QUETTA, Feb 13: Nawab Akbar Bugti, president of the Jamhoori Watan Party, has denied allegations that sophisticated weapons valued at Rs500 million were smuggled into Balochistan from Afghanistan and an enemy country made the payments.

Afghanistan is miles away from the province and it is not possible to smuggle secretly such a large quantity of weapons to Balochistan, Mr Bugti told reporters at his residence in Dera Bugti on Saturday.

The JWP chief said the honourable governor had levelled wild allegations which he could not prove. There was no evidence of the deal, he added. Mr Bugti criticised the governor and accused him of launching a propaganda campaign against the Baloch resistance movement.

He alleged that the American CIA had distributed a large number of weapons among Jihadis through the ISI in the eighties as Americans wanted to fight the then Soviet Union using the Jihadis and other mercenaries. Those weapons were available in the entire region, he added.

The JWP president said the government, despite its denials, was preparing to launch an army action. "Tanks, heavy field guns to hit targets at far away places were ready; spy planes were collecting intelligence information and gun ship helicopters were hovering over areas day and night. In a way, full preparations are made to launch a swift and lighting military strike before other people raise any hue and cry," Nawab Bugti told journalists.

He firmly rejected talks with the government at 'gunpoint', saying that there was no match of the weak and poor Baloch people to the well-organized state military power. Referring to the incident of gang-rape of a woman doctor, Nawab Bugti said the governor was unaware of the Baloch and Pukhtun traditions and customs.