In response to the recent bloodshed across the country and Balochistan, President Asif Ali Zardari told Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Tuesday to take strong action and make sure that terrorism is “completely eliminated.”
Dozens of militants with ties to the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group, attacked across Balochistan at midnight on Sunday, targeting both security officials and civilians, especially those from Punjab. This is the latest round of violence.
At least 50 people, including 14 security guards, were killed when militants went on the rampage across the province. They attacked police posts, blew up railway tracks and set fire to more than 30 vehicles.
Today, President Zardari met with the interior minister and the chief minister to talk about the province’s security and law and order situation. He was also told about the recent terrorist attacks.
A statement from the President’s House said that ideas for restoring law and order in Balochistan were talked about, and Zardari emphasised the need for practical steps to “completely eliminate terrorists.”
The president told the two leaders, “Everything that can be done should be done to make Balochistan safer.”
Militants killed 23 people in Musakhail after checking their IDs. There, they blocked a highway, broke into a police station, and held Levies officers hostage.
Attacks on a Levies station, two hotels, and the home of a tribe elder in Kalat killed 11 and hurt 9. In the meantime, six bodies were found in the Kolpur area of Bolan. It is thought that rebels shot and killed the people. In reaction, 21 militants were killed by security forces. CM Bugti and the interior minister promised to get rid of terrorism in the province.
Naqvi Supports CM Bugti for Balochistan
In the meantime, Naqvi had promised to support Bugti’s government in its fight against terrorists.
In Quetta, Naqvi spoke to the reporters with CM Bugti by his side. He said, “My goal in visiting is to let you all and the people of Balochistan know that the federal interior minister is behind the chief minister of Balochistan.”
The interior minister said, “We will support him no matter what choice he makes.”
The PM urges firm decision-making, saying “no room for weakness.”
On the other hand, Prime Minister Shehbaz said on Tuesday that there was “no room for any weakness” and that the fight against terrorism needed to “move forward with a firm decision.”
At a meeting of the federal government in Islamabad, the prime minister stressed how important it was to find the country’s enemies and called for “full unity” among the people.
“We need to make a firm choice and move forward.” “Weakness of any kind has no place,” the prime minister said.
“There is no level of condemnation that is enough for what happened yesterday in Balochistan,” the prime minister told the federal cabinet.
Senators ask what role intelligence services should play
In the Senate on Tuesday, people from the treasury and opposition sides got very angry about what happened the day before.
Senator Kamran Murtaza of the JUI accused the government of “not even performing the role of a SHO.” He said that the government’s writ was nowhere to be seen in Balochistan for four to five hours on Sunday and Monday night.
In the midst of these events, he wondered how investments would come in and what the intelligence community was doing. He said that the provinces paid intelligence services and said that they were acting too slowly.
“This is very unfair, and it shouldn’t happen again.” Is the regional government less important than a SHO? Are the Interior Ministry and its organisations, to whom we pay a lot of money every month, even less important than a SHO? Couldn’t they have taken care of things?” He asked if they didn’t know the date and what happened on that day, as well as if the current events were an “intelligence failure.”
Murtaza asked that the people of the province’s problems be fixed and warned that if they weren’t, more events like this could happen, this time with even more force.
Shibli Faraz, the leader of the opposition in the Senate, said that the problems in Balochistan had been going on since he was a child and that the province wasn’t getting its fair share of the resources it had earned
Power should only be used as a last option, especially when it comes to your own people, and political problems should be solved that way. No matter what problems they have, they should be involved.
Faraz said that people all over the country were curious about how the “well-coordinated attack” happened in several places in the province. He asked the Senate to have a discussion about how to improve law and order in the country because it was linked to problems with the economy.
Ishaq Dar, who is also the foreign minister and deputy prime minister, said that talks could and should happen with people who accepted Pakistan as a country, but that “this House will unanimously condemn those who kill innocents under the guise of grievances.”
