QUETTA, Oct 5: Veteran Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Ataullah Mengal has stressed the need for using all options for securing the rights of people of Balochistan.

Talking to a group of newsmen in his native town of Wadh on Sunday, he said that there should be a combination of parliamentary struggle and militant campaign against ‘usurpers of Baloch rights’.“The parliamentary struggle should not be left to enemies who can use provincial and national assemblies to pass laws against Baloch interests,” Mr Mengal said. He said that the enemies could be defeated by adopting all modes of struggles including political.

He said it would be the most joyous moment for the Baloch people when their interests converged with those of foreign powers within the state of Pakistan.

Sardar Mengal said that the rulers had not taken the Balochistan issue seriously because Punjab continued to dominate other provinces under the present political set-up and fundamental rights of smaller nationalities were suppressed. Smaller provinces were still being discriminated against, he added.

Mr Mengal called for giving indigenous people their due share in natural resources through a judicious distribution system.

He said the federal government should retain the subjects of defence and foreign affairs and should levy minimum taxes necessary for keeping itself functioning.

The Baloch leader said that the country’s economy “depended on international charity. Pakistan has sold out its sovereignty to the United States in exchange for its economic and military assistance. The economy is crippled and politics is in complete disarray”.

In reply to a question about a recent suicide attack on ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, he said the political leadership was being removed from the scene under a conspiracy. Militants were imposing their ideology by intimidating the people.

Mr Mengal said that the government had patronised terrorists but now the US was unhappy with their policy and it would seek a direct rule over Pakistan in the near future on the pattern of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Responding to another question, he said that women enjoyed the highest status in the Baloch society. The issue of women ‘buried alive’ in Nasirabad was blown up out of all proportion by the media only to defame the Baloch culture, he added.

Referring to the alleged rape of Dr Shazia Khalid, he said Nawab Akbar Bugti had taken up her case to defend the rights of women. He alleged that military personnel were involved in the rape.