Nawab Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti (July 12, 1927–August 26, 2006) was the Tumandar (head) of the Bugti tribe of Baloch and served as Minister of State for Interior and Governor of Balochistan Province in Pakistan.^[1]

After an armed struggle started in Balochistan in 2004, Bugti was widely perceived as a leader but went underground in 2005. On August 26, 2006, after several attempts were made on his life in the preceding months,^[2] he was killed in his cave in Kohlu, about 150 miles east of Quetta, leading to widespread unrest in the area, where he is widely regarded as a hero and martyr.^[3]

Akbar Bugti was the son of Nawab Mehrab Khan Bugti and a grandson of Sir Shahbaz Khan Bugti. He was born in Barkhan the rural home of the rustic Khetran a ( Marri-Bugti ) Baloch tribe to which his mother belonged and now an upgraded district of Balochistan, on July 12, 1927. He claims to have been educated at Oxford,^[4][5] England and Aitchison College, Lahore. It is alleged that he committed his first murder when he was only 12 and that he had several men killed to avenge the assassination of his son, (Salal Bugti).

His main source of income was from commission he extracted from the Sui gas field amounting estimated £1 million a year and provided security to the fields for estimated £15000 per month.

In politics

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 bench 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, Ghaus Baksh Bizenjo. He informed the Federal Government and President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Pakistan Peoples Party) of 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 airforce killed large numbers of Balochis. Muhammad Raza Shah Pahlavi, the King of Iran, sent F-14 fighter jets and AH-1 gunships along with his pilots, to help Pakistan Army combat the insurgency. The Pakistani army is alleged to have killed more than 4000 Balochi, mostly Marri insurgents, in these operations. Akbar Bugti is said to have supported the military action.

There was a lull in his activities when General Rahimuddin Khan was appointed 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, who was exercising his authority by virtue of Article 58 (2 b) of the Constitution of Pakistan. 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 of the eventual winner, Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari. In 1997, Nawab Bugti was re-elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan, representing the JWP.

Balochistan conflict

Bugti was involved in struggles, at times armed ones, in Balochistan in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He led the current movement in Balochistan for greater autonomy. He was the public face and provided political support for the movement while his grandson, Brahamdagh Khan Bugti, led the Bugti tribesmen.^[6]

In recent years, he was accused by the Pakistani government of being a warlord and running a well-organized militia, sometimes thought to be the shadowy Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) with members numbering in the thousands. The BLA allegedly ran dozens of militant guerrilla training camps. While campaigning from the mountain ranges of Dera Bugti, he was, according to the Pakistani government, directing a “Omar Mukhtar, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara” style guerrilla war. In July 2006, Pakistani president General Musharraf targeted him through aerial bombing, using air force jets and gunship helicopters. The leader of Balochistan National Party, 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 the international community to take note of the situation.^[7]

The tribal militias of Nawab Akbar Bugti were converted into the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in 2003. Bugti has been alleged to have Indian backing. According to a report in the Urdu daily Ummat of Karachi, (7 December 2005) a Hindu leader from Dera Bugti and the former member of Balochistan Provincial Assembly, Arjun Das Bugti is the link between Indian secret agencies and the Bugtis. Arjun Das shifted to New Delhi in 2001. The BLA commanders take a proper oath from new recruits and pay them Rs 2,000 and 3,000 a month; Nawab Akbar Bugti pays household expenditure to the militants’ families. According to an official source Brahamdagh Bugti (alias Chaakar-i-Azam) and Commander Bangaam Karmazai are in charge of smuggling the weapons. These commanders also are taking care the kidnapping for ransom operations. Usually they kidnapped industrialists and rich businessmen from Karachi and Central Sindh. The grand son of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the head of the Bugti tribe and the Jamhoori Watoon Party (JWP) Brahamdagh Bugti holds the command of the organization.^[8]

Death

On Saturday August 26, 2006, around 2230 hrs (PST), Bugti was killed when a shell exploded in the cave in which he was hiding. The Pakistani government says that he killed himself along with senior security officials by firing a shell when he was cornered by the Pakistani officials who had come unarmed to arrest him, resulting in the collapse of the cave.^[9] Five Pakistani troops also died.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf termed his death a victory for Pakistanis and congratulated the secret service chief who carried out this operation. Pakistan's Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani, confirmed that the operation included both air and ground assault. In a short telephone interview, made to a private television network, the Pakistani Information Minister said that Bugti's death occurred as the cave he was in collapsed.

There have been stories reported in the press that Akbar Bugti's otherwise Marri allies, who apparently were still embittered by his support of the 1970s military operation against them, exposed his hiding place to the Army, who surrounded the area and sent in a few unarmed senior officers in charge of the operation along with a Bugti guide into the Nawab's cave to negotiate a surrender. Given Akbar Bugti's renowned stubbornness and non-compromising attitude, it is thought that Bugti or his associates detonated explosives in the cave, killing all present inside, including the army negotiators and Akbar Bugti himself.^[10]

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.^[11] His property was seized, and he was declared as a "proclaimed offender."^{[citation needed]}

Funeral and rioting

Bugti's death was followed by rioting by hundreds of students from the state-run Balochistan university.^[12] As the news flashed across television 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.^[12] 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 condemend the killing as the "[m]ilitary’s second biggest blunder after Bhutto’s execution" and calling it a "political nightmare".^[13] Others have likened it to the East Bengal crisis of 1971 where military violence eventually led to the Bangladesh Liberation War.^[14]

On August 27, 2006, some private media broadcast news that Bugti's grandsons, Brahamdagh and Mir Ali, are still alive, but no official confirmation has been made.

