Talks to end Balochistan violence

By Zaffar Abbas
BBC News, Islamabad

There have been rocket attacks and clashes for days

The Pakistani government has started a fresh round of talks with senior Balochi politicians to end a two-week long stand-off with armed tribesmen.

But so far the talks between the government and Balochi nationalists have failed to break the deadlock.

The Karachi meeting is being seen as a serious attempt to end the province's simmering insurgency.

Armed clashes earlier this month around the area of Sui disrupted the supply of natural gas to much of the country.

The talks are between the Balochi nationalist leader, Ataullah Mengal and the President of the governing Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

Mr Mengal is not only a former provincial chief minister, but also leader of a conglomerate of several regional groups that had been campaigning for greater rights for the three smaller provinces.

He and another veteran Balochi nationalist leader, Sardar Khair Bakhsh Marri, are often described as the mentors of younger Balochi activists allegedly involved in armed attacks on official buildings and the security forces.

But the recent trouble around the Sui gas transmission plant is being blamed on supporters of another Balochi tribal leader, Akbar Bugti.

'Greater rights'

Hundreds of his armed supporters fought a pitched battle with the security guards of the gas plant earlier this month, resulting in major disruption in gas supplies to Punjab and Sindh provinces.

Factories in both areas ground to a halt.

After Tuesday's meeting, the PML president Shujaat Hussain said he was confident of resolving the crisis.

But he declined to give details of the meeting, only saying that Mr Mengal did not put forward any specific demands.

The Balochi leader on the other hand said he told the official delegation that he was not concerned with the Sui crisis, but wants Islamabad to take serious notice of real demands of the Balochi people for greater rights.

He said Mr Hussain was told to contact Mr Bugti if he was only interested in defusing the situation in Sui.

Mr Hussain says he plans to meet Mr Bugti as well.

A December bomb attack in Quetta killed at least 11 people

In the meantime, unidentified Balochi armed men have continued to disrupt normal life in the province - the latest being a blast on a railway track near the town of Sibbi, and a low intensity explosion in a government building in Quetta on Monday.

The track linking Quetta with the rest of the country has been repaired, and service has been restored.

The authorities have also rescheduled train timings to ensure that they only run during daytime.

A senior railway official in Quetta, however, said that recent delays were due to extreme cold weather, and had nothing to do with the blast on the track.

But senior officials in Islamabad say the situation in Balochistan is uncertain, and paramilitary troops are being used to guard all sensitive installations.