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Pak closes Quetta airport, trains cancelled
by Muhammad Anwer

       Quetta: Tension is running high in all parts of Pakistan's largest province, Balochistan, with all rail and air links to the provincial capital, Quetta, being cut off. With the situation worsening in the province, following army action in Sibbi and Turbat, both areas lying on the border between Balochistan and Sindh, in the wake of the reported killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti by the Pakistan armed forces, the government has ordered the shutting down of all commercial operations at the airport and suspension of railway operations between Quetta and other parts of Pakistan. So sensitive is the political situation in Baluchistan; that the government has ordered the winding up and arrest of several Bugti and Baloch tribesmen.

      Last evening, four Marri commanders and about 1,500 rebel tribesmen or Fararis surrendered before the Pakistan military, apparently because they had lost hope after Bugti's death. According to informed sources, the surrender ceremony took place at Thadri, which is about 100 kilometres away from the Kohlu Hills; the last reported hideout of Akbar Khan Bugti. The commanders who surrendered included Wadera Gazi Khan Marri, Wadera Bakht Ali Sherani Marri, Kari Khan Marri, Ruba Goryani Marri, Wadera Azeem, alias Bhuda, and Wadera Shamboo Khan Marri. They were reportedly operating in Bhambor, Hashpur and Dango Khan, and said that they had decided to surrender because they were impressed with its massive development projects being undertaken by the government in the province,. The Anjuman-e-Ittehad Marri, however, dismissed the surrender ceremony as a "farcical" exercise and drama.It dismissed the reported surrender of Fararis, saying that they were not militants, but common citizens of Kohlu. Baluch rebels, they said had no links with Islamist fighters on the Pakistan-Afghan border, and were just interested in securing their self-determined rights. Analysts say Bugti's killing is likely to inflame the opposition in Baluchistan and could a stir nationalist sentiment in the three other provinces against President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup. The rebels have been waging an insurgency for decades for the autonomy and a greater share of profits from Baluchistan's resources. In the last year, they have stepped up their attacks with a string of bloody raids and bomb blasts.

Baluchis cut off road ties with Pakistan

        Quetta: As a direct fallout of last Saturday's killing of Baloch leader Akbar Khan Bugti, the agitation in Baluchistan is now spreading, and today, the main RCD highway connecting Baluchistan to the rest of Pakistan was sealed by protesting Baluchis. Life in Quetta, besides other parts of Balochistan has been severely affected by a partial strike. Trucks carrying supplies from Sindh to other parts of Pakistan were stopped. Those trucks carrying goods from Punjab province were particularly targeted. All along the RCD Highway today, bands of Baluchi youth, shouting `Azadi' slogans, brought traffic to a complete standstill. Heavy boulders and roads have been placed on various parts of the highway, while Quetta City was cut-off from the highway. Protesters putting up burnt tyres and raising barriers at the Hub River Bridge linking Karachi to Balochistan have cut off the road from Sindh to the industrial city of Hub. The enraged demonstrators have also raised barriers on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway at Lakh Pas, Mastung, Qalat, Khuzdar, Wadh and other areas obstructing all sorts of traffic. The road between Quetta and Iran has also been blocked off. Traffic has also been blocked at Nowshki, Dalbadin, Chaghi and Taftan. The anger is spilling over, and the violence has wrecked large parts of Baluchistan, where the mood is to cut off ties and communication with the rest of the country.

