Islamabad, Sep 17 (IANS) Sind nationalists in Pakistan have made common cause with rebels in Balochistan in demanding a judicial probe into the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti by the army.

At a seminar in Hyderabad city, they demanded that a postmortem be conducted on Bugti by an international team of experts and a probe held into the circumstances leading to his killing, the News International reported Sunday.

The seminar was organised by Sind National Congress (SNC). The speakers included Sind Taraqqi Pasand Party (STPP) chairman Qadir Magsi and Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) Sind president Syed Zain Shah.

Sharing their grief over the killing of Bugti, the speakers expressed solidarity with the people of Balochistan in their fight for provincial autonomy.

Like their Baloch counterparts, the political parties and groups dubbed Sind nationalists by the Pakistani media remain suspicious of Islamabad's development plans in the two provinces.

Speakers at the meeting termed it a "conspiracy" the setting up of a deep-sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan. It was meant to settle people from Punjab and turn the Balochis into minorities in their own state, they said.

The meeting called for shelving of all mega projects that uprooted the local population, the newspaper said.