QUETTA, Nov 28: Balochistan National Party (Mengal) president Sardar Akhtar Mengal has been detained in a farmhouse in Sakran, which has been declared a sub-jail.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Khuzdar range, Pervez Zahoor, served the order of the home department on the BNP president, party leader Rauf Mengal told Dawn on telephone from Hub.

He said he himself and Mir Mehrullah Mengal, an uncle of Sardar Mengal, had also been detained.

The DIG, however, confirmed the detention only of Sardar Mengal. “Sardar Mengal has been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order-3,” he told Dawn, adding that the orders had been issued by the provincial home secretary.

He said Mahrullah Mengal and Rauf Mengal, a former MNA and nephew of Sardar Mengal, who were with Sardar Mengal, had not been arrested. “There is no restriction on their movement,” he said.

According to official sources, a heavy contingent of police and Anti-Terrorist Force personnel cordoned off the Lasi farmhouse in Sakran, some 16km from the Hub town, at around 2pm and detained Sardar Mengal in the farmhouse, declaring it a sub-jail.

A heavy contingent of police had been deployed in and around the farmhouse, the sources said.

Rauf Mengal condemned the detention and said arrests of hundreds of party workers could not stop the party from holding the long march.