QUETTA, March 20: Chief of Jamhoori Watan Party Nawab Akbar Bugti has confirmed that special envoy of the federal government Tariq Aziz and PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain have made telephonic contacts with him. “Tariq Aziz rang me up last night while Chaudhry Shujaat talked to me on Sunday afternoon,” Nawab Bugti told newsmen here through a telephone link from Dera Bugti on Sunday. “I told them that despite repeated assurances of the government, they have launched an operation in Dera Bugti.

“Both of them said it was a small action, and not an operation. I asked them if they would consider that action an operation if 10,000 people are killed?” he said. Nawab Bugti dispelled the impression that he was not ready to talk. “I have not refused to talk, but one must make clear the agenda of talks first,” he emphasized.

Replying to a question, he said that no representative of the provincial government had contacted him so far. “Formation of a peace committee is the government’s own decision.”

Nawab Bugti said that after the killing of over 60 people, it was not possible for one or two people to control the sentiments of the Baloch nation. “In such a situation emotions run high,” he said.

Replying to a question, he acknowledged that guns had fallen silent but insisted that the situation was still very tense and more troops were reaching the town of Sui. “On Sunday, 16 army vehicles arrived in the town from Kashmoor,” he claimed.

The JWP chief said that Tariq Aziz had assured that all vehicles brining ration for Dera Bugti would not be stopped. Still, the vehicles coming from Sui were not allowed to enter the tribal township, he said.

He said efforts had been made to remove all evidence of destruction caused by heavy shelling in the township.

He said that despite curbs, some media people arrived in Dera Bugti and witnessed the situation there. “FC men fired heavy mortar shells at the residential area, including my house, which we kept as evidence,” Nawab Bugti said.

He claimed that planes on reconnaissance mission kept flying over the township between the night of Saturday and Sunday.