KARACHI, Aug 26: Speakers at a meeting on Sunday urged Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take suo motu action and order a probe into what they said “the genocide of Baloch nationalists and cold- blooded murder of Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akber

Khan Bugti carried out by army rulers.”

They were speaking at a meeting held to observe the first death anniversary of Nawab Bugti, who was killed in an operation in Kohlu on August 26 last year.

The meeting was organised by the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party at Iqbal Goth in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. Quran khwani was held and fateha offered.

The speakers said that even today a large number of Baloch youths, who were struggling for their rights, were being persecuted and oppressed.

They said owing to the oppressive policies of the rulers a sense of deprivation was spreading among the Baloch and Sindhi youths who felt that they were not being given their due rights by the establishment, which was using even more brutal methods than those it had used in the former East Pakistan.

If the establishment did not give the oppressed people of the smaller provinces their rights, the consequences could be more dangerous than the seventies, they warned.

They urged the chief justice to ensure that all people were given the rights and autonomy that had been guaranteed in the Pakistan Resolution of 1940.

Speakers included Gulzar Soomro, Zahid Bugti, Manzoor Janori, Ismail Charan, Shakeel Channa, Shahid Soomro and others.

Observance in Lyari

Nawab Bugti’s first death anniversary was also observed in Chakiwara, Lyari, on Sunday.

A public meeting was held by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee to pay homage to the slain leader.

The speakers, representing various Baloch nationalist parties, pledged to work for the cause for which the late Nawab Bugti had laid down his life.

Among the speakers were the JWP’s Zafar Jan Baloch, Abdul Wahab Baloch of the Baloch Rights Council, Sana Baloch and senior leaders of the Baloch Students’ Organisation.

Earlier, the police had cordoned off the venue of the meeting, which created tension in the area for some time. However, the organisers, despite the action by the police, went ahead with the meeting.