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Who Killed Akbar Bugti? Busting the insurgent’s case in Baluchistan
By
Zaid Hamid
Who Killed Akbar Bugti?
Busting the insurgent’s case in Baluchistan
Today, Pakistan is passing through the most critical phase of his history after the 1971 crisis. The country is already in a state of war and Pak army and the people have already given over 100,000 people shaheed and wounded in this imposed war. The American presence in Afghanistan has allowed the Indians to support multiple insurgencies and wars in Pakistani tribal areas, Baluchistan and in urban areas. Pakistan army and government are on record saying that these insurgencies are getting covert and clandestine support from foreign powers and India. US government is preparing grounds for an intervention in Baluchistan and great national security threats like Memo scandal have come to surface which has created a grave and unprecedented clash within the state organs weakening the state tremendously. Pakistan is being softened up for an invasion under US led Af-Pak and Indian led Cold Start military doctrine and a 4th generation war (4GW) is already upon Pakistan where urban gangs, economic collapse and insurgencies are tearing the very fabric of the state and the nation.
BrassTacks has been issuing warnings about the emerging combined threat of 4GW, Indian Cold Start and Af-Pak since the last five years through its research, analysis and publications.
In these most critical and dangerous critical times of national crisis and war, Baluchistan has been in the limelight, both in national and international media, since last many months due to whole range of different reasons. For international media, Baluchistan has become a burning issue due to alleged Taliban hideouts, mysterious Quetta Shura and the growing US interest in the province. War on Terror, the sudden US interest in human right issues of Baluchistan, the Akbar Bugti and missing person cases; all are interconnected issues
BrassTacks Policy Papers as the dynamics operating behind these issues are well amalgamated and have far reaching implications for national security.
The Environment: 1. Insurgencies: The province is in the grip of low level conflicts, linguistic violence and sabotage due to foreign funded terrorist and separatist movements like BLA and BRA. These terrorists’ outfits have training and logistical bases in Afghanistan supported by Indian RAW and CIA’s drug network.IGFC Baluchistan has also highlighted the role of foreign agencies in Baluchistan unrest and this was endorsed by the judicial commission. According to IGFC Baluchistan,more than 100 training camps were actively training the Baluch militants out of which almost 30 camps were located inside Afghanistan. Baluch separatists are now active in Karachi as well; supplying weapons and ammunition to the criminal gangs of Liyari. In May 2012, the authorities apprehended 3 BLA activists from Sher Shah Colony of Karachi while they were proliferating weapons from Baluchistan into the city.
BLA has put a ban on Pakistan’s National Anthem in the schools of the province and have killed many patriotic Pakistanis on raising the National Flag and reading National Anthem in the schools.
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2. Ethnic Strife: The Provincial government does not have a clue as to how to overcome the daily law and order situation. Ethnic target killings, kidnapping, coercion and intimidation of non-Baluch settlers, including Pushtun, Punjabi and Kashmiri, are common law and order incidents. The frequency of these incidents is ever increasing. About 100,000 people (mostly non-Baluch) have migrated to other provinces due to non-stop violence. The Blame of missing persons that is put on FC might also be linked to the fact that most of the FC personnel are of Pushtun ethnicity. Resultantly, Army, Federal government and Pakistan’s intelligence agencies becomes victim of media and Baluch separatists’ propaganda in Akbar Bugti case.
Who Killed Akbar Bugti?
3. Sectarian Violence: The sectarian violence has compounded the situation further particularly the killing of Hazara Shia settlers in and around Quetta city. It has been proven now that foreign secret services like CIA and Mossad are actively involved in sowing sectarian violence in order to recruit foot soldiers for international sectarian terrorist organization like Jindullah to operate in Iran. It is noteworthy fact that afterJindullah leadership was executed;due to joint efforts of Pakistani and Iranian intelligence agencies last year; the sectarian violence within Baluchistan, particularly against Hazara Shia, has compounded. 4. Governance issue: Today there is literary no government in Baluchistan. The FC was put under the Chief Minister Baluchistan but most of the time, he remains absent from the province..Most of the ministers in the province have been involved in filing cases against each other for kidnapping and sabotage. Former Interior Minister hinted during the missing case prosecution that the government would withdraw all the cases against the BLA founder Brahamdagh Bugti and the Balochistan Liberation Army leader Nawabzada Harbayar Marri. , This strengthened the perception that Islamabad is victimizing the local Bluch leaders. Certainly, the political situation in the province is nothing short of a comical circus where all the actors remain completely oblivious to the gravity of the ensuing chaos in the province.
5. Sardari System: The Tribal structure of Baluch society is the biggest challenge in provision of social and economic uplift of common Baluchis. All major tribes holds centuries old grudges against each other and this social dynamic plays a central role in the abuse of power against other tribes especially when a politician from a certain tribe joins the provincial or federal government. This feudal Sardari system has literally stalled the development in many parts of the province particularly in the restive districts while the Army is trying desperately for the social uplift of common man through building schools and hospitals. Every federal government in the history of Pakistan has used this tribal system for its own political gains.
