Nawab Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti (July 12, 1927–August 26, 2006) was the Tumandar (head) of the Bugti tribe of the Baloch, and had served as governor of the restive Balochistan Province in Pakistan. An Oxford[1]-educated man in a land of widespread illiteracy, he was a towering personality in the Baloch politics for more than five decades.
After an armed struggle started in Balochistan in 2004, Bugti was widely perceived as the leader, going underground in 2005. On August 26, 2006, after several attempts in the preceding months[2] the Pakistan army killed him in an aerial bombardment on his cave in Kohlu, about 150 miles east of Quetta, leadi ng to widespread unrest in the area, where he is unanimously regarded as a hero and martyr.
With a wide following that crossed tribal lines across most ethnic Baloch groups, the contradictions in this western educated tribal leader roused the strongest emotions, both positive and negative. Despite taking harsh decisions at times which is occasionally a must for a tribal leader, he had a pacifist image in many groups, and certainly did not espouse a violent path in his early political career. In recent years, he was accused by the Pakistani government of being a warlord, running a well-organized militia sometimes considered to be the shadowy Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) numbering in the thousands. The BLA allegedly, ran dozens of militant guerrilla training camps. Campaigning from the mountain ranges of Dera Bugti he was, according to the Pakistani government, directing a “Fidel Castro/Che Guevara†style guerrilla war. In July 2006, Pakistani dictator, General Musharraf had targeted him through aerial bombing, using air force jets and gunship helicopters the leader of Balochistan National Party (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar Mengal said: "The increase in bomb attacks in the Bugti and Marri areas are meant to target Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and his associates and called upon of the international community to take note of the situation.
With epithets such as The Tiger of Balochistan, The Trade Unionist or Gas Man (supposedly having ownership of many gas fields) he was a towering figure in Baloch world. The longstanding conflict in Balochistan stems from the quantum of autonomy the province was promised when they joined Pakistan in 1947 and then under the 1973 Pakistani constitution. Today a large faction is campaigning and at times resorting to arms, for an autonomy which is Balochistan's due under the promises made to its people by various Pakistani leaders. BLA, is painted by the Pakistani government as a "great threat" to law and order in Balochistan and was recently banned by the Government of Pakistan as well as by the United Kingdom, following intense lobbying by Pakistan.
LIFE :-
He was the son of Nawab Mehrab Khan Bugti and a grandson of Sir Shahbaz Khan Bugti. He was born in Barkhan on July 12, 1927. A former Governor and Chief Minister of Balochistan. He was educated at Oxford, England and Aitchison College, Lahore. It is alleged that he killed his first man when he was only 12, and that he had several killed to avenge the assassination of his son (Salal Bugti).
Nawab Akbar Bugti was elected in a by-election to the National Assembly of Pakistan in May 1958 to fill the vacancy created as a result of the assassination of the incumbent, Dr Khan Sahib and sat on the government benches as a member of the ruling coalition.
Bugti (Republican) served as Minister of State (Interior) in the government of Prime Minister Malik Sir Feroz Khan Noon (Republican) from September 20, 1958 to October 7, 1958, when the cabinet was dismissed on the declaration of Martial Law by President Iskander Mirza.
He was arrested and convicted by a Military Tribunal in 1960, and subsequently disqualified from holding public office. As a result of his legal battles, he did not contest the 1970 general elections. Instead, he campaigned on behalf of his younger brother, Sardar Ahmed Nawaz Bugti, a candidate of the National Awami Party.
However, Bugti developed differences with the NAP leadership, especially the new Balochistan Governor, Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizenjo. He informed the Federal Government and President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Pakistan Peoples Party) about the alleged London Plan, which resulted in the dismissal of the provincial governor as well as the Chief Minister Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal and his cabinet on February 14, 1973.
The next day, the Federal Government appointed Bugti as the Governor of Balochistan, and the Pakistan Army was deployed in the province as part of a crackdown on the National Awami Party.
