Just as predicted the Baloch “resistance” continue to surrender on mass to the government after the demise of the tyrant Nawab Bugti.
Six Marri commanders along with 2000 supporters surrender in Kohlu
Six important Marri commanders along with their 2000 supporters here Tuesday surrendered their arms to district authorities at Tadri, some 140 kilometers off from Kohlu town. The commanders included Waidera Gazi Khan Marri, Waidera Bakht Ali Sherani Marri, Kari Khan Marri, Ruba Goryani Marri, Waidera Azeem alias Bhuda and Waidera Shamboo Khan Marri. These commanders were stated to be operating Bhambor, Hashpur and Dango Khan ‘Farari Camps’ in the district. The arms included 75 MM Recoilless rifle, 12.7 MM gun, LMG, RPG, RPG-7, SMG, LMG, automatic grenade launchers and other lethal weapons which they used against the officials of LEAs and national installations. Speaking on the occasion the DCO said it is for the first time in the history of the country that the people from Marri tribe have voluntarily laid their arms and announced to support the government. The only reason behind their surrender is that they have been inspired by the government’s sincerity to develop their areas and ensure all civic amentias to them at their doorsteps. He said "Marri people are still leading an inhuman life due to indifference and intransigence of their tribal elders who always offered tough resistance to the government development efforts in their areas,”. As a result, the people of entire district are deprived of even safe drinking water.**“ The tribal chieftains forced these people to fight by either keeping their family. He said the people of the area could not even dream to enjoy communication, health and education facilities in the presence of their tribal elders. **“
He said President Musharraf was firstever head of the country’s history who announced Special Development Package worth Rs. 1.5 billion for Kholu district during his recent visit. Under the package scores of development schemes in education, health, road and water sectors are being implemented in the district. The schemes included setting up of a 50-bed hospital, construction of five mettle roads, a boys degree college, an inter girls college and various water schemes, he said and added completion of these schemes will greatly help end the backwardness from the district, he said. To a question about number of Farari Camps in the district, the DCO said before the government action there existed 14 camps but all have been cleared during the last eight months by law enforcement agencies. “Provision of basic living amenities to backward Marri tribe is the top most priority of the government,” he added.1 The surrendering commanders, speaking on the occasion, said that they quit their tribal elders and joined hands with the government after being impressed by its massive development projects in the province and in Kohlu. They said that their tribal head never worked for the development of their area and added that they were working under compulsion due to extra-ordinary power of the tribal chief in the area which they have lost now. They said that they want development in their area and for this purpose they would extend all possible cooperation to the government.
Re: Six Marri commanders, 2000 Baloch supporters surrender to government
The tribal chieftains forced these people to fight by either keeping their family. He said the people of the area could not even dream to enjoy communication, health and education facilities in the presence of their tribal elders. “
Worth noting for those who defend nawabi butchers.
When Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in a military operation in Pakistan’s restive Baluchistan province on Saturday, Pakistan’s security forces may have thought they were ridding themselves of a particularly annoying problem that has plagued Islamabad for the past two years. As it turns out, they only made things worse.
QUETTA: Rioting sparked by the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti continued for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday across Balochistan as thousands of people offered funeral prayers for the slain Bugti chieftain at the Ayub Stadium and some other cities.
Meanwhile, four people were killed and six injured when a bomb went off in the Nagar Chowk area of Hub, some 600 kilometres south of here on Tuesday. Police said the bomb was planted in a double storey hotel in the Mohabbat Nagar area of Hub which exploded when some 50 employees of a local factory were having their lunch. The injured were ferried to different hospitals in Hub and Karachi.
Thousands of people belonging to different walks of life, including nationalist leaders, tribal elders and parliamentarians, offered the Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayers in absentia), which was led by eminent cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz.
Soon after the funeral prayers, the emotionally charged mourners went on rampage, smashing the windowpanes of the stadium and ransacking its furniture. The rioters then moved out of the stadium and set fire to scores of shops. A foreign news agency reported that four makeshift bombs exploded in shops near the venue of the funeral prayers.
