KARACHI, Dec 24: A demonstration was staged by Karachi-based Baloch activists of various nationalist parties at Chawkiwara roundabout on Sunday for the release of all Baloch political leaders and workers detained illegally by government agencies in various parts of the country.

They condemned the ongoing military operation in Balochistan, saying that thousands of people had been forced to take refuge in neighbouring areas to escape bombardment and excesses and many of them even had to flee the province and live a miserable life in Sindh.

Carrying banners and placards in their hands, the demonstrators were raising slogans against Gen Musharraf and the federal government for subjecting Balochistan population to ‘brutal military actions’.

The protestors also marched various streets of Lyari raising slogans for an immediate release of Baloch National Movement chief Ghulam Mohammad Baloch and JWP leader Sher Mohammed Baloch, besides all detained Baloch activists.

Leaders of the Baloch National Party and the Baloch Unity Conference, which had organised the protest, urged the international organisations to take a serious note of the plight of displaced Baloch people and help provide them immediate relief.

Comparing the current situation in Balochistan with what prevailed a little before the East Pakistan debacle, they urged the UN and European countries to use their influence to restrain Islamabad and the military rulers from using brute force against Baloch civilians and recognize their right to self-rule on their own province.

Meanwhile, the hunger strike being observed family of Gowaram Saleh, a Baloch activist claimed to have been detained illegally by government agencies, entered 126th day on Sunday.

His elderly mother, wife and children, coming from Turbat, staged yet another protest sit-in on Sunday outside the Karachi Press Club, asking the authorities to release their only bread-earner.

According to the family, Gowaram Saleh had been picked up on Aug 8, 2004 in Mand and since then they had no been informed about his whereabouts.

JWP leader Shehzada Zafar Jan Baloch visited the camp and expressed his sympathies and solidarity with the family.