QUETTA, Feb 6: The Baloch Students Organization (Aman) said on Monday that efforts to merge the three factions of the BSO had failed. Speaking at a press conference, BSO chairman Amanullah Baloch said that talks among the three groups of the organisation continued for four months but remained unsuccessful.

He conceded that differences over selection of chairman of the proposed united organization were the main obstacle to the merger of the Aman, Asif and Imdad groups. Amanullah Baloch condemned bombings in Dera Bugti and Kohlu, and criticised the arrest of political activists in different areas of Balochistan.

He said the Aman faction would soon launch a protest campaign against the excesses of the government. Answering a question about the role of the three factions of the BSO and other Baloch nationalist parties against the crackdown in Dera Bugti and Kohlu, he said the Baloch people had been facing atrocities of Islamabad for five decades and were determined to defeat the attackers.