Nawab Akbar
Shahbaz Khan Bugti (July 12, 1927€“August 26, 2006) was the Tumandar (head)
of the Bugti tribe of the Baloch, and had served as governor of the
restive Balochistan Province in Pakistan. An Oxford[1]-educated man in a
land of widespread illiteracy, he was a towering personality in the Baloch
politics for more than five decades.
After an armed struggle started in
Balochistan in 2004, Bugti was widely perceived as the leader, going
underground in 2005. On August 26, 2006, after several attempts in the
preceding months[2] the Pakistan army killed him in an aerial bombardment
on his cave in Kohlu, about 150 miles east of Quetta, leadi ng to
widespread unrest in the area, where he is unanimously regarded as a hero
and martyr.
With a wide following that crossed tribal lines across
most ethnic Baloch groups, the contradictions in this western educated
tribal leader roused the strongest emotions, both positive and negative.
Despite taking harsh decisions at times which is occasionally a must for a
tribal leader, he had a pacifist image in many groups, and certainly did
not espouse a violent path in his early political career. In recent years,
he was accused by the Pakistani government of being a warlord, running a
well-organized militia sometimes considered to be the shadowy Balochistan
Liberation Army (BLA) numbering in the thousands. The BLA allegedly, ran
dozens of militant guerrilla training camps. Campaigning from the mountain
ranges of Dera Bugti he was, according to the Pakistani government,
directing a €œFidel Castro/Che Guevara€ style guerrilla war. In July 2006,
Pakistani dictator, General Musharraf had targeted him through aerial
bombing, using air force jets and gunship helicopters the leader of
Balochistan National Party (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar Mengal said: "The
increase in bomb attacks in the Bugti and Marri areas are meant to target
Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and his associates and called
upon of the international community to take note of the
situation.
With epithets such as The Tiger of Balochistan, The
Trade Unionist or Gas Man (supposedly having ownership of many gas fields)
he was a towering figure in Baloch world. The longstanding conflict in
Balochistan stems from the quantum of autonomy the province was promised
when they joined Pakistan in 1947 and then under the 1973 Pakistani
constitution. Today a large faction is campaigning and at times resorting
to arms, for an autonomy which is Balochistan's due under the promises
made to its people by various Pakistani leaders. BLA, is painted by the
Pakistani government as a "great threat" to law and order in Balochistan
and was recently banned by the Government of Pakistan as well as by the
United Kingdom, following intense lobbying by
Pakistan.
Life: He was the son of Nawab Mehrab Khan Bugti and a grandson of Sir
Shahbaz Khan Bugti. He was born in Barkhan on July 12, 1927. A former
Governor and Chief Minister of Balochistan. He was educated at Oxford,
England and Aitchison College, Lahore. It is alleged that he killed his
first man when he was only 12, and that he had several killed to avenge
the assassination of his son (Salal Bugti).
Nawab Akbar Bugti was
elected in a by-election to the National Assembly of Pakistan in May 1958
to fill the vacancy created as a result of the assassination of the
incumbent, Dr Khan Sahib and sat on the government benches as a member of
the ruling coalition.
Bugti (Republican) served as Minister of
State (Interior) in the government of Prime Minister Malik Sir Feroz Khan
Noon (Republican) from September 20, 1958 to October 7, 1958, when the
cabinet was dismissed on the declaration of Martial Law by President
Iskander Mirza.
He was arrested and convicted by a Military
Tribunal in 1960, and subsequently disqualified from holding public
office. As a result of his legal battles, he did not contest the 1970
general elections. Instead, he campaigned on behalf of his younger
brother, Sardar Ahmed Nawaz Bugti, a candidate of the National Awami
Party.
However, Bugti developed differences with the NAP
leadership, especially the new Balochistan Governor, Mir Ghaus Baksh
Bizenjo. He informed the Federal Government and President Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto (Pakistan Peoples Party) about the alleged London Plan, which
resulted in the dismissal of the provincial governor as well as the Chief
Minister Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal and his cabinet on February 14,
1973.
The next day, the Federal Government appointed Bugti as the
Governor of Balochistan, and the Pakistan Army was deployed in the
province as part of a crackdown on the National Awami Party.
He
resigned on January 1, 1974 after disagreeing with the manner in which the
Federal Government was carrying out policies in Balochistan. The army had
deployed 100,000 men in Balochistan and with the help of the Iranian air
force had resorted to wholsesale murder of the Baloch. Muhammad Raza Shah
Pehlavi, the King of Iran had sent F-14 fighter jets along with his
pilots, to help Pakistani army suppress the Baloch. The Pakistani army
killed more than 4000 Baloch in these operations.
There was a lull
in his activities when General Rahimuddin Khan was appointed as Governor
of Balochistan in 1978. Bugti remained silent throughout the course of
Rahimuddin's rule, which was often characterized by hostility towards the
Baloch Sardars.
In 1988, he joined the Balochistan National
Alliance and was elected Chief Minister on February 4, 1989. His
government frequently disagreed with the Federal Government led by the
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan Peoples Party).
Bugti
resigned on August 6, 1990 when the provincial assembly was dissolved by
Governor of Balochistan General Muhammad Musa Khan in accordance with the
instructions of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan exercising his authority by
virtue of Article 58 (2 b) of the Constitution of Pakistan.
