Return of native: Gohram Bugti sets out for homestead with IDPs

Says if anything happens to them, the responsibility would lie with the federal government.

QUETTA:

Nawabzada Gohram Bugti, the grandson of slain Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti and son of leader of Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) Nawabzada Talal Bugti, has set out for Dera Bugti along with a number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

If anything happened to them, the responsibility would lie with the federal government, Gohram Bugti told reporters at Quetta airport on his arrival from Islamabad along with the Bugti IDPs and media persons.

Talking to the scribe, one of the journalists, who accompanies the IDPs, said that the government of Balochistan has extended its cooperation to the convoy of Gohram Bugti and they are leaving under government protection. The security would escort them up to the home of Nawab Akbar Bugti.

Talking to reporters, Gohram Bugti said that the former caretaker government had not allowed his cousin Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti to enter Dera Bugti, adding that if the incumbent government made any such attempts, the situation could deteriorate.

He said that the government should not stop them from going to their homes as it was their constitutional right.

Responding to a question, he said that there was no danger of any tribal clash if they go to Dera Bugti because the widow of Wadera Khan Muhammad Kalpar is also with them in the convoy.

The Kalpars and Bugtis were sworn enemies and a lot of blood had been spilt in the past over the tribal feud. Consecutive governments kept supporting either of the party to maintain stability in the region, which is home to Sui gas field.

He said that they were going to Dera Bugti not for fighting but for making peace. He said that Assistant Commissioner Dera Bugti had told them that they had vacated the (fortress) House of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and they would now go there. When asked if Nawabzada Shahzain was also going with him, he said that this time he was going alone with other IDPs.

Background

After the government’s military operation in Balochistan in 2006-2007, an estimated 170,000 tribesmen migrated from Dera Bugti and its adjoining districts. They were later kept from resettling in their homes. According to Gohram, over 200,000 are homeless since 2005.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2013.