Why Balochistan is so crucial

Chiranjib Haldar

January 5, 2007

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Battleground Balochistan »

Balochistan seems to be in the news for all the right or wrong reasons. Is it because it straddles Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan borders the Arabian Sea and is a vast and sparsely populated province occupying 43 per cent of Pak territory?

A large part of United States military operations in Afghanistan are launched from the Pasni and Dalbandin bases situated on Baloch territory. For the Taliban, Balochistan is a fertile landmass and sanctuary. The logic is simple. If the pressure on Western forces in Afghanistan were to become intolerable, Washington and its allies could always use the Baloch nationalists, who fiercely oppose the clerics and Taliban, to exert diplomatic pressure on Islamabad and Tehran. In addition, three fundamental issues are fueling this Baloch crisis: expropriation, marginalisation and dispossession.

Although Balochistan houses only 4 per cent of the Pakistan populace, it is economically and strategically important for India too. It is a potential transit zone for a pipeline transporting natural gas from Iran-Turkmenistan to India. Two of Pakistan's three naval bases, Ormara and Gwadar are situated on the Baloch coast.

Located close to the Strait of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, Gwadar is expected to provide landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian countries outlet to the sea. The Gwadar complex would substantially diminish India's ability to blockade Pakistan in wartime. It would also substantially increase Chinese supply lines to Pakistan by sea and land during a conflict. Hence Balochistan would also diminish India's ability to isolate Pakistan from external support in any maritime conflict.

Some even consider Gwadar in the southwest of Pakistan to be a Chinese naval outpost on the Indian Ocean designed to protect Beijing's oil supply lines from the Middle East and to counter the growing US presence in Central Asia. Islamabad has always cried hoarse from rooftops that the Indian secret services were maintaining terrorist camps all over Baloch territory.

Since India, a traditional enemy, reopened its consulates in Jalalabad and Kandahar, it has been suspected of wanting to forge an alliance with Afghanistan against Pakistan. India may want to exert pressure on Pakistan's western border to force it to give up once and for all its terrorist activities in Kashmir and bring the 'composite dialogue' to an end on terms favourable to India.

Recent editorials in the Pakistani and West Asian press have continued to refer to India, but they also have expressed suspicion about Iranian and American involvement.

India considers the Sino-Pak entente cordiale in Balochistan, a quid pro quo to Beijing's surveillance post on Myanmar's Coco Islands to keep a watch on India's maritime activities and its missile tests in Orissa.

The Indian Navy has expressed fears that ties forged by the Chinese navy with India's neighbours might endanger India's vital sea links to the Persian Gulf. Iran and Pakistan have a common interest in exporting Iranian gas to India and any insurrection in Balochistan would only harm their chances of building a gas pipeline through the province.

Many Pakistani analysts feel Washington might use Balochistan as a rear base for an attack on Iran and would also like to get China out of the region. That is also disastrous for India.

The American position is equally perplexing. Are they opposing the Baloch nationalists because they are supported by Iran or are they supporting them because they are hostile to the Chinese? Or is it a continuation of the 'Great power game' being played in Central Asia since the Soviet breakup? Proponents of this view believe that the United States, in competition with China and Iran, would like to control the oil supply lines from the Middle East and Central Asia.

If Balochistan were to become independent, would Pakistan be able to withstand another dismemberment, thirty-four years since the secession of Bangladesh and what effect would that have on regional stability? Pakistan would lose a major part of its natural resources and would become more dependent on the Middle East for its energy supplies.

India may be tempted to look at the further partition of Pakistan as an opportunity for forging a new anti-Pak alliance. An insurgency in Balochistan might force Islamabad to resolve the Indo-Pak imbroglio over Kashmir.

But a redrawing of regional boundaries could revive fears of irredentism in Kashmir and in the Northeast that a resentful Pakistan would be only too eager to exploit.

Despite the secular nature of Baloch nationalism, the United States is apprehensive about the likelihood of a war for independence complicating the US fight against Islamic terrorism in the region. If the United States were to embark on a military action against Iran, it could also utilise Pakistani Balochistan for conducting subversive acts in Iranian Balochistan.

For the United States to accomplish this, the Pakistani province would have to remain tranquil and not pose a peril to the well being of Washington's allies.

Our surfer Chiranjib Haldar is content manager, Tata interactive systems and can be contacted at chiranjibh-AT-tatainteractive.com.


