Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday expressed grave concern over the recovery of bodies of missing Baloch persons and said a judicial commission was probing the matter with cooperation from the federal and provincial governments. Speaking at a press conference at the Quetta Airport, the prime minister reiterated his government’s resolve to remove the sense of deprivation of the Baloch people by giving them rights and bringing them into mainstream politics. He said the government was ready for dialogue with the estranged leaders of Balochistan in the larger national interest. The PM said that al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri had been killed in the drone attack on Friday and the United States had also confirmed his killing. However, a US defence official told AFP that Washington has had “no confirmation” that Kashmiri had died.
Gilani said as far as the handing over of a list of high profile al Qaeda terrorists was concerned, it might have been given to the Inter-Services Intelligence or another agency for intelligence sharing. He said the government was concentrating on improving the law and order in Balochistan and his current visit was aimed to asses that. He said the long-standing demand of the people of Balochistan was being fulfilled by replacing the army with the Frontier Constabulary in various areas of the province. He said the government was fully committed to implementing the resolution passed by parliament regarding the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package and under this package 20,000 jobs would be given to the Baloch youth in various federal departments, including law enforcement agencies. To a question about the Abbottabad incident and drone attacks, the prime minister said he had asked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit that giving respect to the resolution passed by joint parliament regarding the drone attacks was morally binding on the US.
