Islamabad, 21 July (AKI/DAWN) - Pakistan's president General Pervez Musharraf has said that the government was determined to re-establish its control of the restive south-western province of Baluchistan and to "fix" the sardars or tribal rebel chiefs in the Baluchistan. | My cat's are "fixed". Is that what he means? |
"We will protect national installations in Baluchistan at all costs and ensure full security to the development activities and to foreign investors there," he said in an address to the nation on Thursday.
In an address to the nation on Thursday, Musharraf paid a glowing tribute to security and intelligence agencies for establishing peace in the province in order to carry out development works. He criticised the media for 'misrepresenting the facts'. "But the bottom line is that the writ of the state will have to be established in Balochistan, Wana, etc. And I assure you that soon there will be peace in that province,” he promised.
The president said that for 40 years three Baluch sardars, who were opposed to development and perpetrating atrocities on their tribes, had been pampered unjustifiably in the name of political settlement, "but no more". He insisted that the operation against the 'rebellious' sardars was being conducted by the paramilitary forces and not by the army, though some 1,000 armymen were assisting the security forces.
He said all the Bugti commanders had surrendered and the so-called Nawab Akbar Bugti was on the run, adding that of the total 77 sardars in Baluchistan only three — Bugti, Marri and Mengal — were opposing the government. Musharraf said over 16,000 sub-tribes of Bugti — Rahejas, Kalpars, Masouri — had returned to Dera Bugti after years of repression by sardars led by Nawab Bugti. "But I would not call him a Nawab as he is on the run."
He said the government had no option but to take serious action in Baluchistan where militants even possessed surface-to-air missiles and modern rocket launchers. "But I can say with full authority that terrorism and anti-Pakistan activities have been drastically reduced following the government's decision to take action against them." "How could we keep quiet when bomb blasts became a daily routine and people are targeting national installations, like railway tracks and government buildings?" he asked.
He was hopeful that the economic deprivation in Balochistan would subside with the commissioning of over mega development projects there.
Meanwhile the federal government has directed the four provincial governments and the chief commissioner of Islamabad Capital Territory to freeze the bank accounts of 42 suspected members of the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an official source told the Pakistani daily Dawn on Thursday. The separatist group was one of two foreign groups that were banned this week in Britain under under laws outlawing the glorification of terrorism. |