Pakistan's Baluchistan separatists demand Scotland-style vote

Baluch separatist leaders today called on Pakistan to follow in Britain's footsteps by holding a referendum similar to Scotland's on granting independence to the insurgency-wracked province.

Scots rejected independence in a vote that left the centuries-old United Kingdom intact despite a surge in nationalist support in the final fortnight of the campaign.

Dr Bashir Azeem, secretary general of the outlawed Baluch Republican Party, told AFP: "The Baluch have been struggling against the excesses and tyranny of Punjab-dominated establishment of Pakistan for decades," referring to the country's largest and most powerful province. "If a fair referendum is conducted after creating an atmosphere for it, providing the opportunity to Baluch population for deciding their future, it is welcomed," he added.

Resource-rich Baluchistan is the largest of Pakistan's four provinces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth.

Rebels began their fifth insurgency against the state in 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting. The current insurgency gained in intensity after the 2006 killing of 79-year-old Baluch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, a revered figure for many rebels.

Azeem's son Jamil Akbar Bugti said: "I stand for a free and fair referendum in Baluchistan under the United Nations. "Let Baluch people who are struggling for their independence decide their future whether they want to stay with (the) federation of Pakistan or break away."

The desperately poor province is also riven by sectarian strife and Islamist violence in its northern Pashtun belt, with middle-class Baluch increasingly viewing independence as their only hope for a more liberal and secular state.

Pakistan accuses neighbouring India of funding and arming the rebels, a charge analysts believe is true and payback for Pakistan's interference in Kashmir.