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Pakistan blames Indian presence in Afghanistan for all the troubles in Balochistan but Baloch rebels point fingers to Pakistan's discrimination against Balochistan
Media Release
Jan. 5, 2007




Pakistan is finding it difficult to fight the Baloch rebels. Pakistan blames Indian presence in Afghanistan for all the troubles in Balochistan. Interestingly, Baloch rebels point fingers to Pakistan's discrimination against Balochistan.

Confrontation on Pakistan's borders with India has de-escalated considerably during the last three years and the dialogue process has moved in the right direction with the two sides evaluating options to resolve Kashmir issue, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said.

However, "we are facing lots of problems in Balochistan and the tribal areas because of the Indian presence in Afghanistan," Daily Times quoted him as saying during a recent cabinet briefing.

Kasuri's briefing to the cabinet was part of efforts to provide detailed information to ministers on foreign policy issues, it said.

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On the Border: Afghanistan-Pakistan Deteriorating Relations

The American Prospect - Jason Motlagh - On the heels of the bloodiest fighting season in Afghanistan since the Taliban was ousted by the U.S.-led Northern Alliance five years ago, Pakistani authorities signed a September truce with tribal elders in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan province. The reaction in the Western press was alarmingly muted, given that a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda militants are known to enjoy safe haven in that Pakistani region as well as other ethnic Pashtun areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border. But the opportunity to chastise arch-rival Pakistan was not lost on Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

www.agenceglobal.com


Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters use the Afghan-Pakistani border regions as a haven. Neither country (nor the international military led by NATO and the United States) appears able to stop the insurgency from growing into a populist movement.

In the Borderlands

Jason Motlagh

The American Prospect
January 4, 2007

Copyright © 2007 Jason Motlagh - The American Prospect
[Republished at PEJ News with Agence Global permission]

During a meeting hosted by President Bush in Washington later that month, Karzai accused Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf, whose Inter-Services Intelligence agency is known to tacitly support the Taliban, of making yet another blatant gesture of appeasement in favor of insurgent forces. Musharraf shot back that Pakistan was doing more than its part to tame border badlands, noting the redeployment of thousands of Pakistani troops to the region and the country's record as a key U.S. ally that has nabbed hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects. The general went on to say that 40,000-strong international security forces in Afghanistan needed to adjust their military-intensive strategy so as to avoid fueling grassroots alienation that plays into Taliban hands.

Despite a condition stipulated in September's peace deal that Taliban militants in North Waziristan must lay down arms and refrain from entering Afghanistan, two anti-Taliban tribal leaders were assassinated two days after the deal was signed. In the months since, cross-border attacks have tripled. A December report by the International Crisis Group said Pakistan's army had "virtually retreated to the barracks" in North Waziristan, allowing pro-Taliban groups "a free hand to recruit, train and arm" in order to "launch increasingly severe cross-border attacks on Afghan and international military personnel." The new policy, according to ICG, has enabled militants "to establish a virtual mini-Taliban style state." And Taliban leadership, operating on three fronts along the border with as many as 10,000 fighters, now say they are ready to fight through the winter and for as long it takes to bleed out international "occupiers."

What Karzai and Musharraf cannot concede in public is that the Afghan-Pakistani border is a cartographer's conceit; on the ground it is largely imaginary. The de jure border, known as the Durand Line, stretches 1,500 miles on the Pakistani side from the rugged North West Frontier Province (NWFP) down to the flat scorched earth of Baluchistan province. Along the way military installations are few and far between, and the border itself is a smuggler's paradise. More coercive outposts are those of Pashtun tribal leaders that date back centuries, having outlasted the invading Soviet forces and imperial Britain before them.

Pashtun tribes, one of the largest tribal groups in the world, are predominant in the provinces on both sides of the border, including Afghanistan's Helmand and Kandahar provinces in the south and Kunar province in the east. (All are hotbeds of the Taliban-led insurgency.) While regimes and foreign invaders have come and gone, fiercely independent tribesmen have adhered to their own traditional code, Pashtunwali, in which honor and hospitality are paramount. These unwritten laws, used to settle blood feuds and other tit-for-tat crimes such as thievery or kidnapping, are said to date back some 5,000 years. The guarantee of sanctuary to those who ask -- even enemies -- is ironclad to the death. Stories exist of mothers who have harbored their own son's killers.

