QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri met the women and children arrested by security forces four days ago at Chaman, at the Chief Minister House here on Friday.

The wife of Dr Allah Nazar, leader of a banned organisation, along with three other women and three children was arrested by security forces near the Pak-Afghan border.

The chief minister treated the women with respect, covered their heads with chador as per Balochi custom and later handed them over to Mehrullah, the brother-in-law of Dr Allah Nazar. Nawab Zehri also give gifts and provided financial assistance to them.

The freed detainees were sent to Karachi for medical treatment. The chief minister assured them that the government would provide them all medical and other facilities in Karachi.

“We have great respect and honour for women and soon after receiving information about these detainees, I asked the authorities concerned to keep them with respect and honour,” he said.

The chief minister asked the wife of Dr Allah Nazar to give a message to her husband that the “killing of brothers” was not the right way and that “he should not use women and children in the war”.

He said: “We are running the government as public representatives and 99 per cent people of Balochistan are with Pakistan and nobody can mislead them.”

As a mark of respect, CM gives shawls to women, sends them to Karachi for medical treatment

Mr Zehri said the youths of Balochistan were well aware of the situation prevailing in the province and they would not take part in any so-called freedom war.

“The women taken into custody are our mothers and sisters and we have given them respect and honour,” he said.He asked the women to keep their children away from the so-called freedom movement and get them educated.

Home minister’s presser

Earlier Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti said that all women and children arrested by security forces at Chaman four days ago had been freed.

Speaking at a press conference, he confirmed that personnel of the Frontier Corps had taken into custody the wife of Dr Allah Nazar, along with three other women and three children, when they illegally crossed the Pak-Afghan border.

“Security forces had detained four women and three children at Chaman on Oct 30. Later it was found out that one woman and one girl were wife and daughter of Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) chief Dr Allah Nazar,” Mr Bugti said.

He displayed CCTV footage showing the women and children crossing the zero-point at the Chaman border.

He said one of the women was a sister of Aslam alias Acho, a militant of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), who had been killed in an operation, and another was the wife of a leading commander of the BLF.

About alleged mistreatment of the women in detention, the minister said: “I was in Gwadar with the chief minister who directed me to approach the women... They were treated with respect and honour as per Balochi customs.”

He said security officials handed over the women and children to the chief minister on Friday and later they were released. Dr Allah Nazar’s wife left for Karachi along with his brother Mehrullah, he added.

He said during investigation it was revealed that the women were involved in delivering funds to the BLA and BLF. “Despite committing the crime of illegally crossing the border and distributing funds among terrorists the provincial government treated them with respect. This is the difference between terrorists and us; they are killing our women by laying landmines and we are paying their women respect by giving Balochi shawls.”

Dismissing rumours of women’s abduction, the minister said it was arrest, not abduction. “Families of many terrorists live in Pakistan and we know their whereabouts but we are true Baloch not like Allah Nazar, Hyrbyair Marri and Brahmdagh Bugti,” he said.

About the delay on the part of the provincial government in reacting to the women’s arrest, Mr Bugti said there was uproar on social media and “we have to check all aspects of the episode”.

In reply to a question, he said Afghanistan was harbouring terrorists and creating unrest in Pakistan. “There is no doubt that not only Afghan soil is being used against Pakistan but the Afghan government is also giving shelter to Baloch groups involved in terrorism.”

He said the federal government was making all-out efforts to improve relations with Afghanistan, but Balochistan faced violence directly coming from that country.

Mr Bugti said the federal government had directed the provincial government to make border management stronger. Since February this year more than 11,000 people had been arrested for crossing border illegally, he said.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2017