India, Afghanistan supporting Baloch nationalists: FC

[LahoreEstate]

QUETTA: India and Afghanistan are supporting separatists in Balochistan, trying to bolster the leadership of nationalists, a top security commander said on Saturday.

‘A lot of evidence of Indian involvement through Afghanistan is there, supporting the separatist movement,’ Maj-Gen Salim Nawaz, inspector-general of the Frontier Corps in Balochistan, said in an interview.

He said the separatists were not very strong as they did not have enough foot soldiers or a proper command.

‘The foreign element, especially the element there in Afghanistan, is trying hard to create more leadership,’ he said.

Brahamdagh Bugti, the grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti who was killed in a military action in 2006, lives in Afghanistan and is regarded as one of the main separatist leaders. Maj-Gen Nawaz said proof of Indian involvement had been provided.

‘The proof has been given at various levels ... Photographs have been provided,’ he said. He did not elaborate.

The FC chief denied US accusations the Taliban leadership was based in and around Quetta, saying the United States was looking for an excuse for the difficulty it was facing with an intensifying Taliban resistance in Afghanistan.

'These allegations have been leveled in the past,’ he said. ‘They had been dying a death but lately they have started again. In my view, whatever is happening in Afghanistan, if they are not succeeding, there has to be some escape route.’

The United States had handed over no information to back up its assertion regarding the Taliban ‘Quetta shura’, he said.

‘If they have any evidence, which they have not given us a bit of until this moment, they should share it with us. Pakistani forces are quite capable of sorting them out,’ he said.

Maj-Gen Nawaz said it was impossible for Taliban leaders such as Mulla Omar to go unnoticed.

‘If he has to move, or if their leadership has to move, they have to move with some paraphernalia, they need to make some arrangements,’ he said.—Reuters

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn...s-fc-rs-09