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Pakistan PM rejects tribal chief's killing was targeted. 29/08/2006. ABC News Online

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Last Update: Tuesday, August 29, 2006. 2:00am (AEST)

Pakistan PM rejects tribal chief's killing was targeted

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has denied that the military deliberately killed a prominent rebel chief in an operation in the country's restive south-west.

"It was not targeted," Mr Aziz said of the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti in the resource-rich province of Baluchistan.

The killing of the powerful local leader, who had been leading a tribal insurgency in the province, has sparked riots by hundreds of supporters who have ransacked and torched buildings.

Opposition political leaders have accused the government of targeting the leader in the operation that also killed at least seven soldiers and 17 tribal insurgents in the fighting and air strikes.

However Mr Aziz says law enforcement agencies were responding to attacks by militants hiding in a cave in the mountainous Dera Bugti area.

"No one knew who was there ... some arrests were made and they (those arrested) told us that Akbar Bugti was among those who were killed," he said.

He says the hide-out had collapsed, burying all of those inside after heavy exchanges of gunfire from Friday (local time).

Mr Aziz says Bugti's body has not yet been retrieved and authorities have been directed to clear the rubble quickly to recover the bodies.

Bugti's death has sparked rioting in the impoverished province leaving at least four people dead since Saturday.

Violence continued during a general strike in the province on Monday in which eight people were injured.

The British-educated tribal chieftain, who was in his 80s, fled his former stronghold earlier this year following a crackdown by the Pakistani military.

He had been accused of operating private jails and running a feudal justice system in the area in addition to being blamed for the deaths of dozens of soldiers and police.

The clampdown on the Bugti area was sparked by a rocket attack during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf to Baluchistan in December.

-AFP



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