Pakistan's territorial integrity at risk: JUI chief warns 5-7 Balochistan Districts could announce independence

Islamabad [Pakistan], February 19 (ANI): Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, speaking at their National Assembly, claimed that five to seven districts of Balochistan could announce liberation.

The JUI-F chief on Monday warned that five to seven districts in Balochistan were "in a position to announce independence", adding that the UN would recognise them the next day in such a case.

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Similarly, he claimed that there was no government writ in the southern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where police checkposts had been closed down, and the police officials were under siege by the "armed groups" controlling the area.

Rehman said there were areas in his constituency which had been 'vacated even by the army'. "Whose writ will be there, and who will be occupying a war-ravaged place with no presence of the police and the army?" he asked.

He referred to Bangladesh's liberation as a result of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war and warned that a similar event may happen again.

As per Dawn, Rahman was speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly after the house hurriedly passed five bills aimed at curbing human trafficking and organised beggary amid noisy opposition protests. The JUI-F chief cautioned that "Pakistan's physical boundaries might be altered sooner rather than later" unless drastic measures were taken to address pressing concerns, including the lack of state writ in the provinces of Balochistan and KP as well as the newly-merged tribal districts.

Rahman's remarks came in the wake of a fresh bout of violence between warring Shia and Sunni groups in the Kurram region of northwest Pakistan since November.

A convoy of relief goods came under attack in Kurram, ARY News reported on Monday, quoting local police. Unknown attackers opened fire at the relief goods convoy of 100 vehicles in Bagan Ochat, area of Kurram, ARY News reported.

The escalating violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan has killed about 150 people in recent months, Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)