Akbar Bugti
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Sardar Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti (July 12, 1927–August 26, 2006) was the Tumandar (head) of the Warrior Bugti tribe, and operating mostly in Balochistan Province.
He was accused of being a Warlord and owning a well-organized militia (army) numbered in thousands, running dozens of militant guerrilla training camps, storing weapons of mass destruction, hundreds of murders, torture and running private prisons and courts and was in hiding from government forces in the mountain ranges of Dera Bugti from where he was directing a “Fidel Castro/Che Guevara” style guerrilla war.
He is better known by most people as The Tiger of Balochistan, The Trade Unionist or Gas Man (having ownership of many gasfields) from Dera Bugti. He is also believed to be the mentor of a shadowy guerrilla/militant organization known as The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) which represents the violent side of the struggle of the Baloch people to gain rights that they claim have been denied to them by the Pakistani government and is fighting for an independent nation encompassing areas in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran dominated by the Baloch ethnic group. BLA remains a great threat to law and order in Balochistan and was recently banned by the Government of Pakistan aswell as The United Kingdom.
On August 26, 2006, Bugti was killed in a military operation in Kohlu area near Dera Bugti. [1] He was about 79 years old.
Life
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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, Aitchison College, Lahore and Karachi Grammar School, but he lived by laws more than a thousand years old. Legend has it that he killed his first man when he was only 12, and that he killed another 100 men to avenge the assassination of his son (Nawabzada Salal Akbar Bugti). It was not his values, but his authority and influence over a well-armed tribe of 250,000 people in Pakistan's Balochistan Province that worried the government. It was because he enjoyed absolute loyalty from so many, he ruled in Balochistan for many decades with an iron-fist and was considered to be a pararrel government (State within a State).
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 - 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 Bugtias 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.
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.
Bugti was involved in failed insurgencies in Balochistan in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He is at the forefront of a tribal war of independence, currently waging in Balochistan. He provided the public face and political support for the insurgency while his grandson Brahamdagh Bugti leads the Bugti tribesmen.
In Hiding
Template:Wikify-date Bugti began an armed insurrection against Pakistan in February 2005, seizing on the rape of a female doctor in Pakistan's Sui gas fields as a political opportunity. In the following months, Bugti's tribesmen launched attacks on infrastructure and military/govt installations while Bugti threatened the government. Clashes continued until a ceasefire later that year.
Bugti claimed to be a nationalist, fighting for the rights of the Baloch. This was believed by foreigners but ridiculed by Pakistanis, given Bugti's long feudal history and his complete lack of development for this tribe. HE steadily lost his support and had to flee to Kohlu, with hundreds of his fighters and their commanders surrendering.
Death
On Saturday August 26 2006, around 2230 hrs (PST), Bugti, along with his grandson Bramdakh was killed in an encounter with the security agencies of Pakistan. His location was traced through the satellite phone he was using and Pakistani secret service agencies pin-pointed his location. Pakistan's Government considers his death an important success in the anti-terror war. Many of Bugti's commanders were killed along with him. On 24 August 2006, the Bugti tribe disowned Bugti as their leader, seized all his property, and proclaimed him as an "offender". As the new flashed across TV screens in Pakistan, the goverment deployed Rangers and paramilitary units across major cities to prevent a backlash.
Family
Jamil Akbar Bugti, Talal Akbar Bugti and Shahzwar Akbar Khan Bugti are the sons of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. Brahamdagh Bugti was Bugti's grandson.
Trivia
- Sylvia Matheson wrote a book on him called 'The Tigers of Balochistan'.
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
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 3rd 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
Books
- The Tigers of Balochistan by Sylvia Matheson 1967