CRSS report: Hawks prevented a planned Bugti-Musharraf rendezvous

The entire scheme was scuttled by delaying the aircraft Bugti was to use.


Umer Nangiana May 28, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


Most Baloch believe that had the Bugti-Musharraf meeting come about in 2005, Balochistan could have been different in 2010, according to a report released by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).


The report, titled Pakistan’s Security Challenges, quotes officials saying that a meeting had been arranged between then president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf and revered Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, who was eventually assassinated in August 2006 in an army operation.

Officials said a private aircraft had been sent to fetch Bugti from Sui. Bugti, who lived in Dera Bugti, travelled to Sui to leave for Islamabad but some hawkish elements within the military establishment apparently scuttled the entire scheme by delaying the aircraft on the pretext of a technical failure, according to the report.

Bugti waited for two hours at the Sui airport and then returned to Dera Bugti, after he understood the scheme. “Interestingly, the plane took off minutes after Bugti left, suggesting that some elements within the army opposed Musharraf’s rapproachement,” says the report, in its chapter titled Balochistan — Pakistan’s Festering Wound.

Later in 2005, Musharraf declared in a press conference at the President House that “only three sardars – Akbar Bugti, Khair Bux Marri and Ataullah Mengal – were the problem in Balochistan” boasting, “it is a different age, they wouldn’t know what hit them”, the report says.

Bugti’s killing coupled with existing “highhanded approach by security forces, economic backwardness, extremely poor governance and political patronage of criminal gangs” accentuated a situation which Baloch nationalist forces fully exploited and continue to do so.

They tend to project almost every action by security forces (police, levies, Frontier Corps (FC)) as an “act of oppression against Baloch nationalists”.  Narrating an incident of a terrorist attack on December 1 last year, the report says, “an unidentified armed group attacked a FC checkpost in Turbat around 7:30am resulting in the death of one person. Chased by FC personnel, the group took refuge in the house of Ayub Gichki, an uncle of former chief minister Akhtar Mengal, in the Overseas Residential Colony. When asked to surrender, those holed up inside responded with at least 15 grenade attacks. The episode ended with FC raiding the house and killing five people, including two sons of Gichki”. The incident sparked protests and strikes in several parts of Balochistan with almost all political parties blaming the government for killing “innocent Baloch” youth, the report adds.

Political patronage of criminal gangs involved in abductions for ransom, extortion and car theft is a major factor in the breakdown of law and order in the province, claims the report quoting informal consultations of CRSS researchers with Baloch and Pashtun individuals.

Citing the Balochistan Home Department, the report claims that 300 people were killed and 800 injured in 658 cases of sabotage and terrorism in Balochistan from January 1 to November 26, 2010, while between 2008 and 2009, 652 people died in such incidents.

“Official statistics reveal that as many as 316 people lost their lives in over 400 incidents of target and sectarian killing during 2010. Target killings were basically directed against Punjabi and Urdu-speaking settlers, including about 30 academics,” the report says.

More than 200 teachers have been transferred out of Balochistan for fear of being killed and another 200 were currently in the process.

In the spiralling violence, as many as eight prominent Baloch political leaders were killed in incidents of target killing and kidnappings. Hundreds of people including student leaders have gone missing, the report said.

Quoting a Brussels-based Baloch activist Mehran Baloch, the report said in the last four months of 2010, around 50 bullet-riddled bodies of Baloch missing persons were found in different areas of Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28th, 2011.

COMMENTS (15)

Noise | 12 years ago | Reply Adnan Aamir, Do you mean that the men killed here http://tribune.com.pk/story/179239/targeted-killing-three-labourers-gunned-down-in-panjgur/ Were they outlaws? You mean to tell me all those traders and teachers from Punjab that have been killed are outlaws? And what about the regular massacres of the Hazara people, are they all outlaws. Should we listen to you and believe you when you tell us who is an outlaw and who isnt? You are unjust and a racist. You can only see injustice happening against you own people but you become blind when your people are unjust to others. Cant you see that its common people from all races that are suffering. The only one who benefits is the elites, the Punjabi elite, the Baluchi elite etc. They are all making their own people dance to their tune, using them as pawns in a game where the prize is power and wealth. You say the Baluch are deprived, well were they a very wealthy people before the Punjabis took control? No. They were ALWAYS living hand-to-mouth while their sardars lived in luxury. That is the truth of the past and the present and it will be the truth for the future unless you stop being blind and see things as they truly are. Your sardars blame outsiders for deprivation which they themselves have caused and so kill two birds with one stone. They have their people attack ousiders and then extort money from private business and they also keep the anger of their own people away from them and directed at people who really are not the true cause of their poverty. Imam Zain ul Abideen (as) said: "The racist feeling that is a sin is the one that makes a person call the evil doers of his own people better than the virtuous individuals of the other people. A man’s loving his own people is not racism but it is a sin to help one’s own people to commit injustice"
Adnan Aamir | 12 years ago | Reply Shocking... This is my reaction after reading all the comments... Most of the people have no idea whats going in balochistan and they are just narrating heard stories... Those who talk about ethnic cleansing of Settlers in balochistan should know that they are killed by outlaws who are condemned by everyone and all state authorities are after them..... But what about the poor Baloch youth who are abducted, Tortured and killed by our own security agencies which are our so called defenders of nation..... Moving forward, I read someone that now Punjabi blood is cheap, i don't know in which world he lives? Its words actually fit the baloch blood..... As the baloch people are most deprived people of the country despite being richest in terms of their natural wealth thanks to our establishment. As far as Akbar bugti is concerned. he was a hero, a brave who should have been a statesman for Pakistan rather than cornered and being killed in a Cave at the hands of our own Army. for those who question his loyalty and allege other allegations against him for them I quote Gen. Wahid Kakar (Pak army chief 1993-96) He himself said that Akbar bugti was a patriot and He (General Waheed) wanted him to be the President of Pakistan in 1993. At the moment situation in balochistan is at the verge of disaster, another east pakistan like debacle can happen. We all have to prevent that from happening. For that we should accept what has been done wrong with Baloch people since 1947 and we also have to raise voice against the recent killings of Baloch youth and stop complaining like little children about baseless things that Akbar bugti was terrorist etc. I Hope you all have got my point, No offences and think by setting aside all prejudices Thank you..
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