PESHAWAR, Jan 14: The Awami National Party has urged the federal government to stop use of force against civilian population in Balochistan and start dialogue to avert bloodshed. In a statement issued to the press on Saturday, ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan expressed concern over fresh military action in the province.

He said some Baloch leaders had informed him on telephone that the military had last night carried out shelling from aeroplanes over the Kahan area inhabited by the Mari tribe. Before this, he said, the government had targeted the Bugti tribe.

The government’s efforts to resolve the crisis through use of force would never meet with success, he said, adding that there was a dire need to hold dialogue with Baloch tribes to hammer out a political and durable solution to the lingering crisis.

Mr Khan said that use of force for the solution of political problems had never been of any utility in the past and the result would be no different this time around also.

He said military involvement in the resolution of political problems had always multiplied the problems. Air strikes and planting of landmines against civilians could cause irreparable losses to the people as well as the government, he added.

The ANP chief said the area was under army’s siege and relief agencies, including International Committee of the Red Cross, had no access to the injured people. Not only this, the activists of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan were not being allowed to take an eyewitness account of the matter.

Many families had been rendered homeless whereas the wounded needed medical assistance which was not forthcoming, he deplored.

The ANP, he said, had always opposed the element of violence in politics and stressed political dialogue to solve problems and avoid bloodshed.

He said the military’s involvement in East Pakistan had created a disdain among the people against the federal government and the army.

Mr Khan recalled that the world community ultimately took the path of negotiations for the solution of the Afghanistan conflict after 25 years of warfare in that country had already killed thousands of people.

He appealed to the democratic forces in the country to stand up against the military operation in Balochistan.