Islamabad 16 August 2004
The situation in Balochistan might lead to disintegration of the country, declared former chief minister of Balochistan and Chairman of Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) Sardar Attaullah Khan Mengal here on Monday.
He said the military-led government and not the nationalists would be responsible for any damage to the integrity of the country. Mengal was addressing a seminar organised by the PONM on constitutional, political, economic and cultural exploitation of oppressed nations in the perspective of facts and figures and its solution in the light of international principles.
He asked the powers that be to hang him for his resistance against what he claimed another military operation in his province. “I will love to die for my own people, my own land and my province,” he said.
Mengal refused to “condemn” those who were attacking military men in Balochistan and appealed to all the Sindhi, Baloch, Seraiki and Pakhtoon nationalists to “retaliate against the army with stones if they were not in a position to take up guns”.
Mengal said he had developed bitter feelings against the Punjabis because they, according to him, were helping the military to crush the oppressed nations. He said he was being asked to declare the Baloch warriors busy attacking troops in Balochistan as “terrorists”.
He said only Mullahs had “terrorists” in their ranks and the people fighting in Balochistan were only using their right to defense and could not be termed terrorists. He alleged: “You people are sending military to kill the Baloch and you expect from me to appreciate it. How is it possible?” he asked.
“I am an honourable man and will never condemn the retaliation by the Baloch people,” he said. Mengal said if he could not fight against the armed forces with his own hands because of his old age, it did not mean that he would condemn those who were showing defiance and offering their lives for the Baloch rights.
“If anyone has any objection against my thinking of resistance against the army and invaders, he is welcome to arrest me and hang me. I don´t want to die of heart attack or cancer,” Mengal said.
He assailed those who accused nationalists of violating the Constitution. He said such forces had damaged the Constitution to such an extent that now it was beyond correction and the country needed a new Constitution based on principle of equality.
He said the nationalists were only demanding democracy and their right to govern themselves. He said Pakhtoons were their brothers and could join them (Baloch nationalists). But, he said, what would the Punjabis do who had nothing to sell to the outside world and had only “Data Darbar”.
He said Balochistan was being developed now because it suited the Punjabis and the military, as they want to make it a colony of the army and federation. About Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain´s offer to hold a dialogue with nationalist forces in Balochistan, he said the PM was a helpless man. He said he would ask the general to hand over power to the people otherwise he would be responsible for the break up of the country.
Pakhtoonkhwa Mili Awami Party´s leader and PONM deputy chair Mahmood Khan Achakzai said time had come to decide that who would rule the country, either 140 million people or only one million army. He said the nationalists were the most peaceful people as they were struggling for their right to govern themselves.
He said the nationalists did not want to break the country as this was their own motherland and they were the sons of the soils. He said the nationalist forces had come to the conclusion that they would not accept the rule of only one powerful ethnic group that was supporting the military establishment to keep others subjugated.
He said even Quaid-iAzam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was used by the bureaucracy to do an illegal act when he dismissed the NWFP constitutional assembly. He also accused the agencies of pushing the country to the brink of disaster.
SNP president and PONM´s secretary information and coordination Mr. Abdul Majeed Kanjoo said time had come to court martial all those who had been violating the constitution. He said the Seraiki people had been facing the worst kind of injustice and exploitation but now they would not tolerate such treatment.
He said the Punjabis had never showed any resistance to the invaders in the history. He alleged the generals got the lands allotted in the Seraiki region and now they were eying the wealth of Balochistan. He claimed both the Constitution and the army had become controversial. At the end of the seminar, a resolution condemning the “military operation” in Balochistan was passed.
Nationalist leaders Dr Qadir Magsi, Jalal Mehmood Shah, Ubaidullah Bhutto, Amir Bhutto, Hameed Asghar Shaheen, Abdul Rahim Khan Mandokhel, Mir Afzal Khan and others addressed the gathering of nationalists.
