16 January 2005	Sunday	05 Zilhaj 1425

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QUETTA, Jan 15: President of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, has rejected any move to vacate the Baloch land by order and warned that any move to dislodge Baloch people from their land would be resisted.

Taking to newsmen at his residence in his native town Dera Bugti on latest situation on Saturday evening, he said that Balochs had defended their land rending great sacrifices.

"We are defenders of the Baloch land which we protected for centuries by shedding our blood," Nawab Bugti said. "There will be tough resistance to any move to dislodge Baloch from their forefather's land," he said and added that it was clear from the interview of the federal interior minister that the government had decided to dislodge the Baloch population from Sui and secure gas plants and installations.

"The minister considered the local people unpatriotic and untrustworthy," Mr Bugti said. Nawab Bugti said that the provincial cabinet had obliged the federal rulers by making the request for help.

He said that the MMA should explain its explicit position on the present position. However, he lauded Altaf Hussain, the Muttahidah leader extending unqualified support to the Baloch stand.

He also praised the stand of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Mr Moheem Khan of BNP Awami and others extending support to the Baloch stand. Nawab Bugti said that there was constant reinforcement and deployment of security forces around Bugti tribal area.

However, he said that certain units were waiting outside the Bugti tribal area presumably they would use Mazari Goth as a base. The number of tanks, heavy equipment, guns and helicopter gunships had increased, he said. On lady doctor's case, he said there was no progress.

APC CONVENED: The alliance of four Baloch parties has decided to convene an all parties conference on Jan 18, to device strategy against the siege of Dera bugti and Sui by the regular army personnel and para-military forces.

Speaking at a joint press conference in the chamber of the leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly here on Saturday, nationalist leaders denounced the Balochistan cabinet's decision to ask the federal government for deployment of regular army in Dera Bugti district.

The decision, they said, had created unrest in the area and forced natives to migrate to other areas. National Party chief Dr Hayee Baloch, ex-chief minister Mir Hamayun Marri, Balochistan National Party (Mengal) secretary-general Habib Jalib Baloch and provincial Jamhoori Watan Party president addressed the conference after an emergency meeting of the four-party alliance.

Dr Hayee said Balochistan was passing through serious situation due to what he termed federal government's undemocratic decision to resolve political issues by brutal force and urged the ARD, PONAM, MMA, ANP and other democratic parties to force rulers to desist from oppression.

If anything happened in the area, a reaction against excesses would engulf the entire Balochistan, which would not be good for the federation, he warned. He alleged that military rulers were using damage to Sui gas installations as umbrella for launching a military operation against the strongholds of nationalists to ensure completion of anti-Baloch mega projects and establishment of cantonments in different areas to exploit the provincial resources without any resistance.

Dr Hayee declared that use of brutal force could never suppress the Baloch national movement, saying that President Musharraf would fail to crush the political forces of Balochistan.

He told newsmen that the meeting of the alliance had in detail discussed all aspects of the existing situation and took important decisions to frustrate the nefarious designs of the military dictatorship.

Dr Hayee welcomed the support extended by the leaders of the ARD, Ponam, MMA, ANP and Muttahida to Balochistan. He claimed that uncertainty in Sui was the output of sexual assault on a lady doctor by a captain and three personnel of defence services guards, but the government wanted to punish the locals for exposing the rapists to save criminals.