ISLAMABAD: The Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), just a day after Baloch leader Habib Jalib’s assassination, on Thursday revealed that its President Talal Akber Bugti and his counsel Rafiq Sanjrani, advocate, are receiving serious life threats from invisible forces.
Sanjrani was warned of serious consequences for pursuing the court matters on behalf of Talal Bugti, including one case filed in the Supreme Court to bring his martyred father Nawab Akbar Bugti’s assassins to justice.
“The threat is actually to the party president so that he withdraws the petition on Bugti murder case, surrenders his claim over the Sui gas fields declared his legal property in a case by the Lahore High Court,” the JWP officials told this correspondent here.
Approached for a comment, Talal confirmed that he was being threatened with life consequences directly and indirectly. “I have security cover provided by the Punjab government but my counsel needs protection to his life as he travels and appears in the courts.
“Instead of the federal government from whom we have no expectations, I will request Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shahbaz Sharif to extend security to the advocate in the Punjab territory and also to our party secretary general,” he said.
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), he said, will also be apprised of the situation. “I will talk to SCBA President Qazi and other senior lawyers to update them about the life threats to an advocate who is following my cases and is unflinching on his stance.”
To a query, he said he was guarded by a police mobile and a bulletproof vehicle was provided by the Punjab government in Islamabad and for movement also in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa province. “But I am much worried about Sanjrani who is supporting us despite the threats.”
The JWP chief demanded immediate resignation of Interior Minister Rehman Malik over his department’s absolute failure in providing protection to the life of Habib Jalib, the BNP General Secretary and a former Senator. “The minister must discharge his responsibility instead of confining his engagements only to make money.”
“I am clear to state that the interior minister will be responsible if something happens to my counsel,” he said. The JWP president asked the politicians to join hands to save their as well as other people’s lives. ‘Otherwise, the unseen forces that killed Benazir Bhutto, Nawab Akbar Bugti and hundreds of other politicians, will target them one by one and we should not wait for our turn.”
Asked about the unseen forces, he claimed that these were the people and the departments who were playing in the hands of Indian RAW and American CIA. “These forces broke Pakistan in 1971, murdered many prominent people and now they are active in the case of Balochistan.”
President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani, he said, are the same persons who failed to track down through official machinery the murderers of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto despite the passage of two years of their being in power.
“With Benazir’s assassins still at large, Zardari and Gilani are playing politics with the people of the country while ordering interior minister and Balochistan government to arrest Habib Jalib’s murderers in spite of the fact that they are incapable of doing this.”
The JWP boss said the so-called top commandants in the government, particularly sitting interior minister, must quit the office or maintain law and order. “They are in the government to provide all out protection to the life and property of the people and not to fill their own pockets.”
