Posted on 08/29/2006 7:13:48 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -
Gunfire and rioting broke out for a fourth straight day Tuesday after the funeral service for a prominent tribal chief killed by Pakistani government forces. Two police were wounded and dozens of shops destroyed.
More than 10,000 mourners attended the funeral of Nawab Akbar Bugti, who fought for decades for greater rights for the Baluch tribespeople. At least two people have been killed, dozens wounded and 500 arrested in rioting since his death Saturday.
The service was held even though Pakistani authorities have not yet returned Bugti's body to his family. The government says it is trying to recover his body from the rubble of the military attack on his cave hideout.
After the service, groups of young men smashed windows throughout the stadium and burned a security guard post in the Baluchistan capital, Quetta.
Smoke billowed from surrounding streets as protesters, many with faces covered by scarves, set fire to car tires and looted shops. Police fired gunshots in the air to disperse the crowd.
Mobs torched some 20 shops, two banks, three restaurants and a courier company. Gunfire wounded two police officers who had been sent to the funeral to prevent unrest.
Armed with clubs, hundreds of protesters also burned shops, banks and cars in the Baluchistan towns of Khuzdar, Turbat and Gawadar, on the Arabian Sea coast.
Bugti, 79, was a former provincial governor and an articulate champion for greater control by Baluch tribespeople of natural resources extracted in the region. He and several of his fighters were killed when the roof of his cave hideout collapsed during attack.
Political and religious leaders led thousands into the Quetta stadium for Tuesday's ceremony. Political supporters of Bugti said more than 20,000 people attended, but an Associated Press reporter at the scene estimated the number was about 10,000.
Chants of "Death to Pakistan's army" and "Pakistan will disintegrate" rose up from the crowd as a military helicopter hovered overhead.
Bugti supporters chased Quetta Mayor Mir Maqbool Ehmat Lehri away from the stadium. The mayor belongs to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League faction.
Bugti's son-in-law, Agha Shahid Bugti, bellowed for calm through a loudspeaker.
"Anyone who is looting and damaging others' property has nothing to do with us. We are peaceful. They are our enemies," he yelled.
The slain tribal leader's son, Talal, questioned the government's claim that his father's body was still trapped in rubble.
"The body may be lying in a hospital. They are telling a lie that it is still in the cave. This is my personal thinking," Talal told AP Television News after arriving in Quetta from Karachi for the prayer service.
Baluchistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, has seen decades of conflict as tribespeople led by Bugti pressed for a bigger share of wealth from the province's gas, oil and other resources. Bugti's militia has mounted guerrilla-style resistance as the armed forces have moved to establish garrisons and assert government control over the lawless region.
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More instability for the Nuclear equipped Islamic state.....you got a ping list?
Many of these Paki are real basket cases.
An astonishingly high 1.5% of them suffer from schizophrenia. Absolutely incredible.
Judging from public events and utterances in Pakistan and across the Muslim world, I'd say that it's more like 50% or more suffer from schizophrenia and similar forms of derangement.
It could have been worse. Aside from the basket cases in Pakistan they also could have won a basketball championship...then there would REALLY be some rioting in the streets over there!
~ Blue Jays ~
These people wouldn't be ready for western-style democratic republics in another 1,000 years.
The person killd was the former Governor of the Balochistan region.
The Balochistan region is fighting for independence from Pakistan and Iran.
" . . . groups of young men smashed windows throughout the stadium and burned a security guard post in the Baluchistan capital, Quetta.
"Smoke billowed from surrounding streets as protesters, many with faces covered by scarves, set fire to car tires and looted shops. Police fired gunshots in the air to disperse the crowd.
"Mobs torched some 20 shops, two banks, three restaurants and a courier company. Gunfire wounded two police officers who had been sent to the funeral to prevent unrest.
"Armed with clubs, hundreds of protesters also burned shops, banks and cars . . ."
I still say Krapistan is not ready for primetime.
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