SUKKUR, Aug 5: The president of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti, has urged the government to stop what he called a military operation launched in Balochistan , abandon its policy of suppressing the Baloch people and try to resolve the issue through dialogue.

Talking on telephone to a group of newsmen gathered in Kashmore on Wednesday night, he said the government had launched an operation in Makran, Turbat, Gwadar and Khuzdar and was using Cobra helicopters, jet fighters and tanks.

Nawab Bugti said that a similar operation had been launched against the Baloch in the early 70s. He alleged that the objective of the operation was to take control of the resources of Balochistan and to convert the Baloch people into a minority.

He said Baloch nationalists had always been ready for talks but the government had closed all doors for negotiations. He called upon the government to immediately stop the operation and initiate a process of dialogue with the Baloch leaders.

He said no lesson had been learned from the fall of Dhaka. The people of Bengal never wanted to secede from Pakistan but they were forced to take up arms.

He demanded complete provincial autonomy for all the provinces and recalled that about five years ago during the Nawaz Sharif government, his party had submitted a bill on provincial autonomy in the National Assembly. The bill, he said, was never discussed because the government was against giving autonomy to the provinces.