| Home |

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | 5:42:18 AM EDT | About Kashmir Herald |

Kashmir Herald completes 14 years of News and Analysis Reporting........Kashmir Herald thanks its readers for their support !!!

OPINION

Mian Musharraf gets rid of Nawab Bugti
ATUL COWSHISH

True to his own prediction (an NDTV interview in April), the 79-year-old Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti met his end, tragically, at the hands of the Pakistani military, which had launched a fierce attack, complete with heavy weapons and helicopters, on his ‘hideout’ in Balochistan three days prior to his death. The grandson he was grooming as his political successor was also killed while his youngest son was killed way back in 1992 by pro-government agents. Freedom champions in the United States should note that the weapons their country had so willingly and generously provided Pakistan for the purposes of only fighting ‘terrorists’ have been freely used by the Pak army in its efforts to crush the Baloch nationalist movement.

Even as the clever by half Pakistani officials double up their attempts to concoct fiction to link India with the Baloch nationalist movement, the death of Bugti has set the natural resources rich Balochistan on fire-- a fire that Islamabad has been trying to douse with guns and helicopter gunships. India, however, will do well to reconsider participation in the fancied gas pipeline project from Iran that will traverse a long distance in the troubled Balochistan before reaching Gujarat. Of course, India has another reason to do a rethink about the pipeline project: Iran has already started demanding a higher price for the gas than the agreed to earlier.

The Baloch nationalists had invited the personal wrath of Pak dictator, Gen Pervez Musharraf, when the latter’s convoy was attacked last December during his tour of the Kohlu district in Balochistan. The general was at a safe distance when the rebel rockets exploded but he was fuming with anger and ordered his men to begin a relentless campaign against the Baloch nationalists of whom perhaps the silver-haired Nawab Bugti was the most visible symbol.

The Bugti movement enjoys support of other important tribal chiefs like Khair Baksh whose supporters are fighting in the Kohlu district, adjacent to Bugti’s Dera Bugti district. One of the six sons of Khair Baksh leads a force of trained and semi-trained Marri tribesmen under the banner of Balochistan Liberation Army. A third tribal leader, Ataullah Mengal has lent ‘ideological and political’ support though he does not participate in the armed struggle.

Despite a contrary belief of some in India, Musharraf is by training and inclination not the one who has the patience for a protracted peaceful dialogue or political solutions for problems that he encounters. He saw the killing of Bugti as a ‘great victory’ for himself and his government. Reports say he was not willing to hand over the slain leader’s body to his family (at the time of writing this article). He overruled advice by politicians in and outside the King’s party as his creation – PML (Q) is known, to engage Bugti and others who support him in a dialogue. He has apparently convinced himself that his forces can crush the Baloch nationalist movement with ease and saw no harmful consequences. After all, the Balochs have been periodically rising in revolt—in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s—only to see their movement ‘crushed’. Musharraf is particularly fond of telling the Balochs that their 1974 rebellion was quashed decisively by the army—killing of 3000 Balochs. The latest round of confrontation has also seen hundreds of Balochs falling to the army bullets.

Not for Musharraf the drill of winning the ‘hearts and minds’. But he may have made a serious mistake this time around; the brutal manner in which Bugti was killed has already generated negative feelings in other provinces except, of course, Punjab. Even as he struggles to keep the Baloch rebellion under some control, the continuous heart burning and the sense of alienation among the Balochs will surely jeopardise his rather fanciful dreams of converting his country into a crucial point for energy transportation from the oil and gas fields of the Middle East and Central Asia to China.

India too figures in that scheme of his, even though he links everything else regarding ties with India to the solution of Kashmir issue, which according to him is the ‘core issue’ in the relations with India. He has been projecting grandiose plans for Gwadar, the only seaport in Balochistan, converting it into an international transition hub and trading port rivalling Dubai and Colombo.

The question is with Balochistan remaining restive can he realise his dreams? The first and foremost prerequisite is peace in the province, which is not possible as long as the area is swarmed by his trigger-happy armed forces and the people of the province remain discontented. The Pakistani human rights commission has detailed the widespread violations by the country’s security forces, including extra-judicial killings in Balochistan. In fact, a war like situation has been in existence in Balochistan for nearly two years when the Bugti had started his latest round of rebellion.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s biggest province and also the richest in terms of natural resources, including petrol, natural gas and coal. Almost half the natural gas of the country is supplied by the fields in Sui. Yet, the six million people of Balochistan have remained the poorest and the most neglected in the country.

Lately, Musharraf has been telling the Balochs that he was going to develop the region in a big way by transforming Gwadar into a deep-sea port and laying cross-continent pipelines. His Gwadar project is heavily dependent on Chinese help. The locals resent the heavy Chinese presence in the region.

The Balochs are also opposed to another of Musharraf’s big plans for their beleaguered province: establishing a number of new military cantonments in the region. The locals see it as part of the effort to subdue them with a larger military presence in the province.

The people of Balochistan want autonomy and a just share in the revenues that their region earns for the federal kitty. They feel hurt that their resources have only contributed to the riches of (Pakistani) Punjab. Nawab Bugti and other nationalist leaders are denounced as ‘traitors’ and ‘Indian agents’ whenever they raise the demand for greater say in their affairs. In the pre-partition (British Raj) days, Bugti was among the advocates of Pakistan. He had also served as the provincial chief minister and governor and earned acclaim from Islamabad as great ‘patriot’. But he quit each time after a short stint, disgusted over the neglect of his land by the federal government. And each time he turned his face against Islamabad, he was again dubbed a ‘traitor’ and ‘Indian agent’.

Islamabad may have downed one ‘Indian agent’, but Bugti’s murder will give rise to many more ‘agents’ as Baloch nationalism becomes more fearsome in response to the army action. Already facing increasing unpopularity in the country while working on a strategy to ensure another term as the president without doffing his army uniform, Musharraf may have multiplied his problems after the murder of Bugti.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

Printer-Friendly Version

Kashmir Herald - Mian Musharraf gets rid of Nawab Bugti

| Archives | Privacy Policy | Copyrights | Contact Us |
Copyrights © Kashmir Herald 2001-2010. All Rights Reserved.
[Views and opinions expressed in Kashmir Herald are solely those of the authors of the articles/opinion pieces
and not of Kashmir Herald Editorial Board.]