A Martyr Is Born...

The assassination of Nawab Akbar Shehbaz Khan Bugti, thelegendary leader of the Baloch freedom struggle, in a brutal military operationby the Pakistan Army will have serious long-term repercussions on Pakistanipolitics, as a martyr is born to inspire the rebel Baloch nationalists in theirongoing struggle for greater rights and control over their natural resources.

In his death and the barbaric manner in which it was inflicted by those whowanted to establish their stronghold in Balochistan by setting up cantonmentsthere, Bugti has already become a martyred hero for Baloch nationalistseverywhere in Pakistan, rather than the anti-state tribesman General Musharrafsought to portray him as. To the warrior Bugti tribe, he was not only the tribalhead but also the latest in a long line of nationalist leaders who tried todefend the province from exploitation by the centre at the hands of the mightyPunjab-dominated military establishment.

"It is better to die — as the Americans say — with your spurs on. Insteadof a slow death in bed, I would rather prefer death come to me while I amfighting for a purpose". So said Akbar Bugti in May 2006 while talking to a Timemagazine correspondent via satellite phone from the mountain refuge thateventually became his grave.

The 80-year old nationalist who wanted to fight to the death got his wish threemonths later when the Pakistani security forces killed him in a ruthlessmilitary operation on August 26. General Musharraf, who had declared Bugti a‘terrorist’, made no bones about fulfilling the rebel leader’s desire.

Within hours of his death, described by many as anextra-judicial killing, Balochistan witnessed bloody reactions, leaving tenpeople dead and dozens injured. Over 500 people were detained in riotsthroughout the province, with many of the Baloch protesters targetingPunjabi-owned properties and businesses in Quetta, worsening already volatileethnic divisions across Pakistan.

Born on July 12, 1927, Bugti attended the elite Aitchison College in Lahore andOxford University, London before going into politics. Bugti, 80, a former ChiefMinister and Governor of Balochistan, was considered an articulate spokesman forthe Baloch cause for decades. Bugti was a member of the Shahi Jirga (Council)that had voted for the creation of Pakistan at the time of Partition in 1947. Hebecame a member of the first Constituent Assembly and served as Minister ofState for Interior and Defence in 1956. The gruesome murder of an avowedsecularist like Bugti, who was concerned about the Talibanisation of Pakistanisociety, demonstrates how a so-called enlightened moderate military dictatortreats his political opponents. Ironically, the Musharraf administration isnegotiating with far more lethal hardline Islamist groups operating in theWaziristan tribal area.

To Musharraf and his cronies, Bugti was no more than an insurgent feudal lordwho wanted to prevent development from reaching his tribesmen and who operated a‘state within a state’. Musharraf used to describe Bugti as a miscreant, aterm introduced by the British East India Company – a term which was last usedwidely in 1971 by the Pakistani military elite to describe the Bengali people oferstwhile East Pakistan. The General blamed Bugti for past insurgencies inBalochistan, and accused him of being a warlord running a well-organisedmilitia, private courts and prisons, using his income from the gas fields inDera Bugti.

The Pakistani armed forces had been carrying out an intense military operationagainst the Baloch rebels involving Special Services Group of the Army, tanks,artillery, helicopter gun ships and fighter jets. The security forces hadsucceeded in driving Bugti from his seat of power at Dera Bugti to thesurrounding hills in Kohlu in March 2006, only to start resettling the rivalfactions of the Bugti tribe in areas that were previously under his control.Over 20,000 people of Masoori, Kalpar and other sub-tribes were transported backto Dera Bugti from different parts of Sindh and Punjab after Bugti was made toleave his hometown. At the same time, Baloch rebel leaders and their kin weremade targets of a campaign of intimidation by the security forces.

On July 20, 2006, in an address to the nation, General Musharraf had said thatfor 40 years, three Baloch Sardars (Bugti, Mengal and Marri), who were opposedto development in Balochistan, had been pampered unjustifiably in the name ofpolitical settlement, ‘but no more’. "We are determined to re-establishthe writ of the state in Balochistan by fixing the so-called Baloch Sardars.Over 16,000 sub-tribes of Bugti — Rahejas, Kalpars, Masouri — had alreadyreturned to Dera Bugti after years of repression by Nawab Bugti". He addedfurther insult to Baloch sensitivities, stating, "But I would not call him aNawab any more as he is on the run."