Later, riots spread to other parts of the city including Jaffar Khan Jamali Road, Chaman Phatak, Jail Road, Sariab Road, Shahbaz Town, Joint Road and other ethnic Baloch majority localities.
Not a single law enforcer was seen when protesters ran riot as police had disappeared when rioters resorted to aerial firing. Later, incidents of arson, stone-pelting and tyre-burning occurred in different parts of the city. Besides, attacks on government buildings and settlers’ properties were also reported.
Four persons, including two policemen, were reportedly wounded when rioters lobbed a hand grenade at a police party near Chaman Phatak. An angry mob ransacked and torched a Tehsil council office and a State Life office. They also set fire to several shops and three banks on Mir Jaffar Khan Jamali Road and Brewery Road. Rioters also entered into the houses of settlers on Joint Road, Jail Road and other areas.
Later, police and the Frontier Corps called in reinforcement to quell the rioting, but it took them hours to bring the situation under control, particularly in the most troubled areas. Law enforcers and rioters also traded fire in different parts of the restive city. Police resorted to baton charge and teargas shelling to disperse the rioters.
Police also detained more than 100 people, mostly “innocent passers-by”, on charges of creating trouble, witnesses said. The detainees were sent to different police stations. Earlier, thousands of people attended the funeral prayers for the slain Bugti chieftain. Prominent among them were Nawab Akbar Bugti’s sons Talal Bugti and Jamil Bugti, his sons-in-law Mir Humayun Marri and Agha Shahid Bugti, veteran nationalists leaders Sardar Attaullah Khan Mengal, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Nawab Ayaz Khan Jogezai, Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, Dr Abdul Malik Kasi, Malik Khuda Bakhsh Lango, deputy speaker Balochistan Assembly Aslam Bhotani, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, opposition leader in Balochistan Assembly Mir Kachkol Ali, National Party chief Dr Hayee Baloch, Senator (retd) Syed Faseih Iqbal, and others.
A H Khanzada adds from Karachi: Bodies of two victims of the Hub blast were shifted to the Civil Hospital, Karachi, on Tuesday night. Besides, the hospital also received 13 people who sustained injuries in the explosion.
Eleven of the injured were identified as Muhammad Amin, 25, Aadam Jan, 26, Waseem Anwar, 28, Muhammad Nazir, 27, Shafadaar Khan, 28, Sarfraz Ahmed, 25, Amir Bukhash, 28, Abdul Razzak, 25, Sakhidad, 25, Amir Murtaza, 20, and Abdul Razzak, 18, while another two are yet to be identified.
Dr Karrar Abbasi, the medico legal officer at the Civil Hospital told The News that the injured have sustained multiple injuries. “One body is mutilated, while the other is intact,” he said of the deceased.
Agencies add: More than 10,000 mourners attended the funeral prayers for Nawab Akbar Bugti. Political and religious leaders led thousands of mourners in prayers during the ceremony.
Protesters chanted slogans against the government and the rulers as a military helicopter hovered overhead. Bellowing through a loudspeaker, Bugti’s son-in-law and Senator Agha Shahid Bugti appealed for calm, yelling: “Anyone who is looting and damaging other’s property has nothing to do with us. We are peaceful. They are our enemies.”
Meanwhile, Bugti leader’s son, Talal, doubted government claims that his father’s body was still trapped under rubble, telling Associated Press Television News that it “may be lying in a hospital. They are telling a lie that it is still in the cave”.
Taj Muhammad Jamali, a former chief minister of Balochistan and cousin of former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, was hurt when he went to offer the funeral prayers for Bugti on Tuesday.
People belonging to different clans of Baloch tribes became furious when they spotted Pakistan Muslim League leaders offering the funeral prayers. They asked the Leaguers to leave the venue.
When the PML leaders were leaving, some angry youth chased them and threw them on shattered glasses of the main entrance. They sustained injuries from the broken glasses while two chasers were also critically wounded. Later, police escorted the Leaguers and saved them from further injuries.
Violence was also reported in several other areas of the province on Tuesday, including in the coastal town of Turbat where protesters were said to have torched three shops and one bank. Hundreds of club- and cricket bat-wielding protesters also burned shops, banks and cars in Khuzdar and Gwadar.
