Balochistan after Bugti

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Balochistan after Bugti – The Express Tribune

Balochistan after Bugti

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The writer was a member of the Senate from 2003-08 and of the National Assembly from 1997-99. He tweets @Senator_Baloch

Balochistan plunged into a frightening crisis after the cold-blooded murder of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. On August 26, 2006, the Pakistani flag was raised at the Bugti fort with the proclamation of a new dawn for Balochistan. Nonetheless, in 2012, six years later, Balochistan is deeply engulfed in dusk and darkness.

Let’s look at the situation in Dera Bugti, which is no longer a liveable place. The Bugti fort, the Baloch Nawab’s residence, which used to be a place of Baloch hospitality, has been turned into a Gulag where Baloch activists and government opponents are detained and tortured. The government’s proclaimed “Operation Freedom” brought new multilayer enslavement for the Bugtis. Along with a brutal security apparatus, countless criminals have popped up in the area. The resource-rich but terrifically impoverished district has been virtually divided into many sub-states controlled by government-backed criminals and armed groups.

This policy of criminalisation is extended to the entire province. Islamabad has failed to win the sympathy of the courageous Baloch masses against its ruthless policies as government agencies have extended their support to petty criminals and devastated the very social and harmonious fabric of Baloch society. Since the start of the military operation in 2002, around 10,000 people have been killed, a quarter million people have been displaced, 4,000 are missing and 600 have been killed extrajudicially. According to a recent official report of the interior ministry, at least 868 people have been killed, 619 kidnapped and 2,390 have gone missing from the province since 2010. Furthermore, 600 bodies of Baloch activists have been found in different parts of balochistan.

Prior to full-fledged military offensives, Balochistan’s poverty incidence stood at 48 per cent in 2001-02, which was an exceptional 15 percentage points higher than the national average. By 2005-06 poverty incidence stood at 50.9 per cent, compared with a national average of 2.3 per cent. After Islamabad’s ‘development and civilisation’ mission in Balochistan, the poverty incidence now stands at 63 per cent, three times higher than the national average. After limited economic opportunities, severe floods and restrictions on international relief organisations, the caloric poverty in Balochistan was recorded around 74 per cent in 2011, compared with 49.7 per cent in 2001-02.
Impoverished Balochistan is also famous for establishment-backed filthy corrupt politicians. Given that the government fully relies on criminals, gangsters and religious elements, including morally shattered chieftains, corruption has been institutionalised in the last 10 years as an incentive for the followers of Islamabad’s dirty policies.

During the last six years, abduction has become a big business in the province. Gangsters choose individuals without any fear. Most of these criminals claim to have links with the government. According to the Balochistan government’s official figures, between June 2011 and February 2012, 170 people were abducted, out of which 142 were released after paying heavy ransoms. During the last four years, 50 Hindus were abducted in different parts of Balochistan. Ever since government agencies were preoccupied with abducting and intimidating the moderate political stratum of the Baloch society, criminals are having a luxurious time creating their desired level of chaos and lawlessness. Islamabad’s failure to address the mounting dissatisfaction in Balochistan and deal with political unrest through political means led to the killings of hundreds of innocent Baloch, Punjabis and Hazaras.
Sectarian killings have taken a new toll; many extremist groups are taking advantage of the political vacuum created after the ruthless operation. Over 700 Baloch Hazaras have been killed in cold blood. The last 10 years of defective re-engineering of the social, political and economic fabric of the Baloch society has proved destructive. Unfortunately, the establishment in Islamabad is ignorant of this fact and continues to pursue the unchanged policy of denial and negligence towards Balochistan.
*
Published in The Express Tribune, August 26[SUP]th[/SUP], 2012. *

Best Regards,

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Re: Balochistan after Bugti

We are still facing a bulk of the problems left behind by the previous dictator, and the balochistan issue being one of them. Balochistan insurgency was direly in need of a martyr and Musharraf provided them with one. An aging old man if left alone would have died sooner or later in any case but who would the dictators listen to?

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Balochistan standstill to remember Akbar Bugti - geo.tv

**QUETTA: The 6th death anniversary of the founder of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) and Balochistan former Governor, chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti is being observed today, while the entire province including the capital city here stands still under the shutter down and wheel jam strike, Geo News reported.
**
All the business centres in the city here remained closed, while the traffic seen thin on the roads on the appeal of JWP and Baloch Republican Party (BRP). Shutter down strike is also being observed in interior of the province including Gawadar, Turbat, Khuzdar, Kalat, Mastung, Noshki, Chaghi and Awaran, while in some areas wheel jam strike is also underway.

This strike has the support of Balochistan National Party, Baloch National Voice, National Party, Muslim League-N, Jamaat-e-Islami, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, transporters and trading community. Baloch Republican Party holding references all across the province, where different aspects of Nawab Aknbar Bugti would be presented.

