QUETTA, Feb 1: A suspected militant was killed and a security man suffered injuries in an exchange of fire in the Kahan area of Kohlu district on Friday.

Also on Friday, the Anjuman Ittehad Marri issued a statement criticising a raid by law-enforcement personnel on the house of Nawabzada Harbayar Marri in Al-Mashraqi line on the Arbab Karam Khan road on Friday morning. Abdur Rasool Marri, the gatekeeper of the house, was arrested.

Nawabzada Harbayar, son of Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, is in the United Kingdom facing some charges. The Anjuman Ittehad Marri condemned what it called the ‘character assassination’ of Mr Harbayar.

It appealed to the United Nations and international human rights organisations to take notice of the excesses committed by security forces against the Baloch people. It said the struggle of Marri tribesmen for the rights of the oppressed people of Balochistan was in accordance with the UN charter.

In a separate statement Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti, chief of his own faction of the Jamhoori Watan Party, said the government had failed to enforce its writ in Sui, Dera Bugti, Kohlu, Waziristan, Swat and Darra Adamkhel.

He said the government could never impose its write by force and political issues should be resolved through dialogue with representatives of the people.

He urged army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to end all military operations in the areas.