ISLAMABAD, 10 April 2008 — New Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Mohammed Aslam Raisani said yesterday his government would hold talks with armed rebel tribesmen to bring peace to the insurgency-hit region.
Raisani told the provincial legislature in Quetta that “brute force” cannot resolve Balochistan’s problems.
“If somebody thinks that they can resolve the issues, the burning issues, by brute force, they are wrong,” Raisani said after he was elected unopposed as the new chief minister, the province’s top elected government official.
Raisani said Balochistan faces a “very grave situation” because of lawlessness, with attacks against the government and target killing common.
In what he called a gesture toward reconciliation, he was offering talks “to my brethren who have taken up arms for their rights” — a reference to insurgents.
“I would not dub them as terrorists because everybody who carries arms is not a terrorist,” he said. Raisani’s comments, televised live by local stations, were in contrast to President Pervez Musharraf’s policy of using the military to quell tribal insurgency in the province.
Meanwhile, the new government in North West Frontier Province has set up a committee of Cabinet ministers to prepare for negotiations with militants in the violence-hit Swat Valley, the daily Dawn reported yesterday. Dawn quoted provincial Information Minister Sardar Hussain Babak as saying that jirgas — councils of tribal elders — will be used to resolve the issue of militancy peacefully.
In recent years, armed insurgents have been blamed for attacks against security forces, railroads, gas wells and gas pipelines in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan. They have been pressing the central government to increase royalties for resources, such as natural gas, extracted in the province. Security forces’ operations against ethnic-Baloch rebels in Balochistan have provoked widespread resentment against Musharraf’s rule.
Musharraf Visits China Today
President Musharraf is preparing to visit neighboring China for five days.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry has said Musharraf leaves today for a visit that will include talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao aimed at further strengthening what it called “the all-weather and time-tested friendship” between the two countries.