For the Bush administration's "war on terror," this has been both a gift and a curse. In June 2004, 16 Navy S.E.A.L.s were killed when their helicopter was hit by a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade while on a rescue mission to save three ambushed team members in Kunar province. A fourth member was found wounded by a Pashtun villager who, at risk to his own life and family, sheltered him and dressed his wounds before alerting American authorities at a nearby U.S. forward base. The downside is that this same code of hospitality allowed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his inner circle to decamp from their redoubt in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, to Pakistani borderlands when the U.S. bombing campaign began there in December 2001. Bin Laden is said to have been aided by Pashtun tribesmen supplemented with cash and guns, and may be hiding out in the NWFP, 40,000 square miles of mostly mountainous terrain.

Equally inhospitable are the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) which include North and South Waziristan provinces, now used by the Taliban militants under the aegis of veteran mujaheddin leader Jalaluddin Haqqani as a rear base to stage attacks in Afghanistan proper. Neither area has ever been controlled by a foreign power. And one-eyed chief Mullah Omar himself is believed to be based in the city of Quetta, Baluchistan province, which has become an open command center for Taliban activity on the southern border, according to Western military officials.

Today, as the Taliban stages a comeback amid violence that has killed almost 4,000 people -- mostly civilians -- in the last year, Karzai and his Western supporters are faulted for the slow pace of reconstruction, which has been hamstrung by corrupt officials and lopsided military spending. Meanwhile, profits from record drug production in the backcountry have reinforced both the Taliban and an illicit economy that now accounts for some 50 of gross domestic product.

Musharraf, for his part, is charged with not doing enough to bring lawless areas on his side of the border under control. But the general did deploy his army into Waziristan in 2003 under intense pressure from Washington, amassing an 80,000-strong force along the border in a fruitless campaign to flush out militants. Pashtuns in Pakistan saw the move as a sign that Musharraf will answer "how high?" when Washington says "jump." Tensions rose to fever pitch following a late October air strike on a tribal religious school in the Bajaur tribal area, which authorities said killed 80 militants. The strike prompted a retaliatory suicide bombing that claimed 42 army recruits.

On the Afghan side, errant U.S. air strikes have killed innocent villagers on more than one occasion. Such mistakes have only compounded simmering anger towards a weak central government that has failed to deliver security and basic services. But Kabul remains dependent on outside help to rebuild, and is understandably averse to biting the hands that feed. The Pakistani and Afghan governments are thus seen as servile bedfellows of the West by Pashtun and other tribal communities whom they must integrate to disrupt the safe havens that sustain Islamist militancy. The grain of history and culture in the region may in fact preclude this from ever coming about. But if such integration is at all possible, willful ignorance of the tribal problem will ensure it never happens, and that the fountainhead of instability will never run dry.

To get at the roots of the "problem of the tribes" as mid-twentieth century British diplomat W.K. Fraser-Tyler once put it, one must start with the division of the Pashtun tribes in the early 19th century. The ethnic Pashtun lands comprised the core of the original Afghan state founded in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani. The fall of this regime coincided with the rise of the British and Russian empires, which faced off in the Great Game to assert dominance across Central Asia. The Durand Line that remains the legal international border between the modern Pakistani and Afghan states was created in 1893 to delineate the outer periphery of what was then British India from Afghanistan. The latter served as a buffer state to imperial Russia's sphere of influence. The British didn't successfully impose the line until after two hard-fought wars against Pashtun tribesmen. The traumatic experience drove home the lesson to the British that even after defeats of tribes in southern Afghanistan, present-day NWFP, FATA, and Baluchistan, military occupation was not to be confused with real control. Among the tribesmen, contempt towards outside forces hardened, as the Soviets learned a century later.

When the British Empire receded, Pakistan inherited the "invisible" Durand Line border and Afghanistan gained independence, enjoying a period of relative stability marked by economic growth and rural development. Progress was interrupted by the Soviets, who orchestrated a coup of Afghan army officers in April 1978 to oust then-Prime Minister Mohammad Daud. In an ill-fated Cold War maneuver, the United States backed fundamentalist mujaheddin to beat back the Russians during the 1979-89 Afghan war, providing arms and expertise to Afghan, Pakistani and foreign jihadis. Not only did the proxy CIA war serve to train and equip Bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and a raft of others that now fill the ranks of their movements; the siege climate also further radicalized war-weary Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line, rendering them more sympathetic to those fighting to bring down Western-backed authorities.

