saag.org/papers17/paper1686.html

by B. Raman

In a shocking attempt to intimidate the remaining Hindu Balochs in Balochistan to leave the province, a helicopter gunship of the Pakistan army fired rockets on a Hindu locality in the Bugti area of Balochistan on January 20, 2006.

2. According to Mr. Nabi Baksh, a spokesperson of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) of the Bugti leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, two women and four children were injured. According to other reports, despite the air strike, the Hindu Balochs of the locality have refused to leave the area.

3. <b>In order to protect the Hindus, the resistance fighters immediately mounted an attack on Government buildings and posts of the security forces, thereby forcing the security forces to divert their attention from the Hindu locality and focus on defending their posts and government buildings, which came under attack. The clashes continued till late in the afternoon.</b>

4. According to Mr. Agha Shahid Bugti of the Jamhoori Watan Party, the security forces attacked Dera Bugti’s urban area with heavy weapons and killed nine people, including two women and five children. A railway track in the Machh area and a bridge on the national highway in Wadh were blown up by the resistance-fighters. The highway connects Quetta and Karachi . The same bridge was earlier attacked on January 15.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: itschen36-AT-gmail.co)