Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti
Nawab Akbar Shahbaz Khan
Bugti (July 12, 1927– August 26, 2006) was the Tumandar
(head) of the Bugti tribe of
the Baluch, and had served as
governor of the restive
Balochistan Province in
Pakistan. An Oxford[1]- educated man in a land of widespread
illiteracy, he was a towering personality
in the Baloch politics for more than five
decades.After an armed struggle started
in Balochistan in 2004, Bugti was widely
perceived as the leader, going underground in 2005. On August 26, 2006,
after several attempts in the preceding
months he was killed in his cave in Kohlu,
about 150 miles east of Quetta, leading to
widespread unrest in the area, where he
is unanimously regarded as a hero and martyr. With a wide following that
crossed tribal lines across most ethnic
Baloch groups, the contradictions in this
western educated tribal leader roused the
strongest emotions, both positive and
negative. Despite taking harsh decisions at times which is occasionally a must for a
tribal leader, he had a pacifist image in
many groups, and certainly did not
espouse a violent path in his early
political career. In recent years, he was
accused by the Pakistani government of being a warlord, running a well-organized
militia sometimes considered to be the
shadowy Balochistan Liberation Army
(BLA) numbering in the thousands. The
BLA allegedly, ran dozens of militant
guerrilla training camps. Campaigning from the mountain ranges of Dera Bugti
he was, according to the Pakistani
government, directing a " Fidel Castro/Che Guevara" style guerrilla war. In July 2006, Pakistani president , General Musharraf
had targeted him through aerial
bombing, using airforce jets and gunship
helicopters the leader of Balochistan
National Party (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar
Mengal said: "The increase in bomb attacks in the Bugti and Marri areas are
meant to target Baloch nationalist leader
Nawab Akbar Bugti and his associates
and called upon the international
community to take note of the
situation."With epithets such as The Tiger of Balochistan, The Trade Unionist or Gas
Man (supposedly having ownership of
many gasfields) he was a towering figure
in Baloch world. The longstanding conflict
in Balochistan stems from the quantam of
autonomy the province was promised when they joined Pakistan in 1947 and
then under the 1973 Pakistani
constitution. Today a large faction is
campaigning and at times resorting to
arms, for an autonomy which is
Baluchistan's due under the promises made to its people by various Pakistani
leaders. BLA, is painted by the Pakistani
government as a "great threat" to law
and order in Balochistan and was recently
banned by the Government of Pakistan as
well as by the United Kingdom. Introduction Nawab Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti (July
12, 1927– August 26, 2006) was the Tumandar (head) of the Bugti tribe of the
Baluch, and had served as governor of the
restive Balochistan Province in Pakistan.
An Oxford educated man in a land of
widespread illiteracy, he was a towering
personality in the Baloch politics for more than five decades. After an armed struggle started in
Balochistan in 2004, Bugti was widely
perceived as the leader, going
underground in 2005. On August 26, 2006,
after several attempts in the preceding
months he was killed in his cave in Kohlu, about 150 miles east of Quetta, leading to
widespread unrest in the area, where he
is unanimously regarded as a hero and
martyr. With a wide following that crossed tribal
lines across most ethnic Baloch groups,
the contradictions in this western
educated tribal leader roused the
strongest emotions, both positive and
negative. Despite taking harsh decisions at times which is occasionally a must for a
tribal leader, he had a pacifist image in
many groups, and certainly did not
espouse a violent path in his early
political career. In recent years, he was
accused by the Pakistani government of being a warlord, running a well-organized
militia sometimes considered to be the
shadowy Balochistan Liberation Army
(BLA) numbering in the thousands. The
BLA allegedly, ran dozens of militant
guerrilla training camps. Campaigning from the mountain ranges of Dera Bugti
he was, according to the Pakistani
government, directing a " Fidel Castro/Che Guevara" style guerrilla war. In July 2006, Pakistani president , General Musharraf
had targeted him through aerial
bombing, using airforce jets and gunship
helicopters the leader of Balochistan
National Party (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar
Mengal said: "The increase in bomb attacks in the Bugti and Marri areas are
meant to target Baloch nationalist leader
Nawab Akbar Bugti and his associates
and called upon the international
community to take note of the situation." With epithets such as The Tiger of
Balochistan, The Trade Unionist or Gas
Man (supposedly having ownership of
many gasfields) he was a towering figure
