April 26, 2006	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, April 25: Balochistan Nationalist Party leader Ghazan Mari was trying to set up a so-called ‘Balochistan High Commission’ and a television channel in Dubai to internationalise the party’s armed struggle when he was arrested and extradited to Pakistan.

Sources said that Ghazan Mari and his brother, Abyar Mari, were hoping that authorities in Dubai would permit their propaganda ventures but they (authorities in Dubai) hunted them down for their involvement in money laundering.

Abyar Mari, however, escaped the dragnet.

According to preliminary investigations, the leaders of the Baloch insurgents had been receiving funds from three foreign countries for the past several years. Recently, their supply lines were cut off and their bank accounts frozen, the sources said.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao declined to comment but said that Mr Ghazan Mari was wanted in many cases and Pakistan had good relations with the Dubai government, adding that an extradition treaty was also in place.

Referring to the alleged foreign support to the insurgent Baloch leaders, the minister said: “I don’t want to comment on this (issue). I cannot say more than I have already said.”

Though the Dubai authoprities arrested Ghazan Mari on money laundering charges, in Pakistan he was wanted in many cases, including the murder of Balochistan High Court judge Mr Justice Nawaz Mari. Ghazan and Abyar Mari allegedly ambushed the judge in late 1990s over a dispute on ownership of mineral mines in Balochistan. Both were declared absconders in the murder case.

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