QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has welcomed the decision of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) to call off its 20-day protest sit-in staged for the release of BYC leader Dr Mahrang Baloch, claiming that the government had made efforts to convince its chief Akhtar Mengal to take this decision.

In an interview with a private channel, the chief minister said that staging sit-in to put pressure on judicial matters by groups linked with organisations involved in acts of terrorism is not a suitable way.

He said the Constitution of the country bound him to stand for those helpless women whose sons and husbands were offloaded from the buses and shot dead.

“Staging protest and taking out protest processions is everyone’s constitutional right but the government will not allow people to block highways and destroy the government and private property,” he said.

Says intelligence-based operations against terrorists to continue

He said that intelligence-based operations against terrorists were continuing in the province, adding that terrorists wanted to dismember the country through armed struggle, and all people must stand against such elements.

He said acts of terrorism in Balochistan should not be confused with religious extremism elsewhere in the country. Referring to a recent train attack, he said the nation is now seeing these attacks clearly for what they are — acts of terror against the state.

Mr Bugti said that terrorists were planning a repeat of the August 26 attack — where innocent passengers were pulled off from buses and shot dead, but an operation based on local intelligence foiled their plan and nine terrorists were killed in the operation.

“We are working to further strengthen this information-sharing system,” he said.

He referred to a statement of the army chief in which he said that 1,500 terrorists cannot harm Pakistan. Every time acts of terrorism go up in Balochistan, confusion spreads across the country, clouding the nature of the conflict,“ the chief minister said.

He said that restoring peace and order in Balochistan is the top priority of the government and intelligence-based operations are yielding successful results.

Mr Bugti said that local people are cooperating with the government by providing crucial information about terrorists’ movements, which he said is a positive sign.

“The solution to Balochistan’s problems lies in establishing a corruption-free system, which the government is striving to achieve,” Mr Bugti claimed.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2025