QUETTA, Nov 5: There are no differences between the army and the government over negotiations for resolving the Balochistan issue, says Director-General of the Inter Services Public Relations Major-General Shaukat Sultan.

He was speaking to journalists at an iftar-dinner he hosted for them here on Friday evening. Maj-Gen Sultan denied that Al Qaeda was involved in what he termed subversive activities in Balochistan.

He said that local tribesmen and some criminal people were involved in bomb blasts, rocket firing and other such activities in the province. He said that no military operation was being contemplated in Balochistan and none was under way in the province.

Security forces, he said, had taken action against what he termed miscreants and saboteurs in some areas of the province. Terrorists, Maj-Gen Sultan said, were implementing a foreign agenda. "(The involvement of a) foreign hand cannot be ruled out in bomb blasts and rocket attacks in Balochistan," he said.

He said that Balochistan issue was a political one that could be resolved through political negotiations and the government had already formed a senate parliamentary committee which had started its deliberations.

Differences, he said, should not be used as a pretext for conducting rocket and bombs attacks and kill foreigners, adding that all issues should be resolved through political dialogue.

The ISPR director-general termed nationalists' slogans mere rhetoric and said that those airing them were deceiving people. "They are not friends of Balochistan and Pakistan."

Referring to the issue of setting up new cantonments in Balochistan, he said that the plan had not been cancelled. "The cantonment plan still exists," he said. But, he said, the number of cantonments could be increased or decreased.