Caches, convoys and conspiracies

The arrest of Shahzain Bugti, the provincial chief of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) and grandson of the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, has raised the temperature in Balochistan by several degrees. The icy winter winds of Quetta are insufficient to lower it. The JWP has called a strike and stated a long march, from Kashmore to Dera Bugti, to press for the return of displaced Bugti tribesmen. Shahzain was to have led the march. The central president of the JWP, Talal Bugti, says he was ‘set up’ by intelligence agencies in a bid to prevent this. Both Shahzain and Talal Bugti hold that the huge cache of illegal weapons allegedly found in a convoy of vehicles, which included one belonging to Shahzain as he returned from Chaman to Quetta, was actually planted, with other vehicles carryings rocket launchers, guns and other arms suddenly joining Shahzain’s vehicles as they approached Quetta.

Such actions have been carried out before by agencies. It is not beyond them to devise such a plot. This is especially true in the context of Balochistan. It is hardly surprising that the JWP has expressed a lack of confidence in the probe ordered by the interior minister and sought an independent judicial investigation. There appears to be no harm in ordering one. The matter needs to be investigated so that there is no further acrimony with JWP leaders and other nationalists in the province.

It is ironic that the grandsons of the late Nawab Bugti should count among nationalists. For most of his life, he had stayed aloof from nationalist politics. From one perspective, the one already adopted by the Frontier Corps which arrested Shahzain, the affair can be regarded as a criminal act which deserves to be punished. This is true. But given the delicate situation of Balochistan, it is necessary to try and take leaders from the province along and avoid adding to existing tensions within the federation.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2010.