Today an estimated 43 million Pashtuns (15 million on the Afghan side, 28 million in Pakistan) united in blood, language, culture, and history continue to reject the Durand Line. Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, the native-born governor of NWFP and architect of the controversial truce, insists military strategies on both sides have only piqued centuries-old resistance fervor among Pashtun tribes. "The people have started joining the Taliban. It is snowballing into a nationalist movement if it has not already become one," he recently told an interviewer. "It is becoming a sort of war of resistance."

Unless the roots of historical grievances in the tribal areas are addressed, Taliban and al-Qaeda will always have a sanctuary to retreat to and regroup. And it will remain impossible for the international community to ascribe proper responsibility for the lack of control over insurgent forces and smuggling without a mutually recognized and enforceable border management agreement that upholds the rule of law. Some have suggested a holistic border agreement -- based on the existing Durand Line but signed by Afghanistan, Pakistan, and non-state actors in the tribal areas -- to facilitate a reconciliation process that extends greater civil and political rights to the tribes. This could be reinforced by an overarching peace agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan (and perhaps India, to allay fears in Islamabad of an Afghan-India alliance). The ICG argues that Pakistan must first impose the rule of law on tribal regions, a task easier said than done.

Jirgas, the traditional Pashtun forum for hammering out differences, resolve about 95 percent of disputes in Afghanistan and could be a starting point for reaching consensus. Verdicts still tend to stand up better than formal court judgments thanks to a basis of mutual consent rooted in Pashtunwali. Yet the jihad against the Soviets showed that Pashtun tribes are willing to rally around Islamist militancy, at least temporarily, when confronted with an outside power. Borderland Pashtuns are sure to fill the majority of Taliban ranks and abet al-Qaeda's presence until international forces withdraw from the region, another dim prospect in light of a gathering insurgency.

While accompanying Musharraf on the tense visit to Washington, Governor Orakzai advised President Bush that a wide-ranging peace deal might be struck on both sides of the border through a high-level jirga that assembles tribal leaders on their own terms. After five years, the West's military strategy was making things worse, he told the president, as evidenced by the fact that Bin Laden remains at large and the Taliban grows stronger by the day. But his seasoned advice fell on deaf ears. "Either it is a lack of understanding or a lack of courage to admit their failures," he said. "Like in Iraq … They have admitted them now but at very great cost."

Jason Motlagh is a deputy foreign editor at United Press International in Washington, D.C. He has covered conflicts in Asia and Africa.

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Pashtuns on Both Sides of Pak-Afghan Border Show Opposition to Fencing Plan
Pajhwok Afghan News
Report

www.afgha.com/

JALALABAD, KHOST, QUETTA, Jan 03 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Tribal elders and influential people on two sides of the Pak-Afghan border have warned they will take away any barriers installed on the joint border.

Pakistan has recently announced it will fence the joint border and plant mines along the 2,500 kilometers long border to put an end to accusations by the Afghan government of letting Taliban militants to cross the border and conduct attacks in Afghanistan.

The elders have warned they would destroy the fence and take out the mines if Pakistan goes ahead with the fencing and mining plan.

Residents on both sides of the border believe that Pakistan want to stamp the Durand Line as an official border line between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This, they say, will further separate the one community of Pashtuns who have already been divided.

Maulvi Abdul Rahim, an elder and religious scholar in Koot frontier district of Nangrahar considers Pakistans action a drama, saying that Pakistan want to trick the world with this action.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News that Pashtuns are not those cowards to let others do such things.

He added: "We have tight relations with Tera people of North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan and we visit homes of each others regularly as we are part of one community, but Pakistan wants to split this community."

Malik Katawar Khan, resident of Dor Baba district of Nangrahar says that the British and Russians, despite their serious efforts for separation of Pashtuns of the two sides, failed to fulfill their goal in the very past.

He said if Pakistan succeeds in the plan, Pashtuns will demine the region and will destroy the fence.

Katawar Khan told this Pajhwok Afghan News: "Pashtuns now know that they must be united or will be demolished from the world map."

Malik Azizullah Shinwari, a tribal elder of Shinwari district says that Pakistani President Pervez Musharaf wants to catch Pashtuns of his side and separate them from the Afghanistan's side by all tricks he know.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News the current war in Afghanistan and operation in tribal areas of Pakistan are launched to demolish Pashtuns.

"Mining and fencing the border is a Punjabi conspiracy, and we are sure it will fail," said Shinwari.

He said that they have contacted the tribal elders of the other side of the border and agreed that they will never let Pakistan to mine and fence the border.

He threatened if Pakistan enforces its decision their tribe will again strike as they did in British colony.