Bugti's grandsons declare war on
Musharraf regime

       Quetta: The two grandsons of Baloch tribal leader Akbar Khan Bugti, Hamdad Bugti and Ali Nawaz Bugti, who were earlier feared dead, have surfaced and established contact with their relations in Quetta. After the Ghaibane Janaaza, a funeral conducted without the body, at Quetta's Ayub Stadium, both grandsons issued a statement that they would be leading the Baloch people in a war against Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. The statement was issued in the presence of a gathering of more than 10,000 people. The statement further went on to say that the Baloch war against Islamabad would be intensified, and that it was the "responsibility of each and every Baloch to seek revenge for the murder" of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti" during the August 26 military operation in the Kohlu Hills, 220 kilometres east of Quetta. Both Hamdad and Ali Nawaz Bugti had gone underground with their grandfather earlier this year after the Pakistan Government sought to tighten the noose around rebel Baloch factions, especially the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which was seen as an anti-development and anti-progress element in Pakistan's largest, yet poorest province. The grandsons and Akbar Bugti shared a very close and affectionate relationship, especially after their father and Bugti's eldest son, Salal Bugti, was killed by members of the rival Kalpar tribe in June 1992 following an intra-tribal feud that had been simmering for some years. The situation took a turn for the worse in the early 1990s, when Akbar Bugti allegedly killed Amir Hamza, the son of Kalpar leader Khan Mohammad Kalpar, in May 1992 in Dera Bugti during a local bodies' election. The death of Amir Hamza led to the retaliatory murder of Salal Bugti. Ever since, Akbar Bugti's primary goal was to remove the Kalpars and Masuris (another sub-tribe of the Bugti clan) from the region or to physically eliminate them. Besides these personal and political factors, the Kalpars had also staked a claim to the Sui gas fields located in their area. Their demand to be the primary beneficiaries of its royalties had infuriated Akbar Bugti, who was an individual who brooked no opposition to his leadership of the Bugti tribe.

Pak alliance protests Bugti's killing

      Karachi: A country-wide protest launched by the opposition Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) against Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti's killing by the Pakistan army has paralysed the south and the western provinces of the country. The country's national highways wore a deserted look and the traffic on the Karachi-Balochistan Highway was completely disrupted. Though the ARD had said that the protest rallies would be peaceful, the anger and grief over Bugti's killing has made the situation tense. The ARD has called for a nation-wide strike on September 1 and announced the holding of an All-Party Conference in Islamabad and a public meeting in Lahore over the Bugti killing issue. Today, the Four-Party Baloch Ittehad has called for a general strike across Balochistan. Tension prevails in the Baloch dominated areas of Lyari, Malir, Memon Goth, Khokarapar and Gizri.

Bugti was killed by cluster bombs

      Quetta: Nawabzada Hyrbair Marri has alleged that cluster bombs were used to kill Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and other tribesmen in last Saturday's military operation in the Kohlu Hills. Rejecting the government's claims that Bugti had died because of the collapse of his cave hideout, Marri said that the armed forces had targeted him with gunship helicopters and jet fighters. "The story of the cave's collapse is a propaganda ruse of the rulers to deceive the people," Marri was quoted by the Dawn, as saying. Issuing an appeal to the world media to visit the site of Bugti's killing to expose the real truth behind the operation, Marri said that Nawab Bugti's death was planned and not an accident, as was being touted by Islamabad.

     Marri was reacting to a statement issued by Major-General Shaukat Sultan, the Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), who said that Bugti had not been killed by the Pakistan Army, but in an accident. Major-General Shaukat Sultan claimed that the terrain was very rugged and almost inaccessible. He said a tribesman from the Bugti clan, who was guiding law-enforcement agencies, had earlier entered the cave and confirmed the presence of people inside, including Akbar Bugti. After sometime the guide returned to the commanding officer of law-enforcement agencies, who then went inside the cave. During this process, the cave collapsed all of sudden, leaving all inmates of the cave dead. Sultan said the commanding officer had gone into the cave to negotiate with Akbar Bugti for his arrest as the government had intended to take him into custody. Sultan said there was no confirmation about the presence of any of the kinsmen of Akbar Bugti. Giving details of the incidents between August 24 and August 26, Sultan said that during the three days of engagement, seven personnel of law-enforcement agencies were martyred, including four officers one JCO and two other ranks. Sultan said the bodies of the law enforcers were recovered on August 26 and August 27 as they had not covered much distance inside the cave and the rituals were carried out on August 28. Marri, however, urged the Baloch people to unite in the face of aggression.

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