Nawab Akbar Bugti struggled for the welfare, progress and rights of the Blaochistan people and in this process he along with his companions was martyred in an encounter with the forces in Kohlu area on August 26, 2006.

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Re: Balochistan after Bugti

قائد اعظم کا ساتھی ، پاکستان کا عظیم لیڈر ، بلوچستان کا ہیرو

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The strike in balochistan today is another slap On the ugly face of the establishment which at the time believed that they were victorious. Now if we see te situation objectively, they have provided the movement with a reason. The movement has only strengthened after his demise.

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Re: Balochistan after Bugti

A night in Dera Bugti

By Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali

A decent funeral was not permitted to an honourable man who died a brave death in the Bambore Hills. The empire played no dirge at the death of a Baloch Sardar. Grief was out-lawed. Three Chinese padlocks secured the sarcophagus and a priest who went mute.

As I reminisce about the late nawab, I am reminded of the last of the Mohicans; a man of strong personality with the free spirit of the desert and fire in the eye. Many years ago we travelled to Dera Bugti to extend our condolences to the Nawab on his niece’s death. She was the daughter of our colleague and MNA Ahmad Nawaz Bugti, the Nawab’s urbane younger brother. Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Syed Fakhar Imam, Syed Nusrat Ali Shah and I were received in the darbar hall which had seen better days. Dera Bugti was a shabby town dominated by the much bullet-ridden fortress, remnants of several previous military actions.

At the dinner table presided over by the nawab, the conversation was diverse; on world and regional issues, politics, history, Pakistan’s troubled federation etc. From the sublime to the mundane, the nawab passed around a large plate of green chillies to his guests. I took a handful much to his approval while others politely refused. The remaining one kilo, he consumed alone with great relish. As one Sardar to another, I could not help but say: “Now I understand why Nawab Bugti is considered so fearsome”. The one hour at dinner was one of utmost courtesy, fine manners and brilliant conversation. I could not put the thought away that the enigmatic nawab was such a paradoxical man; a mix of the medieval and the modern. His stentorian voice and white mane oft reminded me of Csar from the time of Peter the Great.

After dinner when tea was over, Akbar Khan settled down to what he had hoped would be a long night of conversation. He spoke of the Soviet onslaught of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s mistaken policy of covert support to the Jihad. He said the mujahideen will come to haunt Pakistan one day, destabilising the entire region. **He spoke of the stupidities of what he called the “Punjabi Army” that had learnt no lesson from the fall of Dhaka. In chaste Punjabi he talked of the servitude of Punjabis in worshipping authority; be it Ranjit Singh’s, or the British, or the Pakistan Army’s. The Fauji had always lost wars against enemies, but won every war against the people of Pakistan. **Somebody asked why the Nawab doesn’t play national instead of provincial politics. He replied that the Punjabi army hangs or kills non-Punjabi prime ministers. He had no desire to become Shaheed Liaqat Ali Khan, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, or Shaheed Dr Khan. I remarked, he would make a good president of Pakistan. He replied he had no intention of being a quisling of the army, while his province remained backward.

His views on Pakistan were disquieting. He called it a lop-sided state with one province whose population was 60 per cent, while the remaining three comprised 40 per cent. The army and civil services are 80 per cent Punjabi.** Pakistan’s army plays Islam and sings to the tune of foreign masters. The Punjabi middle classes are too timid to stand up for their own rights. Pakistan’s generals amass wealth and rent the army to fight for alien causes. The jihad in Afghanistan will destroy Pakistan. The jins and monsters are out of the bottle and cannot be put back. The core problem is Punjab which permits generals to lord over it all the state power, turning the judiciary into the army’s handmaiden. Instead of building national consensus of all classes and peoples of Pakistan, the “Potohar” army’s generals believe in keeping the unity of the country through force.** The late Nawab minced no words and shot from the hip. It was like rapid fire from a light machine gun.

As we talked late into the night, one by one my colleagues excused themselves to sleep. I was determined not to be intimidated by him so I matched his insomnia with mine. It was my turn to throw something back at him. I asked how he could absolve himself of being the governor who presided over the last military action in Balochistan. There was much ill-ease and tenuous relations which led to his differences with the Bizenjo, Mengal and Marri sardars, which he tried to explain succinctly.

In response to the primitive justice system of the Bugti’s that he imposes, which makes the accused walk on burning coal to determine his guilt, he said your justice is sold, your highest court hanged an innocent prime minister, and stamps every military dictator with legitimacy. Walking the fire never spares the guilty, never burns the innocent. It’s a spiritual not a rational process. It’s never been proved wrong. I also mentioned the cruelty for which the nawab was famous. He replied tribal culture brooks no weakness, no faint-heartedness. The Pakistani state is weak and unjust. Its writ is strong only in the Punjab. The tribal system is strong and fair. Unless the Pakistani state does not give justice to all, the sardari system will survive no matter how many laws are enacted against it.

