A senior leader of the National Party of Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Malik Baloch has alleged that the military has launched a military operation in Mashkay in the name of relief operations.
“According to reliable sources, instead of rehabilitation of earthquake victims in the area Pakistani forces (have) initiated an army operation,” said Engineer Hameed Baloch, a member of the Central Committee of the National Party. “Political parties, students and laboor and civil society organisations should raise their voices in favor of the Baloch people,” he urged. Hameed Baloch told The Examiner on phone from Karachi that the soldiers were humiliating the people in public and bringing down the flags of different political organisations and instead hoisting Pakistani flags. He said already the federal government was blocking all international aid for the earthquake victims.
On the other hand, Pakistan military said “miscreants,” a term used by the military to describe the insurgents, fired on the troops two days in a row.
An earthquake September 24 left 400 dead and more than 1,000 injured in the Awaran and Kech districts of Balochistan, affecting nearly 40,000 families. More than 170 school buildings were also badly damaged. Baloch militant leader Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch, who is a native of Mashkay, in an interview with BBC Wednesday alleged that Islamabad was not allowing UN and international agencies to go into the earthquake-hit areas as it would bare what he called their “secret, dirty war” in Balochistan. Balochistan Chief Minister Dr. Malik Baloch had made impassioned appeals for international aid but the federal government rejected his requests and refused to give no objection certificates to the UN and international agencies.
“The provincial government should not become an accessory to the excesses of the federal government,” said Engineer Baloch, who has been a comrade of Dr Baloch since 1979. Engineer Baloch said the world needs to know the truth.
Earlier, former Balochistan fisheries minister Kachkol Ali advocate, who is now in self-exile in Norway, said soldiers have abducted more than 25 people in Mashkay on the day of Eidual Adha, observed by Muslims all over the world to commemorate Abraham’s sacrifice. Balochistan government sources could not be reached for a confirmation immediately.