Balochs vow to avenge dead Bugtis

Azadsindhi wrote:

Dead Bugtis to be avenged, vows Mengal

From Our [Star] Correspondent

QUETTA: President Balochistan National Party, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, has said the rulers are taking revenge on the Baloch people for committing the sin of declaring their accession to Pakistan. Addressing participants at a demonstration in front of the provincial assembly as a protest against the attack on Bugti tribes in Dera Bugti, he said the atrocities being committed by the present rulers are no match even to the British rule on the subcontinent.

Paying rich tribute to the Bugti tribe's people who laid down their lives while resisting the paramilitary troops in Dera Bugti, he resolved to avenge. them and not let their blood go waste. "Local tribesmen who sacrificed their lives have in fact protected the Baloch honour and prestige with their blood and now it is incumbent on each of us to avenge it in any way", he said. "We will take steps that force the army personnel and the so-called representatives of the Baloch people in the provincial government to leave the province and let the Baloch nation live its own life", he added.

The vindictive steps of the government against the Baloch people can be well­gauged from the fact that its law enforcement agencies did not allow the injured Bugti tribes to be brought to Quetta for medical treatment and forced them to return from Mach in Bolan district, he informed.

The military rulers are trying to take avenge of their defeat from Indian Army in Kargil from the Baloch nationalist parties in Balochistan, he said, and added that the Baloch leaders are being' punished for exposing the heinous crime of an officer of that Army which considers itself as Able Bait. "The entire world knows that this' sacred Army of Pakistan raped thousands of Bengali women in former East Pakistan in 1971, and our rulers instead of being ashamed for this act honoured the same army officers with distinctions and other rewards", he maintained.

"We had been saying for the last several months that the rulers have planned operation in Balochistan, but every time the people at the helm of affairs including president, prime minister, governor, chief minister and others denied it and said that no military operation would be conducted", he said, and added that they are still not ready to accept it despite humiliating the Baloch women and children and subjecting the Baloch political workers to the worst kind of torture.

Mr Akhtar Mengal condemned the provincial government for its silent role in the matter and alleged that those sitting in the government and claiming themselves to be representatives of the Balochistan people had in fact sold the Baloch honour to the rulers in Islamabad. "They are engaged in obtaining maximum luxuries for themselves and are not at all concerned with what is going on in the province", he said

Mr Mengal also condemned the MMA ministers and said that the party which poses itself as strong protagonist of Islam and who is responsible for killings of thousands of people in Afghanistan was sitting silent on the raids on the Mari camp and other excesses being committed by the government agencies.

"They are concerned about the killing of the Muslims in other parts of the world, but are silent on the killing of Baloch people in Balochistan", he said, and inquired from MMA leadership whether the people killed in Dera Bugti were not Muslims.

Other Baloch nationalist leaders including Abdul Wadood Raisani, Mir Tahir Bizenjo, Amanullah Baloch and Mir Hamayun Marri also spoke on the occasion and condemned the attack of armed forces on Nawab Bugti's fort and the Bugti tribes.

The participants of the demonstration on the occasion chanted slogans against President Musharraf, Chief Minister Jam Yousaf, Home Minister Shoaib Nausherwani.; Army and the Frontier Corps. They were also carrying placards inscribed with the slogans against the government, army, FC and Punjab.

(The Star, Karachi, dated 19 March 2005)