KHUZDAR: Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal has said that people of Balochistan are not against development, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but have reservations over the government`s lack of interest in the uplift of the province and exploitation of its resources.

Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, he said: `We don`t oppose development but then we don`t want dead bodies.

`Who would like to receive bodies of their loved ones just for the sake of development?` Sardar Mengal asked, adding that successive governments had not given attention to the development of Balochistan. Governments changed but the condition of the people remained the same.

He said his party had presented itsstance on the CPEC which had received support of all opposition and government parties. `The federal government should look into the concerns of the people of Balochistan and restore their confidence.

`We took up the issue in the APC convened by the BNP-M and also adopted a resolution in the Balochistan Assembly, expressing our concern at the CPEC and other development projects.

He said the recent Quetta hospital bomb explosion was a big tragedy wherein lawyers, journalists and political and social workers were killed. `It is a systematic cleansing of educated people in Balochistan where, earlier, journalists, political activists, doctors and educationists were targeted. There had never been a decline in targeted killings,` he said, alleging that the attack was the outcome of what Pakistani rulers did in Afghanistan. `They sent extremists and Jihadis to Afghanistan in thename of Islam,` he said.

Mr Mengal said there had never been a powerful chief minister in Balochistan since the 1970s, after `One Unit`. `Musharraf started a deadly military operation, and we received mutilated bodies. During the nationalist government in recent years, we found unmarked graves.

Mr Mengal said his party would never support a government which oppressed the Baloch people and ruthlessly exploited their resources.

`Some call us traitors but my party does not care because we want to protect our people and resources.

He said there was no change in the policies of the present government as it was implementing those adopted by retired Gen Pervez Musharraf during his rule.

Sardar Mengal said his party would hold a political gathering in Khuzdar on Aug 31 to discuss the CPEC and the government`s policies towards the Baloch people.