BALTISTAN: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday urged the importance of dialogue to solve deteriorating law and order situation of Gilgit Baltistan, DawnNews reported.

The interior minister met with Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah, Governor Pir Karam Ali Shah and other high officials of newly declared province and received a briefing from Chief of Baltistan scouts Brig Nadeem ul Hassan on the law and order situation of the area.

“The ministry would provide the list of the alleged miscreants to the ‘jirga’ and it would be their responsibility to make sure their arrest,” Malik said.

He added that if  the situation could not be handled through negotiations or jirga’s involvement then the route of military operation could also be opted.

Malik was having talks with the high officials of the province after sectarian violence erupted in the region two weeks earlier when 18 Shia passengers were shot dead by gunmen after they had been forced to disembark from buses at Harban Nullah on the Karakoram Highway.