QUETTA, Jan 13: The Jamhoori Watan Party appealed to the international community and human rights organizations to take notice of the extra-judicial killing of 12 tribesmen by paramilitary forces on Eid Day.
Speaking at a press conference at the press club on Friday, Agha Shahid Hasan Bugti, secretary general of the party, and ex-chief minister Mir Hamayun Marri claimed that security forces on Eid Day had arrested 12 tribesmen from Paternal, near the Pirkoh area, and killed them in their camp, and added that their bodies had still not been handed over to their families.
“The custodial killing of innocent citizens was the most barbaric act of the security forces ever since the state assault on the Dera Bugti people on December 18. The international community must take notice of the inhuman action of paramilitary forces in this region,” they said.
JWP leaders said that female members of the families of the 12 victims went to Frontier Corps officials asking them to hand over their bodies for burial but the officials retorted that male members should come to claim the bodies.
They said that the bodies had not been handed over till Friday.
They said that it was difficult to obtain the exact figure of casualties since the outbreak of hostilities between security forces and tribesmen owing to a war-like situation and poor communication.
However, they said that as far as they could tell 53 people, including women and children, had been killed and 184 had been injured.
Regarding foreign funding and weapons being supplied from outside to Marri and Bugti tribesmen, they said that Kohlu and Dera Bugti were 600 km away from international borders, so either the provincial government was helping in transportation of weapons or Balochistan Governor Owais, Chief Minister Jam Yousaf and Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed were telling lies.
JWP leaders said that according to international diplomatic norms if any state accused another of being involved in internal disturbances then the ambassador of the accused country was publicly summoned to the foreign office to lodge a protest but Islamabad did not exercise the same practice where Balochistan was concerned.
They alleged that on Jan 10 the government occupied the residence of their party leader and dropped pamphlets from a helicopter asking the people to revolt against Nawab Bugti, saying that this was being done in order to provoke tribesmen in the region to evacuate the local people from their houses in Sui town.
They said that the people residing in Kohlu and Dera Bugti would neither give up their struggle against aggressors nor tribesmen would allow usurpers to loot the resources in Baloch areas.
Responding to a question, they said that since the Balochistan issue was political; therefore, it should be tackled politically as a military operation would bear no results. They added that an army operation in Balochistan in the past had remained inconclusive, similarly the present operation would also turn out to be a failure.
JWP leaders cautioned against the military operation in Balochistan.
They said that the construction of the Kalabagh dam would push the three smaller provinces against the wall, and added that the repercussions of oppressed nations would harm the integrity of the federation.
