Heavy fighting in Kohlu areas

www.dawn.com/2006/11/24/top4.htm

By Saleem Shahid

QUETTA, Nov 23: Reports of heavy fighting between security forces and militants were received from Karmo Wadh and Tartani areas of the troubled Kohlu district on Thursday.

Sources said that security forces, reacting after an attack, launched an operation against hideouts of militants in a vast area and chased the assailants in the mountains. They also used helicopter gunships in the chase.

According to reports reaching here, fighting erupted in the area when militants attacked a vehicle of security personnel in the Tartani area and fired rockets on a post in Karmo Wadh area of Kahan tehsil.

The sources said that militants hiding in mountains fired a number of rockets on the vehicle, but it was not hit. Troops present in the area rushed to the place and returned fire. “Exchange of fire continued for more than an hour in Tartani hills,” they said, adding that the armed men later disappeared from the area.

According to another report, militants attacked a security post in Karmo Wadh using rockets and heavy weapons. Security personnel deployed at the post returned fire. A heavy exchange of fire took place for some time.

The sources said that after foiling the attacks in both areas, security forces launched a search operation in Karmo Wadh, Tartani and Pir Koh areas of Kohlu and Dera Bugti districts. Helicopter gunships were seen in the area attacking hideouts of militants in the mountains.

“Security forces chased the attackers in the mountains and hit their hideouts,” the sources said. There have been no reports about casualties in the fighting.

Sources in Sui township said that an armed group attacked labourers and other staff who were working in the under-construction Kachhi canal in Shahbal area of Sui tehsil. They took away two persons and a tractor with them. Security forces rushed to the place, cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

A caller identifying himself as Azad Baloch and claiming to be spokesman of the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) said that militant attacks in Tartani and Karmo Wadh areas had caused heavy casualties.


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Bugti’s son booked for treason
www.dawn.com/2006/11/23/top13.htm


By Saleem Shahid

QUETTA, Nov 22: The Sariab police have registered a treason case against Nawabzada Jamil Bugti, son of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, for speaking against the army and the government in his press conference last month.

Jamhoori Watan Party information secretary Amanullah Kanrani has expressed concern over registration of the treason case against Nawabzada Bugti.

"The registration of the case is another act of victimisation of the Bugti family," Mr Kanrani said in a statement, adding that the move and operations would not force the Bloch people to give up struggle to protect the coast and resources of Balochistan.

He demanded withdrawal of all fake cases against political leaders and workers and said that instead of using force against the people of Balochistan and hurling threats at them, the government should recognise their legitimate rights over the coast and resources of Balochistan.

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Bhotani booked in terror case

By Muhammad Ejaz Khan

QUETTA: District Coordination Officer (DCO) Dera Bugti Abdul Samad Lasi on Thursday lodged a case of terrorism against some important personalities of the province including Deputy Speaker Balochistan Assembly Muhammad Aslam Bhotani and Nawabzada Brahmdagh Bugti, with the Hub City police station. Police officials told The News that the DCO has nominated important personalities in a bomb blast that had occurred outside his Lasbela residence on February 2, 2006. At that time police had said that unknown miscreants might have planted the explosive device, which caused some damage to Lasi’s home. After registering the case police have started investigations.

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HRCP accuses govt of ‘victimising’ Bugti’s granddaughters

www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp

ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday slammed the government’s freezing of accounts belonging to two granddaughters of the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, charging Islamabad with pursuing a policy of “victimising women”.

The Interior Ministry had earlier this month directed the State Bank of Pakistan to freeze the accounts of Zamur Bakhtiar and Zawaz Bouh “on suspicions of their links with the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)”, confirmed a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But HRCP Chairperson Asma Jehangir slammed the move, saying that the “freezing of accounts is only the latest in the series of outrageous actions aimed at victimising women”. Stressing that “women must never be made to pay for anything the authorities may choose to accuse their male relatives of,” she added that if the women were suspects, then normal judicial procedures needed to be followed.

Jehangir also demanded that dozens of women allegedly detained for their relationships with men from the Bugti clan be freed, describing their incarceration as a “terrible outrage by the state against women”.

The death of Nawab Bugti, following an army operation on his cave hideout on August 26, sparked nationalist violence, leaving 10 people dead in bomb blasts, attacks and clashes with police. The government banned the BLA in November, charging it with having suspected links to Bugti. AFP

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Two Baloch leaders named in bomb blast case
Islamabad, Nov. 24 (PTI): A case has been lodged against Baloch leaders Mir Suleman Daud Ahmedzai and Mohd Aslam Bhotani in connection with a bomb blast outside the residence of a district officer in February.

The two Baloch leaders have openly criticised the Pakistan's army air strike in Dera Bugti in August which left their leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti dead and are planning to approach the International Court of Justice against Islamabad's alleged violation of a 1947 agreement on merger of Balochistan province.

Official media reports here said that Khan Kalat, Mir Suleman Daud Ahmedzai and Deputy Speaker Balochistan Assembly Mohammad Bhotani has been named by District Coordination Officer, Dera Bugti, Abdul Samad Lasi in connection with a bomb blast outside his house in Hub town.

While naming the two in the case, Lasi claimed that the blast had caused him serious financial loss.

Lasi said he could not record his statement earlier as he could not visit his residence in Hub during the last ten months due to his official engagements in Dera Bugti."My house was closed during this period as I had shifted all my family members to Karachi after the blast", he was quoted by the state-run APP news agency as saying.

Pakistani security forces yesterday registered a case of treason against one of the grandsons of slain Baloch nationalist leader for speaking against the Army and the government.

www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200611241122.htm