May 4, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1427

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QUETTA, May 3: Balochistan National Party (Mengal) leaders and members observed a token hunger strike here on Wednesday against the military operation and arrests made in the Dera Bugti area and Kohlu. A number of leaders of the ANP and PML-N and lawyers joined the strike to express solidarity with the BNP.

BNP chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal, ANP vice-president Arbab Zahir Kasi, Ayaz Swati, provincial secretary of PML-N, and Ali Ahmed Kurd, vice-chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council, observed the strike from morning till evening in the camp set up at the city government ground.

Speaking at the end of the strike, Sardar Mengal said that bombings and negotiations to settle the Balochistan issue could not go together, and added that his party would continue its “democratic struggle against the dictatorship”.

He said that Baloch leaders believed in sincere and meaningful dialogue but people would not submit to autocratic rulers nor give up their struggle for national rights.

Arbab Kasi said that his party always supported the struggle for the rights for deprived nationalities.

He said that democratic political parties should collectively struggle against anti-people rulers.

Mr Swati demanded that the military operation in Balochistan and Waziristan should be stopped and the issue should be resolved by political means as violence could not settle political issues.

Mr Kurd said that lawyers had joined the hunger strike to assure political parties that they would support the democratic movement aimed at restoring the constitutional rule, supremacy of parliament, independent judiciary and freedom of the press.