QUETTA, Jan 29: A multi-party conference held here on Tuesday called for negotiations to resolve the volatile Balochistan issue and a targeted operation to pre-empt terrorist attacks in the province.
Leaders of various political parties, including PPP, PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, PML-Q, PTI, BNP-M, National Party, Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen and JWP, attended the conference.
A statement issued at the end of the conference expressed concern over terrorist attacks and targeted killing in Quetta that had claimed hundreds of lives.
It criticised former provincial government for failing to protect people and said the promulgation of governor’s rule in the province should lead to a visible change in the law and order situation.
It said that Balochistan had been neglected for the last six decades and no government had taken serious steps to solve its problems. As a result issues had piled up.
“The people of Balochistan should be given ownership of the natural resources so that they may turn the backward province into a developed and prosperous one,” the statement said.
It called upon the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the deteriorating law and order situation in Balochistan and provide justice to the victims of terrorist attacks, targeted killings and kidnapping for ransom.
Earlier speaking at the conference, JI Secretary General Liaquat Baloch called for a jirga on the Balochistan issue and said the army should also be taken on board in this regard.
He condemned Jan 10’s Quetta carnage and deplored that neither mosques nor imambargahs were safe in Balochistan. He urged the governments of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan to join hands to ensure peace in the region.
Vice-President of PML-Q Mir Naseer Mengal expressed sympathy with the people of Hazara community and said practical measures wereneeded for providing protection to the people of the province.
Vice-President of Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen Allama Ameen Shaheedi warned his community would observe a countrywide wheel jam strike if governor’s rule was lifted and dismissed government of the province was restored.
GRENADE ATTACK: The office of the District Election Commission in Khuzdar was damaged after a grenade was hurled near it on Tuesday, according to sources.
Police sources said that men on a motorcycle hurled a hand grenade near the office and fled from the scene. No one was injured but the office was partially damaged.
In another incident, a soldier, Muhammad Ishaq, was seriously injured in firing at a check-post of Frontier Corps on the outskirts of Barkhan town.
The injured man was moved to the CMH Loralai, said Levies sources. The FC men deployed at the post engaged the assailants, who fled after some time.