QUETTA, Feb 5: The Leader of Opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, Kachkol Ali, and chief of National Party (NP) Dr Hayee Baloch have said that recognition of ownership rights of the Baloch people over their land and coastal resources was a prerequisite to disarming the people.

In separate statements issued here on Saturday, they stated that the Baloch people could be satisfied only with the end of plunder of resources, cessation of hostility and abandonment of the domination of the big province.

They asserted that the government was receiving billions of rupees from the revenues of Sui gas fields and Makran coastal belt but the owners of the land had been deprived of their legitimate rights for five decades.

Mr Kachkol and Dr Hayee, while lamenting the military operations in Dera Bugti and Kohlu, stated that usurpers not only exploit the resources of the Baloch but were also killing innocent people by shelling with the help of artillery and helicopters.

They said that when political activists raised voice against the injustices and excesses they were branded fugitives or fifth columnist, and added that such terminology would not work now as the Baloch people were united to achieve their national rights from the oppressors.

The opposition leader and chief of the NP were critical of President Gen Musharraf’s statement regarding going ahead with construction of cantonments in Sui and Gwadar despite the passing of a resolution by the Balochistan Assembly against establishment of garrisons in the province.

They cautioned that ignoring the sentiments of the people expressed at public meetings against the establishment of cantonments would force the Baloch people to take up arms against the state assault.

They condemned the arrests of Ayaz Bugti, brother of district Nazim Dera Bugti, in Karachi and Misri Khan Marri, elder brother of district Nazim Kohlu, in Dera Ghazi Khan and demanded that all political workers in the illegal custody of intelligence agencies should be released.

They said that the Baloch people believed in peaceful struggle within the parameters of the law to get their constitutional and political rights in a democratic manner but at the same would resist the government for using force to subjugate the Baloch people.