Qadir Baloch calls for detailed probe to catch Bughti's killers

Islamabad, Feb. 8 (ANI): Former Balochistan Governor and ex-corps commander Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch has called for a detailed probe into the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The News quoted Baloch as saying that it should also be investigated why it became imperative to target a veteran politician. He added that the role of former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf should also be looked into.

"Whosoever is found guilty must not be spared and given punishment for damaging Pakistan to such level that there is widespread talk of independence in Balochistan," he said.

He pointed out that Bugti had demanded provincial autonomy and in return he was killed, and now the demand of the provincial autonomy has turned into winning freedom through an armed struggle.

"A commission should probe these events and also there is a dire need to identify exactly what the people of Balochistan want," he said, adding without addressing the fundamental issues, the ongoing alarming situation could not be reversed.

Baloch, who had resigned over differences with the then president Musharraf in 2003, doubts that last year's package for his province would change the status quo.

"The news and analysis of the package have been making rounds, but this is a joke. It has no answer to the sense of deprivation and neglect that the people of Balochistan are suffering for the last 62 years," he said.

The resolution of the Balochistan problem, he pointed out, did not lie in giving more money or a package to the province, but it lied in a constitutional package, envisaging provincial autonomy so that the local people can have control over their own natural resources.