Brahmdagh Bugti seeks asylum in Switzerland

Chief of the outlawed Baloch rebel group reaches Switzerland.

QUETTA: Nawabzada Brahmdagh Bugti, chief of an outlawed Baloch rebel group, is seeking political asylum in Switzerland, the party’s spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“Brahmdagh Bugti, who leads the banned Baloch Republican Party (BRP), has reached Switzerland and is safe,” BRP spokesperson Mir Sher Muhammad Bugti told The Express Tribune by phone from an undisclosed location.

Brahmdagh had gone into hiding following the death of Baloch chieftains Nawab Akbar Bugti and Balach Marri. He avoided contacting people for security reasons.

“Brahmdagh Bugti has submitted an application to the Swiss authorities seeking political asylum,” Mir Sher Muhammad said. “He will continue to take up the issue of human rights violations in Balochistan at the UN and other international forums,” the spokesperson added.

Brahmdagh Bugti also advised his supporters to continue their struggle for the rights of the Baloch people.

The government has made repeated claims about Brahmdagh Bugti’s presence in the Afghan capital of Kabul from  where he has been leading the Baloch insurgents.

He had founded the outlawed Baloch Republican Army (BRA) which is engaged in attacks on government installations and security forces in volatile parts of Balochistan. Pakistan authorities had taken up Brahmdagh’s matter with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, when he visited Islamabad last time. And the Afghan leader had promised to look into the matter.

Brahmdagh has been denying reports that he was hiding in Afghanistan and instead claimed that he was “leading a struggle for the rights of the Baloch people” from somewhere in Balochistan.

Recently, Nawabzada Hyrbyar Marri was also given political asylum in Britain on a British court’s orders. Earlier, Britain’s Home Office had rejected his application for political asylum.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2011.