Regional Geo-politics: Apart from containing China, the US would never like an economic block comprising Pakistan, Iran
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BrassTacks Policy Papers and Turkey to be connected through rail and road links, once again, making Baluchistan the most important region in South East Asia. Any such plan would go against the US strategic interests due to the following reasons; 1. Pak-Iran relations would be bolstered and the entire US investment on Jindullah would be wasted. 2. Iranian isolation would end in the region. 3. China, through Pakistan and Iran, would able to have access to Middle East and Europe, using Turkish land bridge. 4. Turkey would expand her clout beyond Middle East. Recent outreach to China for alternate Silk Route through Central Asia to Europe is part of this Turkish strategy.
5. The US dream of having a base in Baluchistan in order to keep an eye on Iran, Afghanistan and China would be withered away. The US had deployed a well worked out strategy to prevent the above mentioned developments. War on terror has provided CIA and Mossad the opportunities to launch multiple low level conflicts, terrorism, sabotage, psy-ops and espionage operations and insurgencies both in Pakistan and Iran. CIA ran a clandestine operation to attack Iran using sectarian Baluch elements. The idea was to create ethnic and sectarian unrest in Iran and sabotage Pak-Iran relations.
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Drone bases and intelligence gathering stations were established in Baluchistan behind the façade of combating terrorism. CIA is using stealth drone against Iran and Pakistan. But post-Salala Pakistani response forced the US to remove these bases and intelligence gathering stations. The US has been pushing for having a permanent intelligence bases in the province since many years, but refusal by Islamabad is among the main reasons of diplomatic strain between the two capitals. Pakistani security establishment believes that the recent US diplomatic, political and media maneuvering on Baluchistan –Congressional hearings, resolutions by the US senators for independent Baluchistan, cancelled seminar on Baluchistan crisis and threats to Pakistan from Panetta–are all part of pressure tactics to tame Pakistan in allowing CIA to establish its covert network and intelligence stations in the province.
Who Killed Akbar Bugti?
The US and CIA involvement in Baluchistan has been proven in case of Jundullah and covert espionage operations of CIA but a frequently asked question is why the Indian governments getting involved in the Baluchistan issue? From a pure strategic and security point of view the answer is straight forward one. The military dominance in any region depends on the capabilities to outmaneuver and outdone the enemy in rapidity and gaining control of terrain. After securing these objectives, the entire discussion about the actual conflict becomes futile till these earlier advantages are maintained through military and other means. It is a fact that Pakistan does not enjoy any strategic depth when it comes to military threat from India under her Cold Start Doctrine (CSD) except few districts of Baluchistan from where Pakistan would be able to launch a counter-offensive to beat back Indian Independent Battle Groups (IBGs). Flanking attacks against Indian IBGs, from Punjab and Sindh, wouldn’t be effective as CSD seeks the capability to make multiple ingresses in Pakistan across the international border simultaneously. An independent Baluchistan, indeed, would take away any kind of strategic depth that Pakistan has today, from the east of Iranian and Afghan borders to the west of Indus. Indian thinkers believe that after planned secession of Baluchistan, they would have the capability to cut Pakistan into two by attacking the soft belly of Pakistan (Rahim Yar Khan-Sakkar axis). To achieve this, since their arrival in Afghanistan after 9/11, Indians have been working on a strategy similar to the one they deployed in East Pakistan against West Pakistan in 1971. In the backdrop of all these ominous developments in and around Pakistan, the Akbar Bugti case must be examined in a larger national security perspective. The latest insurgency in Baluchistan has been ignited under a massive propaganda campaign that the “Pakistan army and the state “killed” Nawab Akbar Bugti in a well-planned “conspiracy” to eliminate the Baluch demands for rights”! The judicial system of the country is also being exploited by the separatist sympathizers to attack and destroy the state of Pakistan under this fabricated and deliberate propaganda. The political parties in Pakistan like PML(N) are also exploiting the issue to settle their personal scores with former President Musharraf without looking into the facts of the case, hence are supporting the hostile and separatists propaganda and thus are fuelling the rebellion and insurgency in the province.
