ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: An interior ministry spokesman has said that media reports about a military operation in Balochistan false and misleading.

The spokesman said after December 14 rocket attacks by saboteurs in Kohlu during the visit of President Musharraf and an attack on the subsequent day, injuring the inspector-general of the Frontier Corps and other senior officials, the government had confirmed the location of certain ‘fugitive’ camps and then a targeted action was undertaken by the FC.

In that punitive drive against the saboteurs, the spokesman claimed, care was taken to ensure that no innocent person was targeted.

The spokesman said the actions taken against various criminal dens where the armed gangs were hiding with caches of arms and ammunition had achieved tangible success.

He said the saboteurs at the behest of certain elements were trying to hinder government efforts to carry out development in the remote areas of Balochistan.

He reiterated that on no account would the saboteurs be allowed to succeed in their nefarious designs which were against socio-economic uplift of the people of the area.

The FC, as per its mandate and assigned role of law enforcement, would continue to take punitive action if development efforts were hindered or any national asset was threatened, the spokesman concluded. —-APP