KARACHI, March 12: Two prominent Baloch leaders from Balochistan have urged the federal government to save a centuries-old Baloch village from being demolished.

Talking to a delegation of Husan Aulia village (old Golimar), former chief minister of Balochistan, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, said he was deeply perturbed to learn that despite the repeated protests by the area people, political parties and representatives of NGOs, there had been no change in the attitude of the government.

Sardar Mengal termed it a a conspiracy against the Baloch people and declared categorically that any move aimed at demolishing any old Baloch settlement would be resisted and there would be strong repercussion in Balochistan.

Mengal said that the government should better construct the expressway according to the old plan or revise the new plan in a way that did not cause damages to the old settlements.

PRINCE: A former federal communication minister and chief of the Baloch Rabita-Ittefaq Tehrik, Prince Mohiuddin, has also condemned the proposed move of the National Highway Authority to demolish the old Baloch settlement. He said that the development authorities including the federal agencies were bent upon demolishing Baloch settlements in Karachi on the pretext of “development”.

He claimed that over a decade more than a dozen Baloch villages had vanished due to the so-called anti-encroachment drive of the development agencies. The affected people were given neither alternative plots nor financial relief, he added. He particularly referred to the case of Liaquat Colony in Lyari, which is situated in the outskirts of the Mauripur Road.

He urged the government to prevent the demolition of Hasan Aulia village. Otherwise, he said, it would have negative effects on the Baloch people.

Talking to a delegation of Baloch intellectuals from Makran he said: “we should shun all petty issues and instead work on broader national issues.