10 January 2005	Monday	28 Ziqa'ad 1425

QUETTA, Jan 9: The chief of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, has said that only the goodwill of the Baloch people would let the proposed gas pipeline from Iran and Central Asia to India pass through their soil.

Taking to newsmen in Dera Bugti on Sunday, he said: "Without the consent and goodwill of the Baloch people, no one can take the gas pipeline to India." Replying to a question, he claimed that the Baloch tribes were protecting the gas pipelines and installations in Sui.

"If we withdraw our protection, nothing will be left. There will be high flames and fireballs touching the skies everywhere," Nawab Bugti said. He regretted that despite being aware of these facts, the government was creating problems and difficulties for the tribes.

"If the situation goes out of hand, then we will tell the government that we cannot protect the gas pipelines and gas installations," the Baloch nationalist leader said. Asked about the offer to recruit 10,000 local youth in the Frontier Corps, Nawab Bugti said that it was another form of the British policy of divide and rule.

Responding to a question about the Sui situation, he alleged that the PPL management and others were trying to cover up the incident of rape of a lady doctor in her residence.

He said that a captain and his three subordinates were responsible for providing security to the PPL gas plant and its employees in Sui. He alleged that they had barged into her bedroom, overpowered her, tied her and criminally assaulted her.

He accused the PPL management of trying to hush up the crime. "No one responsible for the heinous offence has been arrested so far," Nawab Bugti said. He said that certain people had targeted the headquarters of the Defence Security Guards (DSG) Company, residences of its officers and lobbed rockets and shells as a mark of protest.

The Baloch Liberation Army has accepted responsibility for the attack on the DSG Headquarters, Nawab Bugti said. "There are people defending the Baloch honour and Baloch Code," he told a questioner.

Nawab Bugti also alleged that the Frontier Corps had shelled the civilian population of Sui on Jan 7, 8 and 9 and continued firing in which a woman was killed and more than 24 people, including women and children, were injured.

The local civilian population suffered as their houses were destroyed and property damaged in indiscriminate shelling and firing. He said that the Petrol Pump in Sui was also damaged extensively.