Tribal chief’s killing leads to violence

Sajjida Iqbal, 25, a young teacher in Quetta taking shelter in her house, says people have seen enough violence.

"Is this any way to live? Look at those military men pointing their guns at us," Sajjida said as she pointed out of the window of her house.

"We have seen enough guns and bombs... we need peace now," she added.

Quetta, the dusty capital of Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, feels like it is under siege.

Gun-wielding soldiers in armoured vehicles patrol the streets, with most of the city's two million residents staying indoors.

Traders across the province have begun a three-day strike to protest the killing of nationalist tribal leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, 79, the leader of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), in a military operation on Saturday night.

He and 24 others were reportedly killed after the Bhambore hills cave they were hiding in near Dera Bugti, southeast of Quetta, was bombed.

All flights, trains and buses into and out of Quetta were suspended on Sunday. There have been reports of riots and violence by mobs enraged by Bugti’s death.

On Sunday, at least three people were killed in violent riots in the province. The city of Karachi also saw angry protests on Sunday and Monday.

Balochistan, spread almost 350,000 sq km, has had an uneasy relationship with Pakistan’s government since the country was carved out from the Indian sub-continent in 1947. Since the 1950s, there have been periodic uprisings in the restive province. Each time the insurgency has been crushed by the military.

Baloch leaders believe the present unrest, which began in 2003, is driven more by economic rather than political motives.

Nawab Aklbar Khan Bugti, the president of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) was killed on Saturday night

Balochistan is rich in natural resources and provides gas to the entire country, but remains the most under-developed of Pakistan's four provinces.

The Karachi-based Social Policy Development Centre (SPDC) said 50 percent of the province’s seven million people lived below the national poverty line.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said between January and June this year more than 2,000 rockets had been fired, killing 32 civilians and 44 security personnel.

Over the same period 190 bomb blasts killed 69 people and 121 land mine explosions left 78 civilians and 28 soldiers dead.

Most of the recent violence has been in the areas of Kohlu and Dera Bugti, where tribal militants have been fighting government troops for the past year. Bugti, the chief of the Bugti tribe, had spearheaded the campaign.

The fighting intensified last December, with thousands of civilians displaced by the conflict.

The military are now hunting Bugti’s grandsons, who are reported to have escaped the cave bombing, raising fears of more violence.

His funeral was expected to be a highly political affair, with leaders from across the country attending.

Muhammad Ali Durrani, Pakistan’s information minister, denied the attack on the cave was a "targeted killing".

"This was just a part of operations against insurgents in the province," Durrani said.

Hasil Bizenjo, the leader of Balochistan's National Party (NP), warned that the future was bleak.

"By doing what they did, Balochistan has been plunged into a war. The conflict will rage on endlessly," Bizenjo maintained.

KH/GS/DS