Chief of the Jamhoori Watan Party and tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti has said that military cantonments cannot bring development to any area and the people of Balochistan will not allow the establishment of military cantonments in the province at any cost.

Nawab Bugti accused the rulers of trying to usurp oil and gas, the national resources of Balochistan. “We have been treated as if we were immature for a long time,” he said. “The rulers say that they know what is best for us, but we say it is better to mismanage things ourselves than to allow somebody else mismanage us and they mismanage everything.”

Another nationalist leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal said that military rulers had always mistreated the “Baloch nation” in Pakistan. He said that former military ruler Ayub Khan and then ZA Bhutto had initiated military operations in Balochistan and now the present rulers were doing the same.

Meanwhile, central general secretary of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Agha Shahid Bugti, claimed that two days ago Frontier Corps personnel had defaced the portrait of Nawab Akbar Bugti in Sui. He said that this had instigated the people against the FC. He said that people had snatched a vehicle from the Frontier Corps. Shahid Bugti said that the matter was resolved but later in the morning some people attacked the convoy and four personnel were killed. 18.8.04