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Pakistan's Baluchistan separatists demand Scots-style vote
[ARABNEWS] Baluch separatist leaders on Friday called on Pakistain to follow in Britannia's footsteps by holding a referendum similar to Scotland's on granting independence to the insurgency-wracked province.Scots rejected independence in a vote that left the centuries-old United Kingdom intact despite a surge in nationalist support in the final fortnight of the campaign. Asked whether a similar poll should be held in Balochistan  ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , Dr. Bashir Azeem, secretary-general of the outlawed Baloch Republican Party, told AFP: "The Baluch have been struggling against the excesses and tyranny of Punjab-dominated establishment of Pakistain for decades." Punjab is Pakistain's most populous and influential province. "If a fair referendum is conducted after creating an atmosphere for it, providing the opportunity to Baluch population for deciding their future, it is welcomed," he added. Resource-rich Balochistan is the largest of Pakistain's four provinces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth. Rebels began their fifth insurgency against the state in 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and faceless myrmidons killed in the fighting. Posted by: Fred 2014-09-20 |
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