Pakistan kills Baluch tribe leader, sparks riots
25 elite commandos, 30 tribal insurgents die in fighting
Afp, Ap, Quetta
Pakistan was on high alert yesterday after security forces killed a prominent tribal rebel leader in gas-rich Baluchistan province, in a major operation that left scores more dead, officials said. Provincial authorities had been directed to take strict security measures following which extra police and security personnel have been deployed at key installations and sensitive places, an interior ministry official told AFP. An indefinite curfew has been imposed in Quetta city, the capital of Baluchistan province, where riots were sparked late Saturday after the news broke about the killing of rebel chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti, police said. At least 25 elite commandos and more than 30 tribal insurgents were killed in the fighting near Dera Bugti town, close to a mountain hideout in Baluchistan where Bugti was sheltering, security officials said. Information minister Muhammad Ali Durrani confirmed that Bugti was killed in operation. "I can confirm that (Nawab) Akbar Bugti was killed in the operation," Durrani told AFP. Followers of Bugti ransacked and torched four banks, 12 buses and two ambulances in Quetta, while four banks were also set ablaze in Khuzdar district late Saturday, police officials said. Police arrested 450 rioters who rampaged overnight through the city of Quetta, defying a round-the-clock curfew imposed Sunday, said Suleman Sayed, the city's police chief. Violence also spread throughout Baluchistan and to the southern port of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and capital of neighbouring Sindh province. Large crowds of Baluch people pelted cars with stones and set tires alight in Karachi, police said. Extra police and paramilitary forces were deployed. Sporadic gunshots were heard in Quetta city and other areas till early Sunday but there were no reports about casualties. Tension gripped the region Sunday as protesters blocked two major highways, one leading from Quetta to Iran and another to Khuzdar and southern pot city of Karachi, the officials said. Opposition leaders condemned the killing and the major political parties have convened emergency meetings to discuss the development. "Bugti's murder is an extra-judicial killing," said Liaquat Baloch, a leader of six-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. "It's one of the darkest eras in Pakistan's political history," Baloch said. "It's the worst news for the Baluch nation. I cannot say much as we are busy in collecting the bodies," spokesman for Bugti's Jamhooi Watan Party Shahid Bugti told AFP. "It's difficult to say much at this stage," he said. "We are still collecting details as we don't know how many people have been killed," Bugti said. Mir Hasil Bizenjo, chief of Baluchistan National Party told AFP the death was shocking for democracy, nationalism and the politics of hatred would now increase in Baluchistan. Ghulam Mohammed, chief of Baluch National Party said agreed saying there would be far reaching implications on politics in Baluchistan while Qasim Zia, a leader of former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party described the killing as regrettable and unfortunate. "Bullets don't solve problem, they create problems. The killing of Bugti in a military operation was a conspiracy to break up Pakistan," Zia said.
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