He was bitter on the issue of gas revenues, which he said, was the collective asset of the Bugti tribe. He said if the federation had been fair to Balochistan, the Marri tribe would have allowed the exploitation of its vast oil and gas reserves.

**In the early hours of the morning, I finally asked if he believed in Pakistan. He said he had signed the tribal council’s declaration in 1946 for the creation of Pakistan. Look at the map carefully, he said. On one side is Afghanistan which is an unruly land. To the west are the Iranian mullahs. So it is better to deal with the devil one knows.
**
The call of the muezzin brought the night-long conversation to a conclusion. One could and did disagree with him on several accounts, but none could ignore his intellect, his immense knowledge, his courage, and his presence. Here was a lord from the Middle Ages who could discourse on history like a professor. When alive, he was larger than life. In death he has become a legend. He died the way he had lived: dangerously. In contrast those who killed him seem so Lilliputian. He is the classic Greek hero, who has risen after his fall.

The writer is a former foreign minister of Pakistan.

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Re: Balochistan after Bugti

It is unfortunate what he said was truth.

[quote]
After dinner when tea was over, Akbar Khan settled down to what he had hoped would be a long night of conversation. He spoke of the Soviet onslaught of Afghanistan and Pakistan's mistaken policy of covert support to the Jihad. He said the mujahideen will come to haunt Pakistan one day, destabilising the entire region. He spoke of the stupidities of what he called the "Punjabi Army" that had learnt no lesson from the fall of Dhaka. In chaste Punjabi he talked of the servitude of Punjabis in worshipping authority; be it Ranjit Singh's, or the British, or the Pakistan Army's. The Fauji had always lost wars against enemies, but won every war against the people of Pakistan.
[/quote]

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^ Now when we read these words from the most hated man in Pakistan, they show us the insight and intellect he had. The problem is that we dont value differing opinions. What this guy predicted more than 6 years ago, when we see around us now we see it happening. How come this guy could see all of this, and the geniuses sitting in the GHQ and ISI HQ's could not foresee the results of their policies?

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Complete strike over 45% area of Pakistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjptMAOKFjk&feature=share

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Musharraf is an arrogant and shortsighted man. his flawed policies, Balochistan operation, NRO etc endless list of blunders.

and he continues to lie to this day that he did not kill Bugti and that he killed himself.

how can I forget his words, "We will hit [the Baloch and Akbar Bugti] in such a way they wouldn’t even know what hit them.”

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Add to the list Kargil...... His logic of differentiating the real Mujaheddin and Terrorists.....(only he knows who's who)

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Excuse me if I don't cry over death of a warlord whose only accomplishment was keeping his people in chains of slavery for his personal pleasure. Bugti was a thug & no better than rest of feudal lords dominating the country, except that in his old age dementia got best of him, & he decided to take on the state. He got what he deserved & lets not make hero out this murderous scum.

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Yes, Bugti was not an angel. But the amount of damage Muharraf aggressive policies have done is just indescribable, it further ignited fire.his military operation and killing of Bugti was certainly a mistake.it has only resulted in more catatrophies and miseries of Baloch.what did we gained from this operation? why is that dictators always look for military operation to resolve issues.it should be looked as last resort when nothing seems to work.before his military operation Balochistan was pretty much a peaceful province.(compared to now) polarisation and radicalisation was not at its peak.and now 6 years later Balochistan situation has deteriorated so much, sectarian/ethnic violence,kidnappings etc complete lawlessness, after Musharraf exit, govt and establishment have continued with the same flawed policies, so its not like Musharraf is solely responsible for this mess.because current govt has certainly not learned from his mistakes, did not make any efforts to provide relief to baloch people. it seems like Islamabad has literally abandoned Balochistan, as if its not part of Pakistan, hence the jungle law prevails.on the other hand establisment stubbornly never seem to admit that they too made mistakes and should try to do something to fix those.errors. But No, they will just continue pointing fingers at this invisible third hand and silently watch, while Balochistan is burning.....simply pathetic.

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Musharraf has made him a hero even if we don't like it, as zia made Bhutto a hero. Anyways we can see currently if his death has served to end the conflict or further ignite it.

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He was the Baluchi version of Taliban :)

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Looks like people of Balochistan are missing the private jails of Bugti.

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Can some one list few good things/ endeavors , projects , this nawab did for his Baluchi people ?

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He wouldn't have done any good thing. I wont defend him as a person. Has Pakistan become any safer after his demise or has the situation deteriorated after his death? havent we given the Baloch with a martyr for their freedom struggle? Bhutto after 33 years is haunting us, we have just added another one in the list.

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^ Is that the only reason to protect a thug like him? If so then go ask the Government to protect Mullah Omer and other Taliban leaders and all other thugs in Pakistan in order to prevent them becoming martyrs.

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This.

I have met a guy who actually escaped from his camps and was in abysmal condition. An NGO helped him out, and now the guy is working in a call center in islamabad. The stories he told were of pure horror and showed the true nature of Bugti's 'accomplishments'.