Pak charges 2 Baloch leaders for year-old blast

Two Baloch leaders have been charged in connection with a bomb blast outside the residence of a district official in February.

The two -- Mir Suleman Daud Ahmedzai and Mohd Aslam Bhotani -- have openly criticised the Pakistan Army's air strike in Dera Bugti in August which left their leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti dead.

The two are also planning to approach the International Court of Justice against Islamabad's alleged violation of a 1947 agreement on merger of Balochistan province.

Official media reports in Islamabad said that the district coordination officer of Dera Bugti, Abdul Samad Lasi, has named the two in connection with a bomb blast outside his house in Hub town.

Lasi claimed that the blast had caused him serious financial loss.

Lasi said he could not record his statement earlier as he could not visit his residence in Hub during the last ten months due to his official engagements in Dera Bugti.

"My house was closed during this period as I had shifted all my family members to Karachi after the blast," the state-run APP news agency quoted him as saying.

Pakistani security forces on Thursday registered a case of treason against a grandson of the slain Baloch nationalist leader for speaking against the army and the government.