Pakistani security forces arrested a senior opposition nationalist leader in southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday for carrying weapons, officials said, Xinhua reported.
Shah Zain Bugti, leader of Jamhoori Watan party or JWP, was arrested while heading to Quetta, the provincial capital, a spokesman for Frontier Corps said.
The spokesman said that 36 other people, traveling in the motorcade of Bugti were also arrested.
Bugti denied carrying weapons, saying that he and his men had only licensed arms and that the authorities had brought the arms to implicate him in false cases.
The FC sources said that Bugti was leading a convoy of 11 illegal vehicles in which 40 persons were riding.
"There were 43 Klashnikovs and 50,000 rounds in the vehicles. Two anti aircraft guns of 14.5 mm calibers, 2 grenades launchers, three small machine guns, and 15 boxes of ammunition of 14.5 mm anti-aircraft guns," the sources said.
The sources said that Bugti was coming from the border town of Chaman and was stopped at 5 a.m., adding that he was stopped for three to four hours.
Shah Zain Bugti, is the grandson of the slain Baloch tribal elder, Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed when the security forces raided a cave in 2006.
Bugti was campaigning for a long march to his hometown of Dera Bugti. Local people had left their homes as the result of military operation during the government of former President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistani opposition leader arrested for carrying arms
Pakistani security forces arrested a senior opposition nationalist leader in southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday for carrying weapons, officials said.
