HYDERABAD, Aug 19: Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti has said people of Balochistan are being politically and economically exploited for 55 years and their patience has now exhausted.
He said the on going army operation was the fourth launched against the people of the province in which tanks, gunships, helicopters and army and para-military forces were being used right from Turbat to Gwadar. He said rockets and missiles were being fired and due to heavy bombing, the area had been devastated.
Mr Bugti was speaking at a news conference at the Hyderabad Press Club by telephone from Quetta on Thursday. He said the operation had not been called off and the forces were being kept ready.
He said the people had no alternative but to resist the attack, adding that an attack on an army vehicle and another on the Balochistan chief minister was a reaction to the operation and manifestation of their anger.
Answering a question, the JWP leader said there were three resistance groups in Balochistan - Balochistan Liberation Army, Baloch Liberation Front and People's Liberation Army. He said these groups were there even when he himself was the governor of the province.
When asked whether the Baloch resistance movement was being supported by any outside country or force, Mr Bugti said Balochs looked for help only to Sindh which was not only a neighbouring province but also Sindhis had now organized themselves.
Referring to the possibility of his party's affiliation with the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement, he said Ponam supported restoration of the 1973 Constitution in its original shape whereas his party had tabled amendment to the Constitution in the Senate.
Answering another question, he said a trilogy - armed forces, bureaucracy and a group having its own economic interests - was controlling affairs of the country. He said this set-up was maintaining a grip on resources "in the larger national interest".
He maintained that the tragedy of East Pakistan occurred due to these vested interests which could not tolerate people of Bengal, who were in majority. He told a questioner that the people of Balochistan were not prepared to accept the setting up of cantonments in the province but, irrespective of costs, the government was determined to establish the cantonments by even if it meant action against the Baloch people.
Mr Bugti made it clear that the people would not allow usurpation of their resources and the establishment of cantonments. He did not agree with a questioner that the real issue was that some influential people of Balochistan wanted more share for themselves in the income from natural resources.
He said the question of more or less share simply did not arise because the entire income was initially taken away by the federal government. He said it was only for the last few years that some share of development surcharge, excise duty and 12 per cent royalty for gas was being given to the Balochistan government.
He said according to his information, the Balochistan government had been given Rs6.5 billion under these three heads during the current year. He said even the chief minister himself did not know about the actual share of the province from the income of natural resources.
However, he regretted that notwithstanding tall claims by the government, Balochistan was receiving only a peanut in return for its natural resources. He alleged that the objective of the army operation was to take over control of the resources of the province. JWP deputy secretary-general Rauf Sasoli was present at the press club.
AT PROTEST: Activists of the Awami Tehrik here on Thursday took out a procession from the City Gate Hotel to the press club against the ongoing army operation in Balochistan.
A large number of women and children also participated in the protest. They carried placards and banners inscribed with slogans against army operation and the establishment of cantonments in Balochistan and an acute shortage of water in Sindh.
They also staged a sit-in on the Tilak incline road as a result vehicular traffic remained suspended for quite a sometime. Speaking on the occasion, the central general secretary of the party, Abrar Qazi said the government had declared a war against smaller nations.
He said the people of Balochistan were fighting a war of survival. He said the Gwadar project and the establishment of cantonments were against the interests of the Baloch nation.
He demanded that the army operation in Balochistan should be stopped and the provinces should be given full autonomy. A central leader of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Rauf Sasoli, said once again an operation had been launched to crush the Baloch people.
He said the Baloch nation could not be suppressed through the barrel of the gun but they should be treated as brothers and a dialogue should be held with them to resolve all issues on equal basis.
Speaking on the occasion, the central president of Sindhiani Tehrik (ladies wing of the Awami Tehrik), Nazeer Qureshi said the 'state terrorism' against the oppressed nations had disintegrated the country of the Quaid-i-Azam.
