QUETTA: Mir Shafiq Mengal, head of the Jhalawan Awami Panel, has launched a scathing critique against the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), India’s RAW, and political rival Akhtar Mengal, blaming them for the province’s instability.
In an interview with journalist Hassan Ayub Khan, the tribal leader labeled the BLA a “group of Fitna-ul-Hidostan” (mischief of Hindustan/India), alleging its members “used to bathe the dogs of the British.” He directly accused the group of killing his brother and claimed it and other insurgent outfits are funded and directed by RAW.
While expressing support for the current Islamabad government’s direction, Mengal criticized its advisors for being out of touch with ground realities. He reserved his fiercest condemnation for Akhtar Mengal, former Chief Minister and head of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M), whom he called a “hypocrite” and the “beneficiary of this chaos.”
“He runs terrorist organizations and then blackmails the state,” Shafiqur-ur-Rehman alleged, claiming Akhtar Mengal received billions in state funds during the PTI era. He further accused him of being the “head of the Indian death squad,” who radicalizes youth and then plays the “victimization card.”
Praising the current provincial administration’s steps in education and health, he contrasted it with what he termed the damaging “racial discrimination” and anti-Punjabi rhetoric he claims was spread by a “sub-nationalist Chief Minister” in 1973. He concluded that the core problem is leniency towards those who abuse and attack Pakistan.
