DERA BUGTI, Jan 14: Bhambhor Rifles Commandant Col Furqan has said that writ of the government will be enforced in Dera Bugti and other ‘free zones’ in Balochistan ‘at any cost’. Talking to journalists here on Friday, he said that Dera Bugti was a haven for all kind of criminals who roamed freely ‘within its boundaries’ and the ‘private army’ of Nawab Akbar Bugti was challenging the writ of law and government.

He said that 25 camps of saboteurs existed in the region but a majority had been dismantled.

He said that an offer had been made to Nawab Bugti to hand over his heavy weapons to the army and disband his private army but it had been rejected by the headstrong nawab.

He said that the ‘private army’ of Mr Bugti possessed more sophisticated arms than those of the Pakistan army.

He justified the siege to Dera Bugti, saying it was aimed at preventing infiltration of defeated elements from Kohlu into the area. He said that saboteurs had been restoring to indiscriminate rocket firing, most of which had landed in residential areas of innocent Baloch people.

Defending the establishment of Frontier Constabulary posts, he said that they had been established in the region since 1977 and not during the Musharraf tenure as was being wrongly propagated.

He blamed the tribal chiefs for being an impediment to development of their regions and Balochistan but said that the government was committed to developing the province.

He denied that there had been any restriction on the movement of items of daily use or people of the beleaguered region. He claimed that those present in the region were members of the private army as common people had migrated to safe places.

He said that Nawab Bugti had kept the members of his tribe hostages. “Anybody who dared to lodge a complaint to police was ‘fined’ Rs50, 000 and detained in a ‘private jail,’ he said.

Schools in the region had been converted into fugitive camps, he added. “There are 650 ghost schools in the region, salaries for which are being collected with impunity,” he added.—Online