Rasul Mohammad Tanai, an elder of Tanai tribe in Khost province, considers this action of Pakistan as a game and says that Pakistan wants to impose and give official stamp to the Durand line. He said that Pashtuns have already been split even two village and two families were split.

Ramazan Kuchi, a nomad from Alisher frontier district, said that even if the Afghan government accepted the Pakistan's suggestion, the local community would never accept.

"If Pakistan truly enforces their decision the regional people will strike and will even destroy the present line," he said.

Masoum Jan a tribal leader of Aryub district of Paktia province said that Pakistan will never succeed in its separation plan. He said the Pakistani government should ban the terrorist sources inside Pakistan instead of mining and fencing the border.

Hamyaon Chamkani, a tribal leader in Chamkani district, said that if Pakistan enforces its plans, it will further inflame the existing anger and hatred of Afghans towards Pakistan.

Allahnoor Noorzai, a tribal leader in Arghistan district of Kandahar province, said Pakistan want to distract international by such actions.

He said that Pakistan is under pressure by the international community to ban the terror training center so they would distract the internationals by fencing and mining the border.

Similarly on the other side of the border, tribal residents oppose the mining and fencing plan of Pakistani government and said that they will never let their government do so.

Malik Akbar Khan, a resident of Kurram Agency's Parachinar area told Pajhwok this news agency through telephone that the tribal leaders have already convened a meeting on this issue and decided not to let the government enforce its plan.

He added that they will consult with other tribal elders and then will start serious negotiation with the government on the issue.

Malik Hamid Hussien a Shia tribal elder in Parachinar considers such action of Pakistan impossible and said that this is the land of Pashtun and without their choice no one can take any action.

Also, Haji Gul Khan Achakzai, a tribal elder in Baluchistan state of Pakistan rejects Pakistan plan on mining and fencing the border.

He said: "We do not accept the present border line that split Pashtuns into two parts and we know that the areas we reside on both sides of the border belong only to Pashtuns and the Pakistani government can not claim its ownership."

A Baloch tribal elder in Helmand province of Afghanistan, Haji Mawla Bakhsh, condemned the fencing and mining plan of the Pakistani government as an action aimed at occupation of lands of Pashtuns.


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Quetta/New Kahan: Student Asadullah Marri and B&R employee Ahmad Khan Marri became the victim of the ruthless, notorious terrorist Pakistani agencies soon after they left their homes to town.

According to Ahmad Khan Marri “Asad and I were on our way to Bus Stop when three (private) cars approached and open fire on us, we tried to speak to them but no one listen to us until we both fell on ground. After we fell, the agency men rushed toward us, dragged us into their cars, and drove to unknown locations. Brother Asad received martyrdom on half way. I was half-fainted and bleeding badly. When they realised that my dear friend Asad had passed way, and I too was bleeding to death they dump at BMC and drove away. Later police came and took us to a seprate room in the hospital.”

Because of the pressure of agencies police has refused to return the body of shaheed (martyr) Asad Marri and injured Ahmad Khan to their relatives. Dozen of residents of New Kahan arrived to hospital where already present large number police stopped them at the main gate. Marri people strongly resisted/protested and demanded for the body, the shameless Pakistani police (the slaves of agencies) have once again responded harshly, baton charged the protester and arrested six people, who are now being severly tortured in baroury police Station.

According to the relatives of both the victims Ahmad Khan Marri and Asad Marri were residents of New Kahan and were residing there since ages. Shaheed Asadullah Marri was a Student and worked near by Hazar Ganji fruit and vegetable market to help his family, whereas Ahmad Khan Marri is a B&R employee from last 6-7 years. Both of the victims belonged to very poor families and were NOT involved in any kind of anti social behaviour. Ahmad Khan Marri was detained by the same Pakistani agencies five year back for several weeks but was released after investigation.

Residents of New Kahan and Anjuman-e-Itehad-e Marri in an emergency press conference strongly condemn the extra judicial killing of their two innocent brothers/children and demanded that the Pakistani (PUNJABI) perpetrators who are involved in today's inhuman act must be brought to justice. They said Pakistani state terrorist agencies have ruined the lives of innocent people living in new kahan. So far, our hundreds of elders, students, teacher and other poor labours/daily wages workers have been kidnapped by these ruthless agencies. According to them, they have filed cases against those Pakistani perpetrators and consulted to courts for help against Pakistan atrocities, but the courts are helpless infront of agencies.

