June 28, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 1, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, June 27: The government will not hold talks with ‘miscreants’ involved in terrorism and kidnapping in Balochistan, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said on Tuesday.

Talking to journalists at the interior ministry, he said: “There is no question of talking to any one involved in sabotaging the peace in the province.”

“How could the government talk to those who are criminals and running Farrari (fugitive) camps,” he asked.

The minister warned miscreants to release those they had kidnapped, otherwise the government would use force to get them released.

However, the minister was reluctant to disclose the number of kidnapped people.

He also evaded a question about Nawab Akbar Bugti and his whereabouts.

Meanwhile, a source in the interior ministry said neither the government had any contact with Mr Bugti nor he had been allowed to escape from the country.

“The government knows that Mr Bugti is still hiding in a hilly area of the province but he cannot find a way to escape due to deployment of security personnel in the area,” said the source.

The interior minister hinted at the involvement of external hands in the unrest in Waziristan and Balochistan and said the ongoing operation in the areas would continue till logical conclusion.

“The writ of the government will be established at any cost in the troubled areas,” he said.

Answering to a question about law and order situation in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the minister desired establishment of a grand jirga in Fata to resolve problems of the region.

The government has made several attempts to establish a grand jirga in tribal areas but so far it has failed to do so.