Pakhtoon leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai has called a strike on February 12 to condemn an alleged military operation in Sui and the establishment of cantonments in Balochistan. "We are opposed outright to the military operation in Sui," Achakzai said at a public gathering here on Monday. The government denies a military operation is underway in Balochistan.Achakzai, a leader of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement and chairman of the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, urged the government to give the Baloch control over the natural resources in their province, otherwise their could be more violence. "It is a 50-year dream of Punjab to crush the Baloch tribes and use their gas and mineral resources," he said. He said the Pakhtoon people were also ignored in Pakistan. He called for a separate province where Pakhtoons could practise their own culture and have control of their own resources. Party leaders Mustafa Khan Tareen, Maulvi Nazir Akhund, Abdur Rauf Lala, Fazl Qadir Shirani, Sardar Raza Muhammad Burraich, Usman Kakar, Kahar Khan, Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai and others also spoke at the rally.
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