Suspected militants, meanwhile, blew up a gas pipeline and electricity pylons in the Qalat district. The Monday night attacks appeared to be the first by the militants since the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti.
The attackers used high explosives to blow up the pipeline and power pylons outside the Qalat city, cutting its gas and power supplies. “These were strong explosions. A 12-foot-long piece of the pipeline was blown away,” said a police officer in the city. Repair work on the gas and electricity lines had started, said the officer, who declined to be identified.
Separately, authorities imposed Section 144 in Balochistan in view of law and order situation, says a notification issued by the Home and Tribal Affairs Department here on Tuesday. It said display and carrying of firearms and articles which could be used as weapons has been banned.
According to another notification of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department, pillion riding has also been banned in the provincial capital under Section 144 for a period of 30 days.
Also on Tuesday Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yousaf condemned the loss of life and property caused by miscreants and their attempts for creating law and order situation in the province, particularly in the provincial capital and Khuzdar.
In a statement issued here he said such attempts are not in the interests of the people. He urged the political parties and tribal elders to play their role in maintaining law and order and promoting brotherhood among various communities. The chief minister lauded the performance of law-enforcement agencies for protecting life and property of the citizens.](“The News International: Latest News Breaking, World, Entertainment, Royal News”)
The death of Mr. Akbar Bugti reveals some serious problems within Pakistani politics. A major outpost of foreign interference in Pakistan is eliminated. But reading the reactions of most Pakistani politicians, you’d think the deceased was Nelson Mandela and not someone who made blowing up telephone and power lines a legitimate negotiating tool. Pakistan should have moved decisively against Mr. Bugti’s foreign-armed and foreign-financed terrorism long time ago. The indecision has emboldened India and Afghanistan to meddle in domestic Pakistani issues without the slightest concern for a Pakistani reprisal. Even sadder is that no Pakistani politician is willing to stress the primacy of the Pakistani state over petty domestic politics. No Pakistani politician is willing to say that the State takes precedence over any one individual. If no one is willing to say it, Islamabad should have said it loud and clear. But, surprisingly, government ministers came out weak and apologetic in defending Pakistan’s position. Islamabad’s reaction to Mr. Bugti’s should have been this, “Mr. Bugti and his terrorists are dead. Collaborating with foreigners against Pakistan is not negotiable and will never be.” Not taking this position has sown seeds of doubt and confusion within the Pakistani public opinion and will give anti-Pakistan elements another chance, consid ering that the first chance - Mr. Bugti himself - has been eliminated.
The incident also highlights an old fact: Pakistani politics is a dirty, immature business. **In defending Mr. Bugti, no one seems to be bothered that the late politician-turned-terrorist was recruiting young Pakistanis to destroy their own nation from within, running private militias and underground jails, and conducting his own direct communications with other countries in a direct challenge to the entire Pakistani nation. Mr. Bugti’s unforgivable crime remains the targeting of Chinese citizens living and working peacefully in Pakistan. **Thanks to Mr. Bugti, Chinese diplomatic missions in Pakistan were forced to issue safety alerts to their citizens for the first time in the great history of Sino-Pakistani relations. It is criminal on the part of some of our politicians that no one is mentioning the crimes committed by Mr. Bugti against his tribe, the Pakistani nation and against our great country.
As a first step to redress this situation, the entire Pakistani political class, opposition and government, should strongly reject Indian and Afghan statements on the death of Mr. Bugti. If we let this pass without a common stand, Pakistan’s standing will be affected in the region. This should not be allowed at any cost.
Second, Islamabad should show some spine. Half-hearted statements coming from the ministers - “It was not intended”, “We exhausted political channels”, etc -is conveying weakness on the part of the Pakistani state. Third, senior Pakistani politicians should shun opportunism, and especially avoid turning a terrorist into a national hero. No other State in the world could have tolerated half the activities that Mr. Bugti has been allowed to do in recent years. He reaped what he sowed. And finally, his death should be read for what it really is: A message to all outside Pakistan who have thought that creating and nurturing assets inside Pakistan can be a viable business. The result is clear. Pakistan will not allow this.
