November 23, 2007	Friday	Ziqa’ad 12, 1428

QUETTA, Nov 22: Mystery shrouds the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Nawabzada Mir Balach Khan Marri and no-one was prepared on Thursday to say anything about the place where he died.

His elder brother Nawabzada Mir Gazeen Marri has said that Mir Balach may have been temporally buried at a secret place. He also did not name the place where his brother had been killed. However, spokesman for the banned Baloch Liberation Army Beebrag Baloch, who had informed the media about the death of Balach, claimed that he had been killed in the Marri area.

But official sources denied that any major military operation had been launched in the recent past in the Marri-Bugti areas.

The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan have also not offered any clue to the circumstances or the place of Balach’s death.

A spokesman for the Balochistan government, however, has stated that the incident did not take place in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Over 3,700 additional paramilitary and police personnel have been deployed, 138 pickets jointly manned by the Frontier Constabulary and police have been set up to maintain law and order in and around Quetta.

Capital City Police Officer Mohammad Akbar and DIG Operations Rehmatullah Niazi told a press conference here on Thursday that 70 mobile teams were patrolling in Quetta and suburbs round the clock.

He said that a security plan had been chalked out and all possible steps were being taken to protect people’s life and property.

He said that the situation was under control in the city’s Sariab and Brewery areas where some incidents of violence had taken place on Wednesday night.

He said establishment of joint pickets of the FC, police and Balochistan Constabulary had helped to check the elements involved in subversive activities.

Mr Akbar said that police had arrested scores of people in connection with overnight incidents. “Arms and ammunition have been seized from two detained people” he said.