Mengal, who addressed the media at the Karachi Press Club, backed his claim by showing pictures of Baluch civilians who he said had been hit by chemical weapons.

Further backing his claim of use of chemical weapons Mengal pointed to the pictures and said that " you will note the blood coming out of people's mouth without any injury to their bodies...what does this show...it shows that poisonous gases have been used in the military operation ".

Demanding the presence of international mediators to ensure a fair resolution of the dispute between the tribal-dominated province and Islamabad, Mengal, who is presently the President of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), said that the Balochis are not ready to negotiate with either President General Pervez Musharraf or his hand-picked government.

"Chemical weapons are being used (to resolve the crisis), and a large number of women and children have died as a result," Mengal claimed in an interaction with the media here.

"The parliamentary committee on Balochistan has failed to assert itself and the Baloch leadership has decided that we would not engage in any sort of dialogue with the military leadership or its representative committees. We can only talk in the presence of an international mediator," Mengal said, while appealing to all countries, "which claim to be an exponent of humanity and peace, to intervene immediately."

Mengal's lament was completely endorsed and supported by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which categorically rejected repeated claims by authorities in Islamabad that regular armed forces were not being used to crackdown on people in Balochistan in the wake of a string of rocket attacks by tribal militants last month.

The HRCP claimed that it had concrete evidence that action by the armed forces had led to the deaths and injuries among civilians" and that "populations had also been subjected to indiscriminate bombing".

"I challenge, I challenge the (Pakistan) government on their statement that there was no bombardment, number one. There was; and local people have confirmed that, or have alleged that. There were credible reports of that.Number two, they say nobody has died because of the conflict there. This is amazing, because if you go there and you find out people have given names and sadly, most of them were children and women," HRCP chairperson Asma Jahangir told reporters at a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday.

According to a HRCP report, up to 85 percent of the 22,000 to 26,000-strong population in Balochistan's Dera Bugti town has fled from their homes after they were repeatedly hit by paramilitary shelling.

The report described the situation in Balochistan as "a war-like situation, militarisation and politico-economic conflict in Balochistan," and by denying this government was only confusing the issue and "making it more intractable."

Demanding an immediate cease-fire in the province, the HRCP said Pakistan's Parliament must meet in a special session to ensure that negotiations and dialogue is sustained.

Jehangir pleaded with the military-backed government to halt army action in Balochistan, warning that if this was not done, the negative repurcussions on the future of this smallest of Pakistan's four provinces would be enormous and of long-term duration, which could have a delibitating impact across the country.

Rebutting the government's claim as regards end of military action in Balochistan, Jehangir said the military operation" was still on in various parts of the province.

"Four brigades regular army, 35,000 Frontier Corps, 12,000 Coast Guards, 8,700 policemen and 2,000 marine forces are engaged in the operation. About 12 gunship helicopters and nine jets are also operating," she claimed.

Also, the former Baluch Chief Minister Akhter mengal rejected the government's claim that Baloch insurgents had links to Indian intelligence agencies saying they were not Balochis who had the external support, but it was the Pakistan army, which with the help of external forces, had been crushing the resistance for Baloch national cause.

An emotional Mengal came down hard on the army, saying it was responsible for the tragedy of East Pakistan. " If army's role in national politics is not eliminated, it may lead to another tragedy like East Pakistan. And if it happens, army will solely be responsible for that", he contended.

The Pakistani military launched a major crackdown against militants in Balochistan after a rocket attack on December 14 during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf to the town of Kohlu.

Baloch nationalists say almost 200 people have been killed. The government has not commented on casualties but analysts say the militants' figure could be exaggerated.

Balochistan is home to Pakistan's main gas fields and local militants are battling for more autonomy and control of these resources and greater autonomy.

The crackdown has coincided with the announcement of plans to privatise two gas distribution firms operating in Balochistan. (ANI)

Comparing the Pakistani President and Army Chief with former Iraqi supremo Saddam Hussein, the fiery Baloch leader rhetorically asked, " Who is Pervez Musharraf? He is not a constitutionally elected President. He took over the reins in a military coup and has no business to speak about the Balochis who are suffering at the hands of the Pakistan armed forces and the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI)." This is a serious allegation by any yardstick and will be noted with grave concern both within Pakistan and by Pakistan watchers the world over. It is important to note that this allegation is being made by a senior Baloch and Pakistani politician and will no doubt be investigated further by the feisty Pakistani print-media which has put the Musharraf regime in the dock for its recent handling of the unrest in Baluchistan.

The poison gas charge is indicative of the nature of the internal discord and turbulence that has been brewing in the region for over a year. It may be recalled that in January 2005, a Pakistani lady doctor Shazia Khalid was raped in the premises of the Sui gas refinery by a Pakistani army officer and, instead of punishing the accused, the Pakistani establishment chose to hush up the case and threaten the victim--so much so that she had to flee the country.

