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QUETTA, Dec 23: Balochistan National Party (Mengal) President Sardar Akhtar Mengal said on Thursday that the Baloch people would not succumb to pressure being exerted by the government by torturing political activists and students to force them to give up their struggle for national rights.
Speaking at a public meeting at the Azadi Chowk in Khuzdar, he said the BNP-M had disassociated itself from negotiations with the federal government as the rulers were not sincere in resolving the political issues of Balochistan.
MNA Rauf Mengal, BNP-M Secretary General Habib Jalib Baloch, former minister Prince Musa Jan Baloch, Baloch Students' Organization Chairman Amanullah Baloch and others also spoke. Sardar Mengal said his party's followers could not imagine harming their own people through subversive acts but warned that they knew how to use force if a time for that came.
Referring to threats of President Gen Pervez Musharraf, he said despots like Sikandar Mirza, Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Ziaul Haq had used a similar language but their oppressive methods could suppress the Baloch movement.
The BNP-M leader cautioned the government that extra-constitutional steps of implicating innocent students and political workers in false cases of subversion would endanger the relationship between the Baloch and the federation.
He assured the participants of the meeting that the BNP-M would never compromise with the usurpers and would continue its struggle for the national rights of the Baloch.
The former chief minister declared that the patriotic Baloch political parties would frustrate the designs of the rulers to impose large projects on the people. He said the nationalist groups through their collective struggle would force the anti-people rulers to abandon the projects.
He said some politicians were supporting the anti-Baloch projects to appease the rulers and the Inter-Services Intelligence and serve their personal interests.
GWADAR BAN: In a statement issued on Wednesday, the BNP-M condemned the government's decision to lift ban on the transfer of land ownership rights in Gwadar and expressed the apprehension that the policy would turn the Baloch into a minority in the area.
A spokesman for the party said the withdrawal of the restriction would benefit the Balochistan government, some ministers and officials and capitalists of Karachi and Punjab.
He said the government must reverse the decision and ban transfer of land ownership to non-Baloch, particularly in Gwadar and Lasbela districts. He claimed that the provincial government and the Gwadar Development Authority had issued no-objection certificates for 13 housing schemes which would turn the local people into a minority.
He said that while the local people in Gwadar lacked water, electricity and other basic amenities then the government had issued NOCs for the housing schemes. The party appealed to all patriotic political parties to devise a joint strategy to protect the national rights and resources of Balochistan's people.