According Allah Baksh Marri spokesperson of New Kahan “we have lost faith in Pakistani justice system and we don’t expect justice from any department of Pakistan. That’s why we appeal to International Community, International Human Rights Organisations and all other free born people to urge Pakistan to stop illegal arrest, extrajudicial killings, and kidnapping of our people”.

Mr Marri rejected all claims by police. He said both Ahmad Khan and Shaheed Asad Marri were not even drivers whereas police accused them driving a car. He said they did not belong to any armed organisation but their only fault is that they belong to Marri tribe and were residents of New Kahan.

The press conference demanded as follow:

1- An independent team of lawyers and Human Rights worker should visit New Kahan and inquire about the incident.
2- All those agencies personal involved in this incident must be arrested immediately and tried in International court of criminals (as we have no faith in pakistani justice system),
3- All that police officer who addressed the fake conference and tried to hide the crime of agencies must also be arrested.
4- All arrest baloch political activists including residents of New Kahan must be released immediately.
5- Ahmad Khan Marri should be handed over to his family so they can arrange for his better treatment. In case anything happens to Ahmad Khan, the government will be responsible for that.
6- International media and Human Rights Organisations and other groups working for Human Rights i.e. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch should be allowed to visit New Kahan and inquire about this incident.
7- A case should be registered against Balochistan Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, Chief Minister Jam Yousuf, Home Minister Shoaib Nausherwani, ISI and police officials.

At the end, the residents appealed to Baloch Nation, political, Student organisations, and other Baloch Nationalist individuals to raise their voice against this inhuman act of Pakistan’s terrorist agencies.

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Police commander killed in restive Iran city
Thu. 04 Jan 2007
Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 04 – The chief of the State Security Forces (SSF) in Iran's south-eastern city of Iranshahr was killed during armed clashes with "bandits", the official news agency reported on Thursday.

The report quoted an anonymous SSF official as saying that Colonel Gholam-Hossein Jafari was shot and killed during a skirmish in the suburbs of the village of Delgan, close to Iranshahr.

One of the bandits was also killed, it said.

Iranshahr is situated in the impoverished province of Sistan-va-Baluchistan which has been a hotbed of anti-government activities since 2005.

In recent months, Iranian authorities have stepped up executions in the province in what many Baluchis believe is a response to a spate of attacks by dissidents on government and security officials.


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Acting chief of BNP-M arrested

www.dawn.com/2007/01/05/top7.htm

By Our Staff Correspondent

QUETTA, Jan 4: Acting president of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal group) Mir Nooruddin Mengal and seven other activists were arrested near Khuzdar.

According to party sources, they were intercepted by a heavy contingent of police near the Baghbana area and taken into custody while they were on their way to Khuzdar from Kalat.

Khuzdar District Police Officer Agha Babar Gul said that an AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle and several rounds were recovered from the acting BNP-M president’s possession.

He said that cases had been registered against him for ‘provoking people against the state’. He said that Naseer Ahmed Shahwani, Malik Farooq, Mohammad Noor Mengal, Ghulam Mustafa Shahwani, Mohammad Anwar Mengal, Maqsood Ahmed Shahwani and Abdul Wahid Mengal had also been arrested.

Jamhoori Watan Party’s spokesman Amanullah Kanrani has condemned the arrests and said that the government wanted to deprive political parties of their democratic right to protest against government atrocities in the province.

He said that hundreds of political activists were in jails while a large number of political workers were missing. He said that a JWP leader, Saleem Baloch, who was released only 15 days ago after nine-month detention, had also been re-arrested.

Blaming the government for conducting an operation against Bugti tribesmen in different areas of Dera Bugti, Mr Kanrani said that security forces had arrested a large number of innocent people, including children and old men, during the operation.


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Blasts destroy power, gas lines in Baluchistan

www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp

Published: Friday, 5 January, 2007, 01:03 PM Doha Time

ISLAMABAD: Thousands of people were left without power and heating in southern Pakistan after suspected tribal militants blew up two electricity pylons and a gas pipeline, news reports said yesterday.

No one was thought to have been hurt in the attacks on Wednesday in the town of Dera Bugti, located 350km east of Quetta, according to the English-language Daily Times newspaper.

The blasts followed operations by government forces against militant training bases in the province of Baluchistan, which is the scene of a long-running conflict over autonomy and profits from exploration of natural gas deposits.

The Baluchistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for these and other recent bombings of power-supply infrastructure. - DPA