The local Baloch people protested and this was put down with a heavy hand by the Pak 'fauj' leading to a pattern of escalating violence in which hundreds of Balochis have been killed and injured.

The Pakistani military presence has increased in the region and this has further exacerbated an already explosive situation leading to the current charge of the use of poison gas by the Pak military against their own citizens.

Comparisons are being made--within Pakistan--with the sequence of events that led to the birth of Bangladesh in 1971 and, while this may be exaggerated, there is little doubt that the internal situation in Pakistan is deteriorating in an undesirable manner--and this is of relevance to Delhi and the on-going Indo-Pak composite dialogue process that saw the two Foreign Secretaries meeting in Delhi on January 18.

The last week witnessed further unrest in Pakistan when, on January 13, in an air-strike purported to have been carried out by pilot-less CIA planes, missiles were fired at a house in the village of Damadola in the Bajaur Agency along the Pak-Afghan border. The target ostensibly was the Al Quaida number two Aiman Al Zawahiri but he appears not to have been present at the site (thereby suggesting faulty intelligence) and the net result was the killing of between 18 to 29 innocent local people--many belonging to one family.

This incident caused widespread anger in Pakistan and a nationwide protest on January 15 saw thousands taking to the streets in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and other parts of the country with the crowds chanting anti-Musharraf and anti US slogans.

This anti-American sentiment within the country compelled Gen Musharraf to assert to visiting US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns on January 21 that Islamabad would not allow such incidents to be repeated and that a recurrence could adversely affect the cooperation with the US in the war against the al Quaida.

Paradoxically, many in Pakistan believe that the relative success of the peace process with India has allowed the Pakistani military to re-assign its troops from the Indian border to deal with growing unrest within the country and that the image of stability that the Pakistani President is trying to project is misleading.

This is aptly reflected in an editorial comment in the Daily Times of January 16 that notes: "We have come to a point where 'security' is apparently held to be incompatible with 'politics.' The government is bogged down in Waziristan, Dera Bugti and Kohlu, and there is a growing threat from the grand opposition of the country of uniting and marching against Islamabad. If the PM and the President thought they could rely on Punjab, they should take another look at the growing opposition to the image the government is projecting of itself." The situation within Pakistan is further compounded by events in troubled Afghanistan next door and the resurgence of the Taliban has become very bloody in recent days. On January 15, a senior Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry was killed near Kandahar in a car bomb blast with the Taliban claiming responsibility. Later on January 16 a suicide bomber killed 21 people watching a wrestling match and this has been described as the deadliest attack since the US-led forces removed the Taliban from power in late 2001.

Consequently, there have been widespread protests in Afghanistan with more than 5,000 people in the Spinboldak region alone giving vent to their anger against Pakistan for sponsoring such violence.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has in the past accused Pakistan's ISI of nurturing the Taliban and not allowing the fledgling Afghan Parliament to settle down to the more serious task of reconstruction of a war-ravaged country and clearly the Pak-Afghan relationship is under strain.

To further stoke the kind of radical fervour that incites such terrorist violence, the Al Quaida supremo Osama bin Laden (OBL) released an audio tape through Al Jazeera (Jan 19). It dwelt on the US-led military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with an offer of truce and a warning to Washington that more attacks would follow if the truce was rejected (which the Bush administration promptly did) and a rallying call to his supporters in the Muslim world. The impact of this message will probably be known in the near future but it may be inferred that such communication will seek to convince the 'true OBL believer' to intensify the distorted 'jihad' that is being waged in the regions where this virus has spread in a virulent manner.

The theory of the psychology of terrorism accords considerable import to such motivational group dynamics and this manifests itself in a non-linear fashion as the world has tragically witnessed in the last two years from Madrid and London to Delhi.

The complex linkages of the above events would suggest that while Pakistan and Afghanistan will continue to be caught in the grip of increasing sectarian and religious radicalism, the anti-American sentiment in the Pakistani street will be the dominant strand in the popular perception. Gen Musharraf is perceived to be capitulating to the hated western Satan and the Damadola incident will generate deep reverberations among the religious right-wing constituency. In an unintended way, India is no longer the enemy Number One in the Pakistani psyche and the inauguration of the Amritsar-Lahore bus service (Jan 20) and the Munnabao-Khokrapar train link (Jan 30) are representative of the bonhomie at the people-to-people level in the two countries.

Gen Musharraf is in an unenviable position but he remains India's principal interlocutor at a time when the composite dialogue has made some encouraging progress. The much hoped for transition to true and credible civilian rule and democracy in Pakistan by 2007 is a gauntlet that the Pakistani people will have to pick up. In the interim, the Pakistani military remains the power behind the throne and long term stability both within Pakistan and its neighbourhood will be predicated on the perspicacity that the GHQ in Rawalpindi brings to the table-in dealing with Baluchistan, Waziristan and with Afghanistan and India.