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The facts of the case are: 1. Akbar Bugti was NOT killed by the state or by the army. He had committed suicide to avoid custody. 2. The disturbances which led to his death were triggered when the government of Pakistan intervened to settle an inter-tribal feud within the Bugti tribe. For the last 10 years, thousands of patriotic and poor Bugti tribesmen from Raheja, Messori and Kalpar clans were exiled by Nawab Akbar Bugti to the areas of Multan and dera Ghazi Khan. These honorable Baluchis were subjected to most inhuman humiliation, murders, kidnappings, poverty and exile due to the crimes and cruelties of Akbar Bugti. The leaders of the exiled Bugti is Mir Ahmadan Bugti, the present MNA in Dera Bugti. 3. Upon the request of these exiled patriotic Pakistani Bugti Baluch, a plan was drawn to settle them back into their home villages in Sui and Dera Bugti. Upon this, Akbar Bugti, staged a massive rebellion against the state, attacking the Gas lines and the security forces. The entire country suffered due to destruction of Gas lines and power systems as Akbar Bugti tried to block the resettlement of his own tribe whom he had exiled through sheer force violating every norm of tribal and national laws. 4. But once the exiled Baluch Bugti tribes reached their villages, Akbar Bugti decided to escape and hide in the mountains. The exiled Bugti tribes were after his blood and were hunting for him to take revenge. Pakistan army decided to take Akbar Bugti into protective custody to save his life from his own people who were now bent upon revenge for inflicting upon them the misery of exile, death and poverty.
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5. A team of 5 Special Forces Commandoes, including senior officers and Jawans, were invited by Akbar Bugti into his hiding cave to settle terms of surrender. The army officers and men were empty handed and had gone in for negotiations. But once the officers entered the cave, Akbar Bugti triggered an explosive device which brought down the entire cave, killing him and the 5 SSG officers and men. He committed suicide and also murdered the army officers.
Who Killed Akbar Bugti?
6. The entire Bugti tribe refused to pray Namaz e Jinaza for the slain Nawab Akbar Bugti. Just a handful people joined in the prayers. There was NOT a single protest in Dera Bugti over his death. The present MNA and cousin of Nawab Bugti Mir Ahmadaan Bugti openly acknowledged that Akbar Bugti has committed suicide and had also murdered the army officers. Every member of Bugti clan knows this. 12
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7. The Daily Times, a newspaper run by close friends of Akbar Bugti, Najam Sethi also published a story quoting a close friend of Akbar Bugti that he had refused to give himself up and had committed suicide.
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Who Killed Akbar Bugti?
8. But the hostile anti-state elements pounced upon the event to launch a massive propaganda war to prove Akbar Bugti a victim of state terrorism and a deliberate conspiracy of murder, dragging even the civilian members of the government including former Governor Owais Ghani, former Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and Jam Yusuf etc, when in reality they had nothing to do with the case at all.
9. The family of Akbar Bugti has now started to exploit the judicial system of the state as well to launch murder case against former President, former Governor, and former Interior Minister. This is not just massive violation of facts and gross violation of fundamental rights as well as the entire case of fake and implicates innocent men. It is also dangerous for the state and the nation as the judicial system of being exploited to prove that state of Pakistan was involved in deliberate murder of Akbar Bugti.
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Who Killed Akbar Bugti?
10. In reality, Akbar Bugti had committed a rebellion, had waged a war against the state and his own tribe and when cornered, he committed suicide while also murdering 5 army personnel. But these facts have never been reported by the media, never taken up by the courts and the separatists’ are fully exploiting the lies, deceptions and propaganda in the environments to wage a war against the state of Pakistan, against the army and against the former members of the government in these dangerous times.
11. The Akbar Bugti operation was a state authorized military mission to settle exiled Pakistani Baluch Bugti tribes back into their home towns and was NOT an individual, collective or state conspiracy to murder Akbar Bugti. He died due to suicide committed to avoid protective custody while an unarmed team of Pak army personnel was negotiating his honorable custody. The team was also killed when Bugti committed suicide, inflicting great loss to the nation, SSG and the families of the shaheed officers and men.
Final Thoughts: Today, Bugti family is waging a war against the state and its vital security institutions and patriotic Pakistanis on legal and military levels. While Bugti’s son has registered cases against the state institutions, his grandson is running one of the most sinister and ruthless sabotage and terrorism campaign against the state from Afghanistan with the help of anti-Pakistan forces like CIA/RAW and Mossad, operating in that country. BLA is the legacy left behind by Bugti and is now run by his family. Pakistan’s judicial system must not become the pummeling tool against the state by the separatists to destroy the state and its offices or to settle personal scores based on fake cases. If the judicial system fails to respond to this grave threat by solving the case on the merit, by taking into consideration the above mentioned facts, due to this massive malicious propaganda, the state of Pakistan would suffer irrevocable damage in these most sensitive times of existential war against the state!
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About BrassTacks: BrassTacks is a unique Independent and Private Pakistani Security Think Tank and Defense Analysis Consulting Group specializing in cutting edge and groundbreaking research on International, Regional and National Security, Political and Economic issues. Contact information is given below: BrassTacksHouse # 686, Askari Road, Askari III Chaklala Scheme III, Rawalpindi Phone: 051 – 5598046-7 Cell: 0321- 5001370 http://www.brasstacks.pk http://www.zaidhamid.pk
About the Author: The author is renowned defense and security analyst with vast experience and insight on Afghan war, geostrategic and global politics. He is also founder of Brasstacks. He can be reached at syedzaidzamanhamid@gmail.com
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