He resigned on January 1, 1974 after disagreeing with the manner in which the Federal Government was carrying out policies in Balochistan. The army had deployed 100,000 men in Balochistan and with the help of the Iranian air force had resorted to wholsesale murder of the Baloch. Muhammad Raza Shah Pehlavi, the King of Iran had sent F-14 fighter jets along with his pilots, to help Pakistani army suppress the Baloch. The Pakistani army killed more than 4000 Baloch in these operations.
There was a lull in his activities when General Rahimuddin Khan was appointed as Governor of Balochistan in 1978. Bugti remained silent throughout the course of Rahimuddin's rule, which was often characterized by hostility towards the Baloch Sardars.
In 1988, he joined the Balochistan National Alliance and was elected Chief Minister on February 4, 1989. His government frequently disagreed with the Federal Government led by the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan Peoples Party).
Bugti resigned on August 6, 1990 when the provincial assembly was dissolved by Governor of Balochistan General Muhammad Musa Khan in accordance with the instructions of President Ghulam Ishaq Khan exercising his authority by virtue of Article 58 (2 b) of the Constitution of Pakistan.
The incoming caretaker Chief Minister Mir Humayun Khan Marri was his son-in-law.
For the 1990 General Elections, Bugti formed his own political party, the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), being Balochistan's single largest party and was elected to the provincial assembly.
In 1993, he was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan representing the JWP in parliament. Also in 1993 Nawab Bugti announced his candidacy to be President of Pakistan, but later withdrew his candidacy and announced his support to the eventual winner Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari. In 1997, Nawab Bugti was reelected to the National Assembly of Pakistan representing the JWP.
Bugti was involved in struggles, at times armed ones, in Balochistan in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was leading the current movement in Balochistan for greater autonomy. He was the public face and provided political support for the movement while his grandson Brahamdagh Bugti leads the Bugti tribesmen.
DEATH :-
On Saturday August 26, 2006, around 2230 hrs (PST), Bugti, along with his grandsons Bramdakh and Mir Ali were killed in a bombing operation that caused the cave roof to collapse on them. His location was traced through the satellite phone he was using and Pakistani secret service agencies pin-pointed his location. (It is not clear if he was pinpointed through a satellite phone)[5] The news of his death was broken to the media by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, leader of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians.
Pakistan's Information Minister Ali Durrani, confirmed that the operation included both air and ground assault. In a short telephonic interview made to a Private TV network, Pakistani Information Minister said that Bugti's death occurred as the cave he was in collapsed.
On August 24, 2006, under controversial circumstances, some Bugti tribesmen announced an end to the Nawabi system and requested the handing over of Nawab Bugti to authorities. His property was seized and he was declared as a "proclaimed offender.
Bugti's death was followed by rioting by hundreds of students from the state-run Balochistan university. As the news flashed across TV screens in Pakistan, the government deployed Rangers and paramilitary forces across major cities to prevent a backlash and impose a curfew in the provincial capital, Quetta. Security arrangements for the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf have been beefed up to the highest level and his movement has since been very restricted, fearing a retaliatory attack. Security arrangements have been further enhanced in and around all airports of Pakistan. The media both in Pakistan and outside have severely condemned the killing as "Military’s second biggest blunder after Bhutto’s execution" and calling it a "political nightmare". Others have likened it to the East Bengal crisis of 1971 where military violence eventually led to the Bangladesh Liberation War.
On 27 August 2006, some private media broadcasted news that Bugti's grandson Bramdakh and Mir Ali are still alive but no official confirmation has been made. [citation needed]
On September 1, 2006 Bugti was buried in Dera Bugti, next to the graves of his son and brother. His family, who wanted a public funeral in Quetta, did not attend the burial.
This is one of the few instances in Asia of a government killing a political leader who had previously served in high official positions—as a cabinet minister, Senator, and Governor.