What actually prompted Musharraf to target Bugti was the firing of eight rocketsin December 2005 that crashed into a Frontier Constabulary camp near Kohlu whilethe General was addressing a rally in the area. The rockets did not cause anycasualties, but the next day a senior official of the Frontier Constabulary wasinjured while conducting an aerial reconnaissance of Kohlu when tribesmen firedon his helicopter. Musharraf was somehow made to believe that the rocket firewas an attempt to assassinate him. On the other hand, the Baloch rebels saidthat they wanted to lodge protest over the rape of a lady doctor Shazia Khalidin the Sui area of Balochistan by a captain of the Army who was exonerated bythe military leadership. The rocket firing made Musharraf order a huge militaryoperation against the Bugti tribe, accusing it of working against Pakistan atthe behest of an ‘enemy country’, presumably India.

As the military operation was still on, a grand gathering, or Governmentsponsored jirga of Baloch tribal leaders convened in Dera Bugti on August 24,2006, to announce the end of the sardari (chieftainship) system. The jirgadeclared that the sardari system of the Bugti tribe had been abolished forthwithand thanked General Musharraf for ‘emancipating’ the people of the area fromthe atrocities and excesses of the former tribal chief. The Jinnah Stadium,where the jirga was held, was filled with thousands of people from the Kalpar,Masoori, Firozani, Shambhani, Mandrani, Raheja and Marhata sub-tribes, known inthe past for nursing feuds with the fleet-footed Akbar Bugti.

The participants of the jirga adopted 15 resolutions thatsignificantly endorse Musharraf’s efforts to eliminate the perceivedresistance shown by the Baloch in general and the Bugti sardar in particular.One resolution asked the Marri tribe to "hand over the accused Akbar Bugti tothe Bugtis, so that justice is done to them in accordance with the tribaltraditions". The jirga further decided to confiscate all of Akbar Bugti’sassets and distribute them "among those who had suffered at his hands".Ironically enough, after abolishing the sardari system, the jirga reverted tothe "tribal system" and declared the local elections in the area null andvoid because the elected administrator of Dera Bugti had been backed by AkbarBugti.

The next day – August 25, 2006 – the Army troopsintensified their operation in the highlands around the Kohlu area and asked abesieged Bugti to surrender. On August 26, the Government announced that AkbarBugti had been killed ‘in a military raid’. However, the Engineering Corpsof the Pakistan Army took seven days to retrieve the body which was laid to reston September 1, 2006, at his ancestral graveyard in the Dera Bugti area ofBalochistan. Significantly, the military authorities did not allow anyone eitherto offer his funeral prayers or to see the dead body. The military spokesman hadalready declared that, as per the Bugti jirga’s decision, only a few familymembers would be allowed to attend the funeral.

The Musharraf administration also rejected his familymembers’ demand that the body be handed over to them for the burial. Thisinfuriated his sons who decided not to attend the funeral. Despite repeateddemands by the journalists present at the time of the burial, the khakis (Armymen)surrounding the coffin did not allow them a glimpse of the face or the bodybecause, according to the authorities, they were badly mutilated and stinkingand decaying. They added that the body was identified from the watch Akbar Bugtiused to wear and his spectacles, evidence that has been questioned by Bugti’ssons.

In the meantime, Akbar Bugti’s two grandsons, BrahamdadBugti and Ali Nawaz Bugti, who were earlier feared dead, have resurfaced andissued a statement saying that they would be leading the Baloch people in a waragainst Musharraf, their grandfather’s "killer". The statement says theBaloch war against Islamabad would be intensified and it was the"responsibility of each and every Baloch to seek revenge for the murder".

Almost three months before his assassination, having left hisFort in Dera Bugti and shifted to the dry and treeless mountains in Kohlu, AkbarBugti had issued a message to the Baloch nation in April 2006 -- "Message fromthe Koh-e-Baloch (mountains of the Baloch) by the "Sipah Salar" (commander)Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti fighting for the defence of Baloch coast, resources andidentity". The memo referred to the Pakistani state and the Army as enemy ofthe Baloch nation and described the Baloch land as "Baloch Watan". It statedthat the very hills in the Makran, Chaghi, Bolan, Kahan, Kohlu and Dera Bugtiareas have become a trench offering protection to the Baloch fighters andcreating fear in the hearts of the "enemy forces".

