April 10, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21, 1428

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QUETTA, April 9: Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal has condemned the search operation launched by security forces in Wadh area and said that the Baloch people would not abandon their resistance against what he termed usurpation of their resources.

Addressing Mengal elders and tribesmen at his home in Wadh on Sunday, the former chief minister of Balochistan said the land of the Baloch people had been forcibly annexed.

“The seizure of weapons from a desolate area near Wadh is a drama and the deployment of the forces is aimed at harassing the patriotic elements and forcing them to compromise with the usurpers on the national and sovereign rights of the Baloch,” Sardar Mengal said.

He said the government could not achieve its goals by using the state machinery against the Baloch. Despite the fact that security forces had killed hundreds of tribesmen, including Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in Dera Bugti and Kohlu, he said that the brave sons of the soil were fighting the forces in both the areas.

“We are not against progress and development activities in Balochistan but such a programme should not be at the cost of the Baloch people,” he said.

He alleged that the government had ulterior motives behind the mega projects turning the Baloch into a minority in their own land.

Sardar Mengal warned the Baloch people that if they did not unite against the oppressors who were looting their resources, they would not get work even as labourers in their own province in future.

He assured the elders and tribesmen that the struggle for national and sovereign rights would continue.