Balochistan: 53 cases sent for military courts

QUETTA: The Balochistan home department has sent 53 terrorism-related cases to the federal government for trial in the military courts. “All of these cases are related to sectarian or Taliban violence,” a home department official said, pointing to the fact that separatist insurgents would not stand trial in the special courts. “The federal government will pick out the cases that will be tried in the military courts,” he added. Provincial government spokesman Jan Muhammad Buledi said all the cases sent for the military courts were of religious extremism. “The government has sent cases regarding religious extremism only,” said Buledi, who is also a senior leader of the ruling National Party. He said the security forces have launched a series of search operations in different areas of Balochistan against extremists and militants according to the targets set in the National Action Plan.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2015.