KARACHI: A private media outlet has reported that France-based Interpol would be formally approached by the federal government for the arrest of the Baloch separatist leaders who remotely control the proscribed terrorists’ groups blamed for most terrorist violence in Balochistan.
Among the leaders are Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) chief Hyrbyair Marri, who lives in self-exile in London; and Brahumdagh Bugti, who is believed to be running the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) and has applied for political asylum in India after Switzerland rejected his request.
The two groups, designated as banned outfits by Pakistan, have been fighting a low-key bloody insurgency in Balochistan since 2004. The insurgency became bloodier after the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the grandfather of Brahumdagh, in a military operation in 2006.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Permanent Ambassador to the UN Farrukh Amil had registered a written protest with the Swiss authorities after “Free Balochistan” posters cropped up in the area around Rue de Ferney of Grand Saconnex in Geneva.
In his letter, the Pakistani diplomat demanded that the Swiss authorities take action against the anti-Pakistan posters.
Ambassador-designate of Switzerland, Thomas Kelly, was also summoned to the Foreign Office (FO) by Additional Secretary (Europe) Zaheer A. Janjua to lodge a protest against the display of “anti-Pakistan posters and an insidious paid campaign against Pakistan”, an FO handout read.
On Sept 21, the Senate agreed to suspend till further notice the workings of a Pak-Switzerland Friendship Group in reaction to the appearance of “Free Balochistan” posters in Geneva.
Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani claimed that the posters were an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty and demanded to know from Law Minister Zahid Hamid why the posters continue to be displayed in Switzerland even though Pakistan had summoned the Swiss ambassador and recorded its protest.
“According to the United Nations’ Charter, no country can allow its soil to be used against another state,” Rabbani had stated.
Senators had insisted on expelling the Swiss ambassador from the country, echoing Rabbani’s demand from a day earlier.
