KARACHI, Dec 27: Chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain on Tuesday called for an immediate end to the ongoing military operation in Balochistan. In a statement issued from London, Mr Hussain said that use of force against people had never produced positive results. On the contrary, this had damaged national unity, which the nation was already lacking due to the wide gap of trust caused by the partisan and unrealistic decisions taken by Islamabad against smaller provinces.

He said that every time decisions were taken against the aspirations of the people of smaller provinces, and force was used to counter their dissent, instead of serious measures that were required for removing their grievance.

Mr Hussain referred to the attempts on the life of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and said yet no military operation had been launched in Rawalpindi or Attock following the attacks, nor had the people of those areas been held responsible for the attacks. Every attention was concentrated on criminals only, which was a good sign, he added.

The MQM chief further said that the recent rocket attacks in Balochistan were condemnable, on this plea, an operation was going on against the innocent people of that province. According to information, he said, women, children and elderly people were facing the onslaught involving helicopter gunship.

Mr Hussain suggested that the root-cause of discontentment be investigated and a peaceful solution must be found. He said that at a time when rehabilitation of earthquake victims was under way, the issue of Kalabagh Dam was raised. As a result, the situation of hitherto neglected people of Sindh further deteriorated, he observed.