The
incoming caretaker Chief Minister Mir Humayun Khan Marri was his
son-in-law.
For the 1990 General Elections, Bugti formed his own
political party, the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), being Balochistan's
single largest party and was elected to the provincial assembly.
In
1993, he was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan representing the
JWP in parliament. Also in 1993 Nawab Bugti announced his candidacy to be
President of Pakistan, but later withdrew his candidacy and announced his
support to the eventual winner Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari. In 1997,
Nawab Bugti was reelected to the National Assembly of Pakistan
representing the JWP.
Bugti was involved in struggles, at times
armed ones, in Balochistan in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was leading
the current movement in Balochistan for greater autonomy. He was the
public face and provided political support for the movement while his
grandson Brahamdagh Bugti leads the Bugti tribesmen.
In Hiding:
Bugti lead a protest against the present establishment in
Pakistan in February 2005, after the rape of a female doctor,Shazia Khalid
in Pakistan's Sui gas fields .The rapist allegedly was a certain Captain
Hamad of Pakistan Army. The Pakistani dictator, General Musharraf absolved
the captain of any wrongdoing without any judicial proceedings. The
General later had told the Washington Post that women like Shazia Khalid
had made it a business concern by getting raped to procure foreign visas
(see the WP link below) Violence erupted in the Sui area after the
high-handed tactics of Pakistan army. The Bugti tribesman attacked gas
installations in Sui and claimed the reaction to be "appropriate and
fitting". In the following months, Bugti's tribesmen launched attacks on
infrastructure and military/govt. installations while Bugti threatened the
government. Clashes continued until a ceasefire later that
year.
The members of the General Musharraf's inner circle i.e.
Chaudhary Shujaat Hussein and Mushahid Hussein met Bugti and negotiated a
political settlement. The General however, vetoed the agreement reached by
his own men and launched the military offensive against the Bugtis,
especially with an intent to decapitate them by killing Akbar Bugti. After
a major aerial attack using air to surface missiles, on his compound the
Nawab left his hometown of Dera Bugti, and went into hiding in the
Bhambore hills in Marri area.
While Bugti was well-loved by most
Baloch, many also frowned on his tribal background and lamented the lack
of development for his region during his stints in power. However, his
courage in standing up against an undemocratic establishment in an
environment where most politicians were either bribed or coerced into
submission was widely respected. The fact however,remains that from
1978-1984 the military ruler of Balochistan had a complete control over
the region, without any interference from Bugti or any other
leader.Instead of using this record time - longest period for any governor
in Pakistan's history- the army with General Rahimuudin focused on
developing its own infrastructure and running a covert war against the
former USSR.
Death: On Saturday
August 26, 2006, around 2230 hrs
(PST), Bugti, along with his grandsons Bramdakh and Mir Ali were killed in
a bombing operation that caused the cave roof to collapse on them. His
location was traced through the satellite phone he was using and Pakistani
secret service agencies pin-pointed his location. (It is not clear if he
was pinpointed through a satellite phone)[5] The news of his death was
broken to the media by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, leader of Pakistan Peoples
Party Parliamentarians.
Pakistan's Information Minister Ali Durrani, confirmed that the operation
included both air and ground assault. In a short telephonic interview made
to a Private TV network, Pakistani Information Minister said that Bugti's
death occurred as the cave he was in collapsed.
On August 24, 2006,
under controversial circumstances, some Bugti tribesmen announced an end
to the Nawabi system and requested the handing over of Nawab Bugti to
authorities. His property was seized and he was declared as a "proclaimed
offender.
Bugti's death was followed by rioting by hundreds of
students from the state-run Balochistan university. As the news flashed
across TV screens in Pakistan, the government deployed Rangers and
paramilitary forces across major cities to prevent a backlash and impose a
curfew in the provincial capital, Quetta. Security arrangements for the
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf have been beefed up to the highest
level and his movement has since been very restricted, fearing a
retaliatory attack. Security arrangements have been further enhanced in
and around all airports of Pakistan. The media both in Pakistan and
outside have severely condemned the killing as "Military€™s second biggest
blunder after Bhutto€™s execution" and calling it a "political nightmare".
Others have likened it to the East Bengal crisis of 1971 where military
violence eventually led to the Bangladesh Liberation War.
On 27
August 2006, some private media broadcasted news that Bugti's grandson
Bramdakh and Mir Ali are still alive but no official confirmation has been
made. [citation needed]
On September 1, 2006 Bugti was buried in
Dera Bugti, next to the graves of his son and brother. His family, who
wanted a public funeral in Quetta, did not attend the burial.
This
is one of the few instances in Asia of a government killing a political
leader who had previously served in high official positions€”as a cabinet
minister, Senator, and Governor.
Family: His surviving sons
are Jamil Akbar Bugti, Talal Akbar Bugti and Shahzwar Akbar Khan Bugti.
Brahamdagh
Bugti, Mir Aali and Tabish Bugti are Akbar
Bugti's grandsons.
(PST), Bugti, along with his grandsons Bramdakh and Mir Ali were killed in
a bombing operation that caused the cave roof to collapse on them. His
location was traced through the satellite phone he was using and Pakistani
secret service agencies pin-pointed his location. (It is not clear if he
was pinpointed through a satellite phone)[5] The news of his death was
broken to the media by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, leader of Pakistan Peoples
Party Parliamentarians.