Adil Najam
Government sources in Pakistan have just announced that Nawab Akbar Bugti, chief of the Bugti tribe, veteran politician, and senior Baluchistan leader, has been killed in a shootout between “tribal militants and government forces” in Balochistan.
This is very sad and disturbing news that cannot bode well for anyone. While details are still coming in, BBC reports:
The battle near his mountain hideout in south-west Pakistan also caused heavy casualties on both sides, reports say. More than 20 soldiers and at least 30 rebels died, officials say. The octogenarian has been at the head of a tribal campaign to win political autonomy and a greater share of revenue from Balochistan’s gas reserves. “It is confirmed, Nawab Bugti has been killed in an operation,” Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani told Reuters news agency. The battle reportedly took place near the town of Dera Bugti, not far from Mr Bugti’s hideout.
According to a newsflash posted on The News website:
Jamhori Watan Party (JWP) chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed in a historical operation carried out by security forces in Kohlu and Murree tribal areas on Saturday night, Federal Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani confirmed… Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) leader Makhdoom Amin Faheem termed Akbar Bugti’s death an incident which could worsen security situation in Pakistan.
The death, and the manner of death, of the veteran Baluch leader will indeed worsen the security situation in Baluchistan and exacerbate the feeling of marginalization amongst Baluchis. Nawab Bugti had, at various points in his life, ‘butted heads’ with just about all major leaders in Pakistan. His recent standoff with the Musharraf government was not the highpoint of his own political career but it may well be the lowest point of the Musharraf rule. However, more than the implications on immediate politics – which will become more clear and more pronounced over the next many days – this marks a tragic end to the life of an important political leader.
Born on July 12, 1927, Nawab Bugto was a ‘ tribal’ who was educated at Oxford, England, Aitchison College, Lahore and Karachi Grammar School and has served as Governor and Chief Minister of Baluchistan. Mr. Bugti’s legacy was clearly a mixed one and will be much debated and much dissected. He was, however, a major leader and this was indeed a sad and tragic way to go.
People who are against their own country are accused of committing treason. Treason is usually rewarded with death. People who admit killing another man are murderers. The punishment for murder is death (yes I am for capital punishment). Bugti is all of the above and more. He admits in his biography that he killed his first man for frivolous reasons when he was 13 -very proudly. Not counting the countless many souls he may have killed or ordered killed since then. Why are we unhappy over the departure of a man who was so heartless and brutal?
People who subject other human beings to attrocities or hinder the progress of their fellow man do not deserve any respect regardless of any label they may have (nationalist, sardar, tumandar, leader of xyz, chief minister, etc, etc) or the fact they may have shook the Quaid’s hand at some photo opp. Great men believe in change and achieve it by any means. Che Guevara was a revolutionary, Bugti was not. Anybody who takes up arms cannot be put into the same bucket. A distinction has to be made between a dacoit and one who takes up arms for protecting others interests and not his own.
From DAWN Op-Ed
[quote post=”69″]To anyone not familiar with Pakistan’s history of bungling with the affairs of the federation and unaware of the intensity of the Balochistan people’s discontent, the new development package will appear most impressive, perhaps generous too. But anyone with a longer memory than the present regime’s leaders seem to have been endowed with will find disturbing similarities between Islamabad’s strategy to win the minds and hearts of the Baloch with the Ayub regime’s development plans for East Pakistan during 1960-69 (the so-called Development Decade).
The foremost issue in Balochistan, as it was in East Bengal, is the people’s belief that they have persistently been denied their right to self-rule. Attempts were made to meet the grievances of the people of East Bengal by belatedly accepting their language as one of the official languages, by giving them a second capital and the headquarters of one of the defence forces. They were allowed their own governors, ministers, bureaucrats and police chiefs. Finally, they were allowed due share in parliament. (That the country’s dismemberment was preferred to giving the Bengali Pakistanis their due share in power is another story but that too should never be forgotten.)
The second issue in Balochistan is its people’s deeply entrenched belief that their resources â€
The question is what took the goverment so long to do so if he was such an evil? One thing they demonized him more after he died. Anyway I was not defending him. His death alienated baloch people thats all I am saying and because of sheer stupidty of gov/army people(baloch) see him as an hero.
How can someone defend a person who killed hundreds of his own, displaced thousands of his own, had torture cells and private jails, and of course martyred the jawans of Pak Army… the only sin of the govt was to put a tap on the royalties going to him directly and not to the locals
jis dhaj sai koi muktil mai gaya wo shaan salamat rahti hai
yai jaan tu ani jani hai is jaan ki tu koi baat nahii