ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: Ghazan Marri, one of the alleged founders of the proscribed organisation Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), was repatriated from Dubai in April 2006 and was being tried in an anti-terrorist court, an official told Dawn on Friday.

The source said that he was in the custody of an intellegence agency.

Authorities in Dubai, he said, had arrested Ghazan Marri on money-laundering charges earlier this year. He was wanted in several cases in Pakistan, including the murder of a judge of the Balochistan High Court, Justice Nawaz Marri.

As a BLA leader, he had been accused of destroying national installations and committing terrorist activities.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao had recently said that Ghazan Marri had been handed over to Pakistan and his repatriation was not connected with the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The source said Ghazan Marri and his brother Abyar Marri were trying to set up a so-called ‘Balochistan High Commission’ and a TV channel in Dubai to internationalise the party’s struggle but Ghazan was arrested and extradited to Pakistan while Abyar Marri escaped the dragnet. He is currently stated to be in the United Kingdom.

Ghazan and Abyar had hoped that the Dubai authorities would permit their propaganda ventures but found that the authorities were seeking them on money-laundering charges, the source said.

Preliminary investigations revealed that leaders of the Baloch insurgents had been receiving funds from three foreign countries for several years. Recently their supply lines were cut and their bank accounts frozen, the sources said.

Ghazan and Abyar Marri had allegedly ambushed the judge in late 1990s over a dispute about ownership of mines in Balochistan. Both were declared absconders in the judge’s murder case.

Recently, the Pakistan government declared the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), allegedly run by Baloch tribal leaders, a terrorist organisation. The government claimed it had credible evidence about BLA’s involvement in terrorist activities in Balochistan.

Evidences collected by the federal government claimed that the BLA was involved in sabotage activities including rocket attacks on national installations, civilian population and security forces. The BLA was also accused of laying landmines in the province.

The government was of the view that majority of the terrorist incidents were planned, engineered and executed by the BLA operatives to create anarchy in Balochistan, according to the source. The government has also frozen bank accounts associated with the BLA.