QUETTA, Aug 3: National Party Secretary-General Mir Hasil Bizenjo on Tuesday urged the government to initiate talks for resolving issues related to Balochistan and warned that extra-constitutional methods pursued by the military rulers would complicate the situation.
Speaking at a press conference at his party's secretariat, he said the National Party believed in democratic struggle and was against violence. He demanded end to military operations in different areas of the province and immediate release of all detained political workers and students.
He said the rulers of the country had not learnt from the history as military ruler Ayub Khan and late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto conducted army operations in Balochistan but the aggressors faced defeat because the political forces enjoyed the backing of the people.
Mr Bizenjo said that once again a military ruler, President Gen Pervez Musharraf, wanted to use the army to subjugate the nationalist forces in Balochistan which had refused to surrender before the oppressors and compromise on the national rights of the Baloch.
He said 600,000 Indian armymen had failed to quell the resistance in occupied Kashmir. He said the army could not subdue the nationalist forces in Balochistan. He alleged that the military rulers were using tactics like arrests, search operations, army action and implication of innocent political workers in cases of subversion in the province.
He accused the government of discrimination and said it did not conduct military action when President Musharraf and the Karachi corps commander faced terrorist attacks in Rawalpindi and Karachi but an operation was launched after minor incidents in Turbat and Gwadar.
Mr Bizenjo said his party wanted resolution of all matters through negotiation but the threatening statements of Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yousuf and branding of people as traitors would worsen the situation.
He criticized a statement of the interior minister and said the nationalist struggle should not be compared with the activities of Al Qaeda. He said the nationalists were struggling publicly with the supported of the masses.
NATIONALIST PARTIES: Leaders of four Baloch nationalist parties have warned the government against the use of force and said it would be harmful for the country's integrity if issues were not resolved through a political dialogue.
They were speaking at a meeting held at the Bugti House here on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by Mir Hasil Bizenjo, secretary general of the National Party. The four-party alliance comprises the Jamhoori Watan Party, the National Party, the Balochistan National Party (Mengal group) and Baloch Haq Tawar.
The meeting discussed latest political developments in the province and decided to meet again on Thursday to determine their future strategy after participants sought approval of their respected parties on the proposals presented in the Tuesday's meeting.
The meeting expressed concern over what they termed the state institutions' oppression against innocent people and regretted the government's reluctance to settle issues through political negotiations.
They termed the government's use of military solutions to problems very dangerous and condemned army operations in Turbat, Gwadar, Kalat, Dera Bugti, Kohlu, Nushki besides critizing arrests of political activists from Khuzdar, Naal, Makran, Sui, Dera Bugti, Chagai and Chaman. The meeting called for an immediate end to army actions and also demanded the immediate release of all persons arrested in these operations.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Agha Shahid Bugti, Mir Hamayun Marri and Rafiq Khoso of the JWP, Habib Jalib Baloch and MPA Akhtar Hussain Langoo of the BNP (Mengal group), and Shakeel Baloch of the National Party. There was no representative of Baloch Haq Tawar.
