QUETTA: The Balochistan National Party-Mengal has opposed the demand for new provinces and warned that if any attempt is made to divide Balochistan, it will be resisted by the party.

“The existing four provinces are historic homelands of Baloch, Pakhtun, Sindhi and Punjabi nations. Since these will have to be divided to carve out new provinces, the demand is not acceptable,” BNP-M leaders said at a rally outside the press club here on Sunday.

Know more: Pakistan will wipe out if new provinces not created: Altaf

The rally was organised by the BNP-M to condemn arrest of some activists of the party and raids allegedly conducted by security forces on the houses of others in different areas of the province.

The speakers said that raids on the houses of the BNM’s central organiser Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini and activists in Nushki and Nasirabad were aimed at demoralising the party.

They said that some activists had been arrested during the raids and appealed to the chief justice of the Balochistan High Court to issue orders for their release on the pattern of the Islamabad High Court which freed workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.

Move to divide Balochistan to be resisted, say party leaders

They rejected Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Malik Baloch’s claim about a decrease in incidents of the dumping of bullet-riddled bodies and said that such incidents had rather increased.

They said that BNP-M would not accept census in the presence of Afghan refugees in Balochistan because they would register themselves as Pakistani citizens which might turn the Baloch people into a minority in their own province.

Those who spoke on the occasion included Agha Hasan Baloch, Akhtar Hussain Lango, Ghulam Nabi Marri, Musa Baloch and Agha Khalid.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd , 2014