"It's a good thing"
Posted on 08/29/2006 12:57:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
QUETTA, Pakistan : A mob set buildings ablaze and set off homemade bombs in a third day of unrest in Pakistan after the army's killing of a popular rebel tribal chief, police and witnesses said.
The crowd started rampaging through the streets in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, after funeral prayers for Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed on Saturday.
The mob torched a local bank and set a district government building alight, setting off plumes of thick black smoke, an AFP reporter said. Four makeshift bombs exploded in shops near the venue of the prayers.
Police fired tear gas as well as rounds in the air to try to bring the situation under control, police official Abdul Khan said. Paramilitary troops were brought in. And the crowd was also firing weapons, police said.
A policeman and a protester injured in the gunfire were rushed to hospital, a police officer said.
The mobs set ablaze some two dozen shops belonging to settlers in Quetta city and blocked roads by burning old tires, residents said.
Thousands of people including former ministers and provincial governors attended the mass prayers in a local sports stadium for Bugti, a fiery leader who fought to give Baluchis a greater share of the region's gas revenues.
Bugti, whose insurgency left hundreds of people dead over the past two years, was seen as a hero by many in the region for his battle against the central government of President Pervez Musharraf.
"It is a big tragedy. Bugti has become a legend," 22-year-old clan member Dad Mohammad told AFP at the stadium.
"He fought for the rights of ethnic Baluch. He had set a course for the Baluchis - it is now up to the people," said another tribesman, Salim Shahwani, 25.
It was the third consecutive day of unrest in the area, which has led to more than 500 people being arrested and two killed. Baluch nationalists also called a general strike in protest.
Violence was also reported in several other areas in Baluchistan on Tuesday, including in the coastal town of Turbat where protesters were said to have torched three shops and one bank.
Bugti, who was in his 80s, was a tough and controversial figure, an Oxford-educated power-broker who dominated Baluch politics for decades.
He was accused of running a feudal justice system complete with private jails, and had been blamed for the deaths of scores of police and soldiers. He was said to have a militia of thousands of fighters.
Bugti's body has not yet been recovered from the cave which collapsed during a heavy exchange of fire between Pakistan security forces and his armed men, officials said.
Efforts were ongoing to retrieve the body for burial in his ancestral graveyard.
Analysts have described Bugti's killing as a blunder by the government and have warned it could radicalise the Baluch people and intensify the insurgency.
Former premier Benazir Bhutto called it a blow to the unity and integrity of the province. "His killing would further alienate the people of Baluchistan from the Centre (Islamabad)," she said in a statement from London.
She called for an end to military operations in Baluchistan.
Separatist sentiment has been bubbling in Baluchistan ever since the founding of Pakistan nearly 60 years ago, and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Monday the military had not deliberately targeted Bugti.
But President Musharraf warned that his government would crush the insurgency.
About 1,500 tribal militants who were part of the insurgency surrendered to authorities Tuesday citing unemployment and poverty as among the reasons.
The militants and three of their leaders laid down their arms in a town in Kohlu district and promised to support the government, the Associated Press of Pakistan said.
The militants were from the Marri tribe, and had been loyal to another tribal chief, although they were fighting for the same cause as Bugti rebels.
"Bugti's body has not yet been recovered from the cave..."
Rockers and movie stars die of overdoses, politicians drive off bridges.
Jihadists die in caves.
It's the natural order of things. They should be greatful that he died doing what he loved best.
He is an tribal irredentist, not a jihadist. He is demanding not Islamic rule, which they've already got, but tribal sovereignty.
Pakis are smart. They had that woman Bhutto in there running interference/ making pretty faces while they were building nuclear bombs.
You mean $#*%@ing goats and little boys?
I heard that John was a Beluchi or was that Belushi?
"It's a good thing"
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