QUETTA, Oct 25: The Pakistan Oppressed Nations’ Movement on Tuesday demanded withdrawal of federal security forces from Wadh Bazaar and said a siege of the area would worsen the situation.

In a statement issued after a meeting presided over by Balochistan National Party (Mengal) Secretary-General Habib Jalib Baloch, it is alleged that the government and its agencies had deployed forces to besiege the Wadh Bazaar area at the behest of people involved in an attack on the house of PONM chief Sardar Ataullah Mengal.

The PONM condemned the siege and said deployment of forces, refusal to arrest the attackers and failure to register an FIR against the accused had exposed what it called ulterior designs of the government.

It also alleged that the government wanted to create problems for tribesmen in Kohlu, Dera Bugti and Wadh as people of those areas had been raising their voice against excesses of the usurpers.

“The government must end the siege of Wadh and its surrounding areas by federal security forces to normalize the tense situation there,” it said.

It was decided that the PONM would determine its line of action against the government in consultation with other democratic political groups if the government failed to withdraw the forces and apprehend those involved in the attack.

Senator Sana Baloch and Sajid Tareen of the BNP-M, Qadir Agha of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami party and Dr Malik Baloch of the National Party attended the meeting.