Akbar Bugti Wants To Keep People Backward

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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ISLAMABAD (APP): First cousin of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, Mir Ahmadan Rahija Bugti said that Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti is against the development of Balochistan and wants to keep the people of the province backward.

Talking to PTV, he said the Nawab has nothing to do with protecting the rights of Baloch people instead he is out to usurp them.
Nawab Akbar created all type of hurdles in development work of the province. He is against development by not allowing opening of schools, building of roads, hospitals etc. as they would bring change and take the people out of his influence.
After becoming educated, the people of the area would refuse to live under his rule, he added.

He said that the people want development, progress and prosperity in the province but a few elements are working against it.
To a question he said even his own tribesmen are suffering his wrath and a number of them have been ejected from their houses and are forced to live in his private prison. He said prominent among the prisoners is former member of Majlis-e-Shoora, Mir Ghulam Qadir Khan Bugti.

Replying to another question about setting up of army cantonments in Balochistan, he said these are being built by Pakistani forces and not by the enemy forces.
He said the development projects being carried out in the province will bring prosperity by giving them employment and alleviate poverty.
He said the Nawab is against awareness among the masses while his own children roam about in Pajeros and are educated.

Chieftain of Kalpar tribe, Khan Muhammad Bugti, in his interview with PTV said that 16 Kalpar men, including his son and his son in law, were killed in the bombardment of Kalpar houses. He said their houses were demolished and the tribe was sent in exile by Nawab Muhammad Akbar Khan Bugti. He said the produce of Kalpar lands is being used by the Nawab.

Ghulam Qadir Khan Bugti, chief of another clan of Bugtis, who is now being held in the personal prison of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in an interview recorded before he was taken prisoner, termed the Sardari Nizam as the main cause of backwardness of the Baloch people. He said the areas under chieftains had remained most backward. He said Nawab Muhammad Akbar Khan Bugti is against the development of the area.

Ghulam Qadir said he had worked for the welfare of people by setting up schools and dams but the Nawab took it ill as it could bring development and awareness among the masses.

http://frontierpost.com.pk/home.asp (January 21, 2005 Friday 10 Dhu al-Hajj , 1425 A.H.)

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Re: Akbar Bugti Wants To Keep People Backward

Pakistan may face lengthy conflict on Afghan border
26 Jan 2005 08:03:58 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Amir Zia

QUETTA, Pakistan, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Pakistani forces, already stretched battling Islamic militants and guarding the Indian frontier, could be sliding into a protracted separatist conflict in a key province bordering Afghanistan, military officials and politicians say.

Tribal separatists in the southwestern province of Baluchistan have stepped up a long-simmering insurgency in recent weeks with bomb and rocket attacks on security forces, government buildings and vital economic installations.

The most serious attack came on Jan. 11, when tribesmen fired dozens of rockets at the country’s largest gas field at Sui, 400 km (250 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Quetta, killing up to 15 people and cutting supplies for over a week.

When the central government moved troops to Sui to guard against more attacks, militants responded with several assaults on rail lines in Baluchistan, one of which wounded five people, and also bombed a government building in Quetta.

“The militants are heavily armed and operate training camps in areas inhabited mostly by the powerful Marri and Bugti tribes,” a military official said on condition of anonymity.

“The situation is grave and the violence could escalate.”

On Tuesday, authorities halted night-time train services in Baluchistan, fearing more attacks, and security has been increased at key installations throughout the province.

Tribal separatists have been battling for independence or autonomy for their strategic province bordering Afghanistan ever since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, when colonial Britain granted independence to the Indian sub-continent.

Since then there have been four major armed revolts, the last in 1970s, which was brutally crushed by the military at a cost of thousands of lives.

Legal nationalist groups, which deny links to the militants but broadly support their agenda, say the government’s failure to respond to demands for autonomy, jobs and higher royalty payments from mineral resources was strengthening radicals.

MILITARY BASES, MEGA-PROJECTS

Militants have been especially angered by plans to construct new military bases and major development projects they say are aimed at strengthening, not easing, central control.

“People feel that they won’t get their rights through democratic and legal means,” Akhtar Mengal, president of the Baluchistan National Party.

“The lava had been on the boil for long. There is anger and resentment among the people toward government policies that deny them their rights. They seem to have little choice other than to take up arms and fight.”

Sanaullah Baluch, a national senator and opposition leader, said lawmakers like him faced increased criticism, especially from younger separatists who consider legal struggle pointless.

“Militants hold a greater appeal to them,” he said.

Baluch nationalists returned to mainstream politics when democracy was restored in Pakistan after military ruler General Zia-ul Haq was killed in an air crash in 1988.

But violence has resumed since nationalists were marginalised politically by the military-led government of President Pervez Musharraf, which launched mega projects like a Chinese-funded deep-sea port at the small fishing town of Gawadar.

A separatist bomb attack killed three Chinese working on the the project last May but it has been completed ahead of schedule and is expected to be formally opened at a ceremony attended by Chinese leaders in February or March.

“Some of the tribal leaders see development and progress as a threat to their grip in their backward areas,” said Raziq Bugti, a spokesman of the Baluchistan government.

“By resorting to violence in the garb of demands for rights, they want to derail the development efforts,” said Bugti who himself was a guerrilla commander in 1970s insurgency.

“We believe development will weaken the oppressive tribal system and help modernise the society.”

The government has said it is ready to address nationalist concerns and promised more jobs in an attempt to defuse tensions.

But nationalists say development programmes are bypassing Baluchis, who could become a minority in their own province because of an influx of workers from other parts of Pakistan.

“Locals are not even given their share in jobs, nor control of their natural resources and coastline. Land in Gawadar is being bought and sold by speculators,” Baluch said.

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Re: Akbar Bugti Wants To Keep People Backward

Bugti and other thugs/ gundas should be rounded up. THese people should not be allowed to spread hate in our motherland.

And govt should also increase the development money for balochistan, so people would not be fooled by bugti gunda