QUETTA, Aug 11: Leaders of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) and Baloch Students Organization (Aman) have said that if the government is sincere in inviting Baloch leadership to resolve contentious issues through talks , it should end the military operation and stop arresting political activists.

Speaking at separate press conferences here on Wednesday in the press club, MPA Akhtar Hussain Langoo of the BNP-M and students' body secretary-general Moinuddin Baloch warned the rulers against what they called its dubious policy.

They demanded release of all detainees nabbed during the action, saying that otherwise the proposed talks would serve no purpose. Mr Langoo alleged that a law-enforcement agency on Tuesday night conducted a raid on the house of party secretary-general Habib Jalib Baloch in Pirkaniabad to arrest him after implicating him in the Khuzdar incident case. But he was not at home.

He accused police and other security agencies of creating harassment in the locality on the pretext of arresting Habib Jalib. There was no need of the raid as Mr Jalib advocate was attending courts on Tuesday morning and the police should take him in custody from there, he added.

The BNP leader said the government should not use tactics which instigated the party workers and vowed that the party led by Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal would not abandon struggle to achieve national rights for Balochs.

Moinuddin Baloch warned that if the government did not stop the operation within one week, his organization would launch a protest movement from Aug 18 against the action.

PML-Z LEADER: Mir Zarak Khan Zehri of the PML-Z was released on parole on Wednesday. He was fined and jailed for three years on Tuesday by the anti-terrorist court Quetta.