As part of reconciliatory efforts to end violence in the insurgency hit Balochistan the Government of Pakistan has released the nationalist and senior rebel leader, Sardar Akhtar Mengal on Friday.
Mengal is the chief of his own faction of the Balochistan National Party (BNP). He was arrested in November 2006 for allegedly abducting and manhandling two undercover military officials. He also faced charges of sedition.
"I will be really pleased when all the political prisoners of Pakistan, especially from Balochistan, will be released and those who are missing will be brought back," said Mengal as he walked out of a hospital in the port city of Karachi where he was undergoing medical treatment.
Hundreds of cheering BNP activists greeted their leader on his release. "We should start the process of reconciliation so we may bring peace and prosperity to this federal unit, especially, and in large to the country," Balochistan chief minister Aslam Raisani said during an assembly session last month.