8/28/2006 11:45:54 PM
- By Seema Mustafa

New Delhi, Aug. 28: "The Pakistani military killed Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in cold blood, but even then our struggle will continue, it will be strengthened," two top Baloch leaders told this newspaper on Monday. They are not being quoted at this stage because of the risk to their lives following Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s justification of the murder of 80-year-old Nawab Bugti and his determined insistence that his government’s writ will prevail.

The two top Baloch leaders who spoke to this newspaper on the telephone from different cities are on the hitlist of the Pakistani government, finding place in what they said was a list of nine leaders being circulated as military targets. Of these, Nawab Bugti was killed along with his grandsons and other Baloch members on Sunday morning. The Baloch leaders said that this action by the government would prove "very heavy, not just for President Musharraf but for Pakistan." In their assessment, the repercussions would be far more intense and far-reaching than after the hanging of former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, as the protest was now spreading to other provinces of Pakistan.

The Baloch leaders, who will now be playing a major part in taking their movement forward, said that they had no freedom and enjoyed no rights in Pakistan. "Kashmiri leaders travel to New Delhi, where they are given red-carpet treatment, they are able to meet your Prime Minister and other top leaders, and they go back to Kashmir secure about their basic safety. Not a single Baloch leader can speak about his grievances in Islamabad, he will be arrested, and his wife and children at home will be picked up immediately," they said.

The anger was palpable even over the telephone as the younger leader of the two insisted that the military action had not scared the people of Baluchistan but only fuelled their "anger and hatred for the Pakistan Army dominated by Punjab." He said that the figures of those killed in the operation were yet to be obtained, as the entire province had been sealed by the Pakistan Army. "But we have proved with the death of our people that not just the young but even the old are prepared to be sacrificed for our rights," he said.

The Baloch leaders said, in response to Gen. Musharraf’s declaration that his government’s writ would run through the country: "We will not allow any illegal writ to run in Baluchistan. We are the sons of the soil, we own the natural resources and we will not allow Punjab or the Pakistan Army and the government to take away our rights." They said that such military operations would not deter their people, and the movement for autonomy would gather strength in the coming days as "we have the leaders to replace those who were martyred."

In fact, Nawab Akbar Bugti, in an almost prophetic interview to a Pakistan magazine had said several months ago: "General Sahib (Pervez Musharraf) has promised to hit us in such a way that we will not know what hit us. In one sense it is quick death that he is promising us. They could do this to a few Baloch leaders, but not the whole Baloch nation." His two colleagues said that he had been killed "in cold blood" by the Pakistan military as instead of seeking safer refuge or exile he had decided to join his people in the hills because of his deep commitment to the cause that he had struggled for decades.

Interestingly, the Baloch leaders insisted that Gen. Musharraf by himself was powerless and was just a "puppet in the hands of the Pakistani Army." They said: "Musharraf himself lives in a bunker now in the night as he is in danger and does not know when he will be attacked." They said that policy was being determined by a "clique of generals in league with a powerful lobby of businessmen from Punjab." The leaders said that the Americans were responsible for the current mess as well because of their short-term strategy. "The instability here is largely due to the wrong US strategy," they said.

Source: Asian Age