Bugti’s message was actually meant to motivate the Balochyouth to pick up the gun and fight a battle for survival in their ancestralland. The veteran Baloch autonomist was convinced that the ‘enemy’understood the language of force alone and, consequently, the Baloch would haveto battle it out to defend their 780-kilometers of coastline and riches of gas,oil, gold, silver and copper. He asked the Baloch nation to embrace martyrdominstead of becoming a minority in their own land. Bugti warned against theintrigues of fellow Baloch leaders with conduct similar to past sub-continentaltraitors like Mir Jaffar and Mir Sadiq. Bugti exhorted his Baloch nation to seekinspiration from the Iraqi Kurds, who braved Saddam Hussein’s chemical weaponsand offered immense sacrifices to win freedom. The symbols highlighted inBugti’s message and its tough language left little doubt in one’s mind thathe had finally embarked on a path of armed confrontation with Pakistan’smighty military establishment. To him, the time for staging peaceful protests,holding negotiations and sitting in parliamentary committees was a thing of thepast. Instead, he sought to inspire the Baloch youth to join the armed strugglethat he had been leading from the front.

In line with Bugti’s message, the Government of Balochistanin Exile (GOBE) has called upon the Baloch nation to honour the death of thenationalist leader by preparing themselves for the next battle of the long andarduous Baloch War of Independence against the enemy force. Mir Azad Khan Baloch,General Secretary of the Government in Exile, has maintained in a statement thatthe only crime the slain nationalist had committed was that he wanted theoppressive Pakistani establishment to treat the oppressed Baloch peopleequitably.

Pakistan’s military rulers have, since Independence,ignored the fact the country is multiethnic and multi-religious, and unitarypolicies of an excessively centralised military order cannot work. The lack ofdemocracy since Musharraf’s military coup in 1999 has only increased the senseof alienation among Sindhis, Pashtuns, Urdu-speaking Muhajirs and a host ofsmaller nationalities. Successive military rulers have failed to grasp theessentials of political management of the federal structure, and haveconsistently preferred to deal with the local issues through force, instead ofworking out a fair relationship with the provinces. Hussain Haqqani, aWashington-based Pakistani scholar, rightly notes that the repeated interventionof the Army in national politics has created an unfortunate situation where Armyhas been responsible for killing more Pakistanis as enemies of the state than ithas eliminated foreign troops with whom Pakistan has gone to war.

Killing political opponents is undoubtedly a signal of aMusharraf’s growing weakness and desperation. For many Pakistanis, Bugti’sdeath is another thread torn loose, as Pakistan’s dangerous political andsocial unraveling under military rule continues. Bugti’s death has furtherfanned Baloch nationalism, and will strengthen the separatist sentiment in theprovince.

With Bugti’s heroic death, the Baloch rebels have lost acharismatic leader, whose dogged resistance in the face of the military mightwas a source of inspiration. The Baloch have very genuine grievances: thenatural gas being explored from the trouble-stricken province for decades wasnot available even in Quetta, the provincial capital, until the 1980s – andthen only because an army cantonment needed it – despite the gas havingreached far-flung towns in Punjab by that time. The gas from Balochistan meets38 per cent of national needs, yet only 6 per cent of Balochistan’s 6.5million people have access to it. The Balochis have almost no representation inthe civil and the military bureaucracy, in part reflecting their province’sdismal educational infrastructure.

Independent analysts believe that resolving the Balochistanissue requires more than settling a single issue, such as the exploitation ofits natural resources, the setting up of new cantonments, or the continuinghostility surrounding natural gas reserves. They are of the view that the use ofbrute force will only alienate the people further, leaving them with littleoption but to fight for economic and political justice.

Bugti’s exit does, however, make it much easier for theArmy to buy off, play off or bump off other feudal leaders, as it has alwaysdone to keep the province under control. Since Akbar Bugti had outlived many ofhis sons and grandsons, the Baloch rebellion faces a leadership vacuum at itshighest echelon.

Does this mean the end of the Baloch insurgency? Or will thedeep-seated feeling of alienation among the Baloch further intensify the armedstruggle in Balochistan?

Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti had addressed this question in his May2006 interview to Time magazine, a few months before his death: "We,the Baloch people believe that the best way to die is to die fighting. We Balochare the masters of our own destiny. And if that is taken away from us, then lifedoesn’t really matter".

Amir Mir is former editor of Weekly Independent, andis now affiliated with Reuters and Gulf News. Courtesy, theSouth Asia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal