KARACHI (AFP) - A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Friday acquitted an opposition nationalist leader after the government withdrew a case against him in which he was accused of beating intelligence officials.

Akhtar Mengal, a former chief minister of southwestern Baluchistan province, was charged with kidnapping two army personnel, taking them hostage, and torturing them with intention to kill at his home in the Darakshan neighbourhood of Karachi in April 2006.

Anti-terrorism court judge Ahmed Nawaz Sheikh ordered his release after the state prosecutor withdrew the case.

"I withdrew the case against Mr Mengal after I was ordered by the home department of the southern Sindh province to do so," Mazhar Qayyum, state prosecutor, told reporters at the court.

Defence consul Wazir Khoso said: "The government has taken a right step because my client was implicated in a false case."

Mengal welcomed the court order but said he was more concerned about the "thousands of missing" Baluch political workers.

"I am more concerned about thousands of innocent people who have disappeared," he told AFP.

Mengal said that the new coalition government, which comprised President Pervez Musharraf's opponents, released him.

"We did not bow before Musharraf but in fact he has bowed before us.

"Our struggle will continue till the military operation in Baluchistan is stopped and our demands for autonomy are met," he said.

Impoverished Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has been wracked by an insurgency waged by ethnic Baluch tribes seeking more political rights and a greater share of profits from the region's natural resources.

Hundreds of people have died in violence in the province since the insurgency flared in late 2004.

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