QUETTA, Jan 8: Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti has said that the people of Pakistan and other parts of the world appear to be ignoring “the atrocities being committed by the state against the Bugti-Baloch people in Dera Bugti”. Talking to Dawn over telephone from his native Dera Bugti on Sunday, Mr Bugti said that no state perpetrated such ‘atrocities’ against its people as were occurring in Dera Bugti.

He said Dera Bugti was the headquarters of the district and the Bugti tribe, which was being bombed daily with long-range heavy artillery, mortars and other heavy weapons. “This seems to have become common practice and as a result civilians, mostly women and children, were suffering causalities,” he added. Mr Bugti said that if anyone was after miscreant they were surely not in Dera Bugti or anywhere near it, except women and children who had been the main targets of the operation.—Staff Correspondent