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| India-Pakistan |
| Troops Seize Two Tribal Camps In Baluchistan |
| 2005-12-28 |
| Quetta, 28 Dec. (AKI/DAWN) - There is no let-up in the ongoing military operation in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, with paramilitary forces seizing control of two more camps of Marri tribesmen and recovering a huge cache of weapons on Tuesday. A general strike was held in the provincial capital Quetta as well as other parts of the province on Tuesday to denounce the government's policies in Baluchistan. The federal government however has insisted that it will continue its operation although it is open to dialogue. Baluchistan, a province that is rich in natural gas reserves, has been plagued by violent attacks throughout this year. Tribal groups there have been demanding more political autonomy and a greater share of the area's resources, most of whose revenues go to the central government. The current raid by the Pakistani security forces began after the 14 December rocket attack on Kohlu town when Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf was on a visit there and machine-gun fire on a helicopter the next day that wounded the inspector-general of the paramilitary Frontier Corps. According to sources, paramilitary troops entered the Dera Bugti area and the Marri tribal agency on Tuesday after helicopter gunships destroyed the camps in Bakar and Peekal which were allegedly being used to launch attacks on government troops. "Bakar and Peekal are fully in control of the (federal army) forces," the sources said. They said a huge quantity of arms and ammunition had been found dumped in secret hideouts established in the mountains. A heavy contingent of paramilitary troops has been deployed in the areas where the alleged militants' camps and hideouts had once been located, the sources said. Sources said paramilitary forces backed by helicopters gunships were continuing the operation in Kohlu district but were facing pockets of resistance. They said that although some more deaths had been reported in these areas the exact figures were not known yet. They said that the paramilitary forces had sealed off the whole Marri area and were not allowing any of the injured to be moved to hospitals. Meanwhile, Nawabzada Mir Balach Marri said that security forces had intensified their operations in various areas of the Marri tribal agency and had killed innocent people, most of them women and children. The four-party Baluch Alliance called for a complete strike in the province to protest against the military operation in Kohlu, the paramilitary forcesâ presence in Dera Bugti, the plan for the Kalabagh dam in Punjab which is expected to have a singnificant impact on the province as well as other mega development schemes in Baluchistan. Routine life in the province was paralyzed by the complete strike as all markets, shops and business centres remained closed and there was no traffic on the roads. In some areas protesters resorted to stone-pelting and setting tires on fire. A dozen vehicles were damaged. Six injured people were taken to the hospital in the provincial capital, police said, adding that two of the injured suffered bullet injuries. They were injured by the gun fire from a vehicle in retaliation to the protestors hurling stones. The government in the meantime has said that the crackdown against what it called a momentum of militancy in Baluchistan would continue, though it was ready for a dialogue to solve the troubled provinceâs problems. "We will not allow anyone to take law into their own hands,... fire at law-enforcing agencies, destroy electricity towers and other government installations... and block mega projects,â Pakistan's interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told the Senate at the end of a three-day debate on Baluchistan. The government âwill leave no stone unturnedâ to respond to the challenge, the minister said, apparently dismissing the opposition demand to end the crackdown. Sherpao said the government believed in dialogue despite all what was happening in Baluchistan that he blamed on what he called âmiscreantsâ and âfrarisâ (fugitives). âWe will continue dialogue that is consensus of this house,â he said without elaborating how. He rejected the oppositionâs objection against the use of the terms of âmiscreantsâ and âterroristsâ by the government for those involved in attacks in the province over the entire year and said these descriptions would be used for those responsible for 187 bomb blasts, 275 rocket attacks, eight attacks on gas pipelines, 36 attacks on electricity transmission lines and 19 explosions on the railway line this year from January until the current violence. |
| Posted by:Steve |