March 30, 2006	Thursday	Safar 29, 1427

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QUETTA, March 29: Chief of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar Mengal on Wednesday said that the government had launched a character assassination campaign against three Baloch leaders after military operation in Dera Bugti and Kohlu failed to obtain the results it wanted.

He was speaking at public gatherings in Killi Qamrani and Killi Ismail in the suburbs of the city.

The nationalist leader said that Baloch people were united against state terrorism and they would not relent in their struggle to protect their rights and resources of Balochistan.

The party’s vice-president, Sajid Tareen, secretary-general Habib Jalib Baloch and others also spoke.

Akhtar Mengal, Balochistan’s former chief minister, said Sardar Ataullah Mengal, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri and Nawab Akbar Bugti had led a long political struggle and they represented political parties with presence in the Balochistan assembly as well as parliament.

He termed the three leaders popular leaders and said that without people’s support, their parties would not have won district nazim elections in Khuzdar, Kohlu and Dera Bugti.

Sardar Mengal said that the three nationalist leaders had challenged Ayub Khan in 1959, adding that the history was a witness that the Baloch people had repulsed the army’s assault that time too.

He urged the need to learn from mistakes of the past and said that there was a tendency in Pakistani rulers to repeat mistakes again and again, adding that the country was faced with a political crisis and disharmony.

He claimed that the mega projects and establishment of cantonments were aimed to imbalance demographic ratio to turn Balochs into minority besides to suppress the national struggle through construction of garrisons.

BNP leader assured the participants that Baloch political leadership would neither compromise on principles nor surrender before the military dictator saying political movements could not suppressed through violence and fate of the present military operation would not be different than of the past.

He urged the baloch masses to participate in the rally of April 2 in Quetta to determine unity in order to get the national rights for the people of Balochistan.