Shah urges terror in
By John Spencer
1973John SpencerMiddle EastCeylon and South Asia Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.
THE PAKISTAN government has launched a punitive expedition to the mountainous Baluchistan province which borders on Iran.
Opposition spokesmen in London say that the regime intends to exterminate the Baluchi people along a broad swathe of territory on the coast of the Indian Ocean.
The action by President Zultikar Ali Bhutto's regime has run into opposition even from rightwing newspapers, which warn that the area could become a second Bangla Desh.
The action is being carried out, they believe, at the request of the Shah of Iran, who has turned Iranian Baluchistan into a vast military encampment to protect the strategic oil routes.
The Baluchis, fiercely independent and long a thorn in the side of Pakistan's successive military dictators, in the Shah's eyes pose a permanent threat to his hegemony in the coastal area.
The Shah has appointed himself gendarme of the Gulf area and has stated that he will not tolerate any radical regimes in the area. He is spending over £2;000m on arms. Ataullah spoke punitive
Mengal, an
out against expeditions.
The areas of Marri and Mengal inhabited by Baluchi tribes have been surrounded by more than 50,000 armed troops and police. All roads into these areas are closed and the population has taken to the hills.
Latest reports say 300 people have been arrested by the government foices, among them 80 children aged from five to ten, captured with their herds and held as 'terrorists' Other captives are old women who were too ill to escape and go into hiding with the rest of the tribes.
The mountainous :oastal Makran has alsc been no food.
MP who Pakistan's area surSaturday 16, PAGER