KARACHI, Dec 9: Twenty people, including office-bearers of the CBA of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited and their associates, are believed to have been detained by intelligence agency personnel in a pre-dawn raid on a hotel in the city. A spokesman for the PPL confirmed that a delegation of the PPL CBA from Sui was in the city for meetings and the next round of talks was to be held on Monday. But he said he did not know anything about the raid and arrests.

However, a spokesman for the CBA from Sui gas field told Dawn that the union members were staying at the Regent Plaza hotel for the last four days on the invitation of the PPL management to sign an agreement.

He said those who had been picked-up included Mirza Shaukat, President, Ghulam Muhammad Bugti, Vice-President, Niaz Ahmed Shaikh, Vice-President, Sher Muhammad Bugti, General Secretary, Saifuddin Bugti, Deputy-General Secretary, Niaz Ahmed Bugti Joint-Secretaty, Khuda Bux, treasurer. Members of the Executive Council Habibullah Shaikh, Mir Ahmed, Waqar Ahmed, Umeed Ali, Mehmood Bugti, Hameed Bugti and Nadeem Asghar. Tanveer Ahmed, President, PPL (Punjab), Hakim Ali, President, Kandhkot, were also picked up from the same hotel.

Others who were accompanying the CBA members and are also believed to have ben picked up included Haji Ajaz, Haji Taj Muhammad, Abdul Aziz and Faiz Muhammad Bugti.

Our Quetta Correspondent adds: JWP spokesman Senator Amanullah Kanrani criticized the action and alleged hundreds of political activists had been detained by intelligence agencies in Balochistan. He was speaking Speaking at a press conference here at the press club.

He said that according to Articles 9 and 10 of the Constitution, it was mandatory for police to present a detainee in court within 24 hours but the intelligence agencies did not abide by the law.

Referring to a claim made by the interior minister in Turbat about arrest of 4,000 terrorists in the province, Senator Kanrani said the people should be tried in courts if they had committed any crime.