in Baloch world. The longstanding conflict
in Balochistan stems from the quantam of autonomy the province was promised
when they joined Pakistan in 1947 and
then under the 1973 Pakistani
constitution. Today a large faction is
campaigning and at times resorting to
arms, for an autonomy which is Baluchistan's due under the promises
made to its people by various Pakistani
leaders. BLA, is painted by the Pakistani
government as a "great threat" to law
and order in Balochistan and was recently
banned by the Government of Pakistan as well as by the United Kingdom. History and Background 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 and Aitchison College, Lahore. It is alleged that he killed his first
man when he was only 12, and that he
had several killed to avenge the
assassination of his son (Salal Bugti). 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 to
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 Bugti as 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.The army had
deployed 100,000 men in Baluchistan and
with the help of the Iranian airforce had resorted to wholsesale murder of the
Baluchis. Muhammad Raza Shah Pehlavi,
the King of Iran had sent F-14 fighter jets
along with his pilots, to help Pakistani
army suppress the Baluchis. The Pakistani
army killed more than 4000 Baluchis in these operations. 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. Also in 1993 Nawab
Bugti announced his candidacy to be
President of Pakistan, but later withdrew
his candidacy and announced his support to the eventual winner Sardar Farooq
Ahmed Khan Leghari. In 1997, Nawab
Bugti was re-elected to the National
Assembly of Pakistan representing the
JWP. Bugti was involved in struggles, at times
armed ones, in Balochistan in the 1950s,
1960s and 1970s. He was leading the
current movement in Balochistan for
greater autonomy. He was the public face
and provided political support for the movement while his grandson
Brahamdagh Bugti leads the Bugti
tribesmen. Early Years Bugti lead a protest against the present
establishment in Pakistan in February
2005, after the rape of a female doctor,
Shazia Khalid in Pakistan's Sui gas
fields .The alleged rapist was a certain
Captain Hamad of Pakistan Army. The Pakistani President, General Musharraf
absolved the captain of any wrongdoing
without any judicial proceedings. The
General later had told the Washington
Post that women like Shazia Khalid had
made it a business concern by getting raped to procure foreign visas (see the
WP link below) Violence erupted in the
Sui area after the high-handed tactics of
Pakistan army. The Bugti tribesman
attacked gas installations in Sui and
claimed the reaction to be "appropriate and fitting". 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. The members of the General Musharraf's
inner circle i.e. Chaudhary Shujaat Hussein
and Mushahid Hussein met Bugti and
negotiated a political settlement. The
General however, vetoed the agreement
reached by his own men and launched the military offensive against the Bugtis,
especially with an intent to decapitate
them by killing Akbar Bugti. After a major
aerial attack using air to surface missiles,
on his compound the Nawab left his
hometown of Dera Bugti , and went into hiding in the Bhambore hills in Marri area. While Bugti was well-loved by most
Baloch, many also frowned on his tribal
background and lamented the lack of
development for his region during his
stints in power. However, his courage in
standing up against an undemocratic establishment in an environment where
most politicians were either bribed or
coerced into submission was widely
respected. The fact however, remains that
from 1978-1984 the military ruler of
Baluchistan had a complete control over the region, without any interference from
Bugti or any other leader. Instead of using
this record time - longest period for any
governor in Pakistan's history- the army
with General Rahimuudin focused on
developing its own infrastructure and running a covert war against the former
USSR . Nawab Mehrab Khan Bugti, Son of Sir
Shahbaz Khan Bugti had two sons; Nawab
Akbar Bugti and Sardar Ahmed Nawaz
Bugti. Nawab Akbar Bugti had four sons
and two daughters; Nawabzada Salal
Akbar Bugti, Jamil Akbar Bugti, Talal Akbar Bugti, and Shahzwar Khan Bugti.
The oldest Nawabzada Salal Bugti was
murdered in a shootout in Quetta by the
rival Bugti Kalpar sub clan in 1993. Jamil
Akbar Bugti, Talal Akbar Bugti and
Shahzwar Khan Bugti are the surviving sons of Nawab Akbar Bugti. Sardar
Nawab Akbar Bugti's daughter is married
to Mir Balak Sher Mazari's son who is the
chieftan of the neighbouring Mazari tribe.
Sardar Ahmed Nawaz Bugti had four sons;
Tanvir Khan, Anees Khan, Farooq Khan, and Naveed Khan. Tanvir Khan who was
the oldest also passed away in 1991 due
to natural causes. The Bugti Grandchildren consist of
Brahamdagh Khan Bugti, Mir Aali Bugti,
Mir Taleh Bugti, Saad Khan Bugti,
Shahzain Bugti, Gohram Bugti, Ahmad
Marri, Muhammad Marri and Tabish Bugti.
