QUETTA, Feb 8: Veteran Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti has said that the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) exist in Balochistan and were popular among the Baloch people who consider that these organizations are fighting for the legitimate rights of the Baloch nation.

Speaking to newsmen in his native Dera Bugti town on Tuesday, he said that activities of these organizations might have been limited in the past but now the Baloch people were reposing confidence in them and supporting their activists.

"The people of Jam Yousuf's Jamoot tribe might also be there in these organizations," Nawab Bugti said, adding that people of all Baloch tribes had started joining the BLA and the BLF.

He said that Sardar Jamal Khan Leghari, son of Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari, had also accepted the fact that the Baloch of his area had started joining these organizations.

Referring to the lady doctor assault case, the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) chief said that the man involved in the case was brother of a District Coordination Officer of Punjab and was on good terms with a senior military officer.

These were the reasons, he said, for which he had not been arrested. The threat to launch a military operation against tribes in Sui and Dera Bugti, he added, were aimed at forcing them to change their stand on the issue.

Nawab Bugti said that the lady doctor could not be termed "kari" under any law because force had been used to assault her. The tribes, he added, considered her innocent. However, he said the person involved in the criminal assault was a 'Siahkar' and should get double punishment because he committed a heinous crime while his duty was to protect the people. Besides, he broke the law.

Nawab Bugti said that since the days of Ayub Khan the army had been ruling the country and no government in the country could be called a good government.

Replying to a question, the veteran leader said that the employment in the PPL Sui plant should have been 100 per cent local but it could reach only 51 per cent in the past 52 years, while in the officers' category it was even less.

He said that keeping in view the situation in Sui one could imagine what would happen to the local people in Gwadar.