QUETTA, June 22: The Jamhoori Watan Party has held the government responsible for bomb blasts and rocket attacks in Sui and said that they were meant to pave the way for taking punitive action against the people of Dera Bugti.

This was stated in a statement issued by the party's spokesman here late Sunday night. The JWP spokesman expressed skepticism about the occurrence of the attack on Sui airport despite the heavy presence of Frontier Corps, adding that their fort was adjacent to the airport and several check-posts were established in its surrounding areas.

He questioned the possibility of the saboteurs succeeding in their attempts to plant the subversive materials that blasted the airport building. The JWP spokesman alleged that the government was punishing the people in Sui for no fault of theirs, adding that several houses were damaged after the government forces fired rocket and mortar shells on Saturday night to what he termed terrorize the people.

The party's spokesman reminded that according to the provincial home secretary, the airport building had collapsed because of the planting of subversive materials and said that in view of the tight security arrangements, it was not possible without the security forces' complicity with saboteurs.

Spokesman referred to the party leaders' recent press conference in which they had said that some saboteurs had been caught in Dera Bugti who had confessed before a jirga that they had fired on installations at the behest of government officials in return for money.

He said that tribesmen, who had been dispossessed of their ancestral lands, had been protesting for a long time for their just rights, cautioning the government to remember that "such action will not frighten the people who have continued their peaceful struggle," the statement concluded.