Wednesday, February 08, 2006



Bugti’s Balochistan fortress deserted

* DCO says three killed in ammunition dump fire
* Residents leaving Sui after Kalpar tribe resettlement


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C02%5C08%5Cstory_8-2-2006_pg1_2

By Azizullah Khan

QUETTA: The fort of Nawab Akbar Bugti in Dera Bugti caught fire on Monday night as the last employees of the tribal chief vacated the building, a Bugti spokesman said.

Dera Bugti District Coordination Officer Abdul Samad Lasi said that an arms and ammunition dump in the building had caught fire and security forces found three tribesmen’s bodies in the deserted fort. “We recovered three bodies, all appeared to have been hit by splinters from exploded ammunition,” he said. He said the Nawab’s employees probably set fire to the ammunition dump before they fled the fort.

Asked how the fort had caught fire, tribal spokesman Shahid Bugti told a press conference at the Quetta Press Club that security forces had intensified attacks on the building in recent days, and mortars had hit five vehicles of Nawab Bugti. He denied that anybody had been killed.

Lasi said security forces on Tuesday captured three suspected training bases used by the tribesmen and seized rocket launchers, rockets, bombs and AK-47 rifles. They also arrested two men as they were planting an anti-tank land mine on the road between Dera Bugti and Sui.

Bugti said at least 75 people, mostly women and children, and 62 security personnel have been killed in 38 days of military activity in Dera Bugti. The government has given no death toll on either side since it launched an operation in areas of Balochistan controlled by the Bugti and Marri tribes in December.

The government says the sardars of these tribes run private militias which have repeatedly attacked government-owned infrastructure in the province and security officials, including a rocket attack on Gen Pervez Musharraf when he was visiting Kohlu on December 14 and an attack on the head of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force.

As part of its strategy to establish its writ and wrest control of areas from tribal chiefs, the government last week relocated members of the Kalpari Badlani sub tribe in Sui, from where they were exiled 10 years ago by a tribal jirga.

According to reports from Sui, residents started leaving the town soon after the government resettled the Kalpar Badlani sub tribe. Locals said that the resettled tribals were forcing them to leave. Many have left for Dera Murad Jamali, Kandhkot and Shikarpur.

The Kalpars were expelled from the area 10 years ago on the decision of a jirga. Locals says the tribal dispute started when Kalpars were killed and Nawab Akbar Bugti’s son was named as the accused, though he was later declared innocent. However, Salal Bugti, another son of the Nawab, was then killed in Quetta in 1992. Shahid Bugti said a jirga then decided in 1996 that the Kalpars must leave the area.