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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani soldiers retrieved the body of a renegade tribal chief Thursday whose death in a military raid provoked widespread rioting in a restive province on the volatile border with Afghanistan. The body of Baluch tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti was found pinned underneath a boulder in his collapsed mountain hide-out in southwestern Baluchistan province. Pakistani forces and rebels clashed there Saturday, leaving the 79-year-old dead, along with several supporters and five army officers. Bugti's killing sparked five days of rioting and protests in the impoverished province bordering Iran and Afghanistan. At least six people were killed, dozens...

Balochistan after Bugti The recent reports that nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed by Pakistani troops in a fierce operation that resulted in the death of 37 Baloch nationalists and 21 elite commandos of Pakistani security forces in Kohlu District of Balochistan in the early hours of August 27 does not augur well for the restive province. The reaction to his killing has been strong and violent. Over five hundred people are reported to have been arrested. An indefinite curfew has been clamped on Quetta, and Karachi is reported to be tense. There is no doubt that the...

The Washington Post warns of "Pakistan's Awkward Balancing Act on Islamic Militant Groups." But if one looks closely at the actions of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, it is clear that he has made his choice to side with the West, there's no going back, and he is beyond the pale of reconciliation with his country's lunatic Islamists. The scale has tipped to one side. It is time for Musharraf to explicitly say so and do so, as he'll never appease Pakistan's radicals. Here's an excerpt from the Post: The basic problem for Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is that he...

QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) -Pakistan was on high alert after riots erupted over the killing of a prominent tribal rebel leader in gas-rich Baluchistan province in a major military operation. Extra police and security officers were deployed at key installations and a curfew imposed in provincial capital Quetta city after news broke of the killing, triggering the violence late Saturday that left one protester dead, officials told AFP Sunday. Pakistani forces launched air strikes Friday in the mountains of the province, where rebel chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti was hiding, in the major operation that left scores more dead, officials said. "I...