies.

“The meeting was told that the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, was operating through Indian consulates in Khandhar and Zahidan for sending arms and money into Balochistan,” a participant said.

He said that the president had asked the authorities concerned to look into the possibility of initiating cases against those Baloch leaders who were fanning hatred and talking about secession of Balochistan. “We were told during the meeting that FIRs’ will be registered soon against those who are involved in instigating violence in the province,” he added.

The meeting was informed that some people in Balochistan were in an ‘aggressive mood’, but the government would fight back politically and administratively.

Minister for Information Mohammad Ali Durrani and Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said at a news conference that the president had asked the government to implement the recommendations of the parliamentary committee headed by Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed.

They said that the meeting was informed that 25 of the 31 recommendations made by the parliamentary committee had been implemented and the remaining would be implemented soon.

Responding to a question, the ISPR chief said that the word provincial autonomy was being wrongly used by some politicians and that the real issue was adequate distribution of resources under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award. “And the government is implementing this award in letter and in spirit and now the president has instructed to offer increased share of gas royalty to Balochistan,” he said.

Mr Durrani and the ISPR chief told reporters that all participants, especially former prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, assured the president that they would not compromise on principles and would resist anti-social elements in Balochistan.

Replying to a question, the ISPR chief said that Talal Bugti wanted to bury the late Akbar Bugti in Dera Bugti and Shahid Bugti was in favour of taking the body for burial to Quetta, while Jamil Bugti was neutral.

He said that taking the body to Quetta for burial could have created a law and problem there.

The meeting, he said, was also informed that there were 15,000 Balochis in the army while 7,000 Baloch youths had been inducted in the Frontier Crops. About 3,000 more Balochis were being inducted in the Frontier Corps and another 6,000 would be given jobs in the Balochistan Constabulary.

On the directives of the president, he said, a number of agricultural loans taken by Balochis would be written off.

The president spoke at length on the situation in the country’s largest province and said the government, over the past seven years, had taken decisions for the political and economic empowerment of Balochistan, which had been a victim of neglect.

However, the president regretted that certain elements did not want to see Balochistan progressing socio-economically as they stood to lose with the empowerment of the common people there.

The president listed unabated rocket attacks, existence of ferrari camps, blowing up of power installations and gas pipelines, killing of Chinese engineers and law-enforcement personnel, targeting of settlers and attacks in Sui and some of the activities that were aimed at disrupting development activities in the province. “These terrorists were also taken to Karachi, Lahore and other parts of the country to create law and order problem,” Gen Musharraf said.