On September 1, 2006 Bugti was buried in Dera Bugti with three locks on his coffin, next to the graves of his son and brother. His family, who wanted a public funeral in Quetta, did not attend the burial, they protested against his body being locked in the coffin .^[15]

Family

Nawab Mehrab Khan Bugti, son of Sir Shahbaz Khan Bugti had two sons, Nawab Akbar Bugti and Sardar Ahmed Nawaz Bugti. Nawab Akbar Bugti had two wives and five sons and seven daughters. From his first wife: Nawabzada Saleem Khan Bugti, Nawabzada Talal Khan Bugti, Nawabzada Rehan Khan Bugti, and Nawabzada Salal Khan Bugti. Of these four sons, three have died. Nawabzada Salal Bugti was murdered in a shootout in Quetta by the rival Bugti Kalpar sub clan in June 1992. From Nawab Akbar Bugti's second wife; Nawabzada Jameel Akbar Bugti. Jamil Akbar Bugti, and Talal Akbar Bugti, are the surviving sons of Nawab Akbar Bugti.Sardar Ahmed Nawaz Khan Bugti had three daughters, one of his daughter died in a very young age and he had three sons Sardar Mir Beveragh Khan Bugti, Mir Murataza Bugti and Mir Fahd Bugti.

Akbar Bugti has five daughters from his first wife, whose names are Nawabzadi: Durr-e-shahwar, Nilofur, Nazneen (deceased), Durdana, and Dreen, and two daughters from his second wife, whose names are Shahnaz Marri (wife of Nawab Khair Bux Marri's far relative, Humayun Khan Marri) and Farah Naz Bugti (wife of Bivragh Bugti, the son of Nawabzada Ahmed Nawaz Bugti),they are the sisters of Jameel Akbar Bugti.

The Bugti grandsons consist of Nawab Mir Aali Bugti and Nawabzada Koh Purosh Bugti (deceased) (these are the sons of Salim Bugti's Zehri wife), Taleh Bugti (He is the son of Salim Bugti's Punjabi wife). Nawab Sardar Mir Brahamdagh Khan Bugti (son of Rehan Khan Bugti), Shazain Bugti, Gohram Bugti and Bahram Bugti(sons of Talal Bugti,.Washane Bugti and Sarang Khan Bugti {Grandsons of Nawabzada Ahmed Nawaz Bugti from paternal side and grandsons of Akber Bugti From maternal side (son's of Bivragh Bugti)}.Tabish Bugti (son of Jamil Khan Bugti). Ahmad Marri and Mohammad Marri (Son's of Humayun Khan Marri).

Further reading

• Matheson, Sylvia A. The Tigers of Balochistan. London: Arthure Barker Limited (1967). Reprint: Oxford University Press, Karachi (1998), ISBN 0-19-577763-8.

Notes

References

• Dawn - Dera Bugti jirga ‘ends Sardari system’
• Rediff Pakistan - Birth Till Death Nawab Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti
• Dawn - Elders term ‘jirga’ a govt drama
• DAWN - The Tumandar of the Bugtis
• Daily Times - Akbar Bugti killed in army operation
• Dawn - Bugti killed in operation: Six officers among 21 security personnel dead
• Gulf News - Bugti's killing will haunt Musharraf

External links

Portrait

• [1]

Video clips

• CNN Video Clip CNN Video Report on the Bugti tribe 2001
• BBC Reporters BBC Video Report on Dera Bugti, Balochistan situation 2005
• BBC Reporters BBC Video Report on Dera Bugti, Balochistan situation 2006
• [2] In Urdu
• [3] Nawab Bugti come for tribal jirga halt between Marri and Bugti tribes
• [4] In Sindhi, Nawab Bugti's Profile
• [5] An interview with Brahamdagh Bugti starting orcehstrated separatist movement against Pakistan

Audio clips

• 13.01.05 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 27.01.05 Voice Of America English Interview Nawab Bugti
• 17.03.05 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 10.04.05 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 15.05.05 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 18.12.05 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 19.12.05 Voice Of Germany Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 25.12.05 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 14.02.06 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 11.05.06 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 14.06.06 BBC Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• 07.07.2006 Interview of Nawab Bugti explaining how on 3 July 2006, his tribesmen foiled the Pakistani governments attempts to assassinate him for the third time using 3 fighter jets, 19 gunship helicopters which landed dozens of para-troopers and commandos (This particular clip has been blocked in Pakistan and can only be heard in countries other than Pakistan)
• 09.07.06 Voice Of America Urdu Interview Nawab Bugti
• General Musharraf talks to The Washington Post about his view of the rape vitims