Share this story!            

Zardari’s offer worth considering: BLA

* BLA spokesman says dialogue possible after PPP comes into power

By Malik Siraj Akbar

QUETTA: The banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) said here on Monday that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co- chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s offer for dialogue to restore peace in Balochistan was premature but worth consideration.

BLA spokesman Bibarg Baloch told Daily Times that Zardari’s offer for dialogue was premature as the PPP had not assumed power yet.

Consider: “Once the PPP and its allies form their government in Islamabad and show with their actions and not with words that their policies are pro-Baloch, then we will consider negotiating with Islamabad,” he said. “All of us, who have moved to the hills, are not aliens. We have been betrayed many times in the past by successive governments,” he said.

Recollecting the apology tendered by President Pervez Musharraf to the people of Balochistan in the past, the BLA spokesman regretted that President Musharraf did not keep his promise, and carried out a ‘deadly operation’ in the province.

“This offer of dialogue has come from someone who is still not in power. The actual power in the country still rests with President Pervez Musharraf. How can the PPP co-chairman guarantee that Baloch people will not be betrayed again? Is he capable of conceding our demand for an independent Balochistan? We are waiting for his party to come into power and demonstrate its capability to settle disputes through negotiation,” he said. Baloch said the PPP offer for talks was filled with paradoxes.

“On one hand, the PPP wants negotiations but security forces, on the other hand, have unleashed a new operation in the Chamalong and Kahan areas ‘murdering’ several innocent people,” he claimed.

Home | Main

Share this story!