KARACHI, April 13 Rejecting the concept of provincial autonomy as envisaged in the 1973 constitution, leaders of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) have called for recognising “sovereign rights” of Balochistan and granting its people the “right to self-determination”, insisting that it is the only viable option to resolve the Balochistan issue.
At a news conference here on Monday, they described the situation obtaining in the province as “horrible”, claiming that the law and order situation had deteriorated to such an extent that “the writ of the state has collapsed.” Senior vice-president Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini, former MNA Rauf Mengal and former MPA Akhtar Husain Lango, and a central leader Hameed Sajda of the BNP-M, along with chairman of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO), claimed that the province was totally under the control of (security) agencies and alleged that the agencies' personnel were victimising the Baloch people.
They briefed journalists about the April 3 episode, alleging that three Baloch nationalist leaders — Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Sher Mohammad Baloch and Lala Munir — had been kidnapped and tortured to death by plainclothes people from the agencies. Their decomposed bodies, they added, were dumped at a desolate area, about 20 kms from Turbat.
Describing the incident as the “worst kind of state terrorism” after the assassination of Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti and Nawabzada Balaach Marri, they rejected the idea of setting up a judicial commission for conducting an inquiry into the April 3 killings, and demanded that an investigation be held by a UN-supervised commission as was done in the case of the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.
“The killers of Benazir Bhutto, Nawab Bugti, Balaach Marri, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Sher Mohammad Baloch and Lala Munir are the same,” they said.
Pointing out that Balochistan had been a victim of military operations for the past 61 years, they said that another UN-supervised probe should ascertain the causes of these operations and fix responsibility. They said if the UN probe held nationalist leaders responsible for any cause leading to such operations, they would quit politics but in any other conclusion, the guilty must be punished.
They alleged that political activists in custody of agency people were being subjected to torture, and expressed their apprehension that they might be killed. In this regard, they particularly made mention of Kifayat Baloch who, according to them, hailed from Khuzdar and had been picked up about two weeks back allegedly by some agency men. His whereabouts could not be known till date, they added. They said Abdul Kabir Baloch, Mushtaq Baloch and Attaullah Baloch had been picked up in a similar manner and shifted to some detention camps.
Condemning the use of brute force against political workers, they said it was creating bitterness among the Baloch people.
In reply to a question, the BNP leaders stated that the “party fully supports the resistance movement being waged from the mountains,” arguing that there was no basic difference between two forms of struggle — militancy and political resistance. At the same time, they also made it clear that the party stood for the Baloch people's right to self-determination, adding that the ethnic entity had been subjected to economical exploitation and military suppression for 61 years.
They appreciated the role of the media and thanked the parties which expressed solidarity with the Baloch people on the issue of killing in Turbat.
They observed “We are heading towards a serious situation with no solution to the major issues in sight.” They criticised President Asif Zardari for “disappointing the Baloch people by supporting the secret agencies.”