Pakistan's reform package "peanuts": Baluch rebels

By Gul Yousafzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Separatist rebels in Pakistan's gas-rich Baluchistan province dismissed on Wednesday proposed reforms for ending their decades-old insurgency as insignificant and a trick.

The government's proposals, unveiled in parliament on Tuesday, are aimed at ending grievances in the southwestern province as security forces grapple with a growing Taliban insurgency on the Afghan border in the northwest.

The proposals include the cessation of military operations against the rebels, the release of detained activists -- except those involved in "terrorism" -- and payment to the province of $1.4 billion over 12 years in gas royalties.

"Our struggle isn't for such peanuts," Sher Mohammad Bugti, a spokesman for the rebel Baluch Republican Party, said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"We want freedom. We want an independent Baluchistan where our people have control," he said.

Baluch nationalists have campaigned for decades for greater autonomy and control of the province's abundant natural gas and mineral resources, which they say are unfairly exploited to the benefit of other provinces.

The sparsely populated province of mountains and deserts has Pakistan's largest gas discovery at Sui, with reserves of more than 10 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to 1 billion barrels of oil.

The rebels' campaign would go on despite the government's proposals, Bugti said.