Brahumdagh also confirmed to the BBC that he had met Chief Minister Baloch in Geneva in July. PHOTO: BBC
A top Baloch separatist leader met two senior officials of Pakistan government in a European capital earlier this year. Brahumdagh Bugti, the self-exiled leader of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP), met with Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch and SAFRON Minister Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch in the second week of July in Switzerland.
Brahumdagh is a grandson of popular Baloch chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti. He fled to Afghanistan after his grandfather was killed in a military operation in Kohlu district in August 2006. From Afghanistan, he flew to Switzerland, some say on an Indian passport, to seek political asylum. Government officials say he also leads the Baloch Republican Army (BRA), one of the several outlawed separatist groups blamed for most violence in the impoverished province.
A Balochistan government official confirmed the meeting, and said most matters have been worked out between the two sides. “Negotiations are ongoing and things will pan out within a month,” he told The Express Tribune off the record.
Brahumdagh also confirmed to the BBC that he had met Chief Minister Baloch in Geneva in July. But he believes Dr Malik has no ‘authority’ to negotiate. “Those who have the power and authority to change the situation should hold a dialogue with me,” he said.
Government sources said the self-exiled leader has made several demands that constitutionally only the federal government can grant. “The chief minister is mandated only to facilitate negotiations with the self-exiled Baloch leaders under the National Action Plan against terrorism,” another government official added.
Chief Minister Baloch first flew to Moscow in the first week of July and from there he travelled to Geneva to meet Brahumdagh. “It was a low profile visit due to the sensitivity of the issue.”
The new Commander of Southern Command Lt Gen Aamir Riaz recently indicated the Baloch insurgency has all but ended. Asked about the prospects of return of the self-exiled Baloch leaders in his first media interaction, he said the nation would hear the ‘big news’ within two months.
In August, Brahumdagh made headlines in Pakistani newspapers when told the BBC in an interview that he was ready to give up his demand for a separate Balochistan state should the Baloch people desired so. He had also indicated that he was willing to end his nine-year long self-exile and return to Pakistan.
A source in the inner circles of the Balochistan governement told RFE/RL’s Gandhara website that Brahumdagh was months away from returning to Pakistan. “He has agreed to come [back to Pakistan],” the website quoting an anonymous source as saying. “We have reached an agreement on 90 per cent of the issues.”
Marri opposes talks with exiled leaders
As the government reaches out to Baloch leaders living in self-exile abroad, chief of the Marri tribe on Wednesday opposed the initiative, complaining that he was kept out of the loop.
“Not a single government representative has approached me to negotiate with the Baloch leaders sitting abroad, including my brother Hyrbiyar Marri [who heads the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army],” Nawab Jangayz Marri said. “I’m in the dark on the peace talks.”
Speaking at a news conference at the Marri House in Quetta where 28 fighters of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and United Baloch Army (UBA) laid down their arms, Marri said he was trying to bring rebels into the national mainstream through a government amnesty scheme.
“I am trying my best to bring all the fighters into the mainstream.”
Marri, while refuting reports that he had held any talks with either Brahumdagh or any of the other exiled leaders, expressed fears that once these leaders returned to Pakistan they could fuel violence instead of quelling it.
“Previously, they [exiled Baloch leaders] were luring innocent Baloch through satellite phones. But once they return, it would be easy for them to direct their fighters and wage war against the state,” he warned.
Marri claimed that talks between the chief minister and the disgruntled Baloch leaders in London, Switzerland and Dubai had failed.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2015.
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