news details |
|
|
| Protestors block main highway in Balochistan | | |
Quetta, Aug 30: Angry mobs protesting the killing of a popular tribal leader in Pakistan cut off a key highway as the number of arrests in four days rose to nearly 700, police said.
The Balochistan province has been in the grip of violent protests since the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military strike Saturday on his cave hideout in the town of Kohlu.
Balochistan police chief Chaudhry Yaqub Wednesday said demonstrators had blocked the main highway connecting the provincial capital Quetta to the port city of Karachi at four points.
There were, however, no reports Wednesday of the widespread violence that led to the deaths of at least nine people in the region on the first three days following Bugti's death.
Several grenade and bomb attacks had occured since news of Bugti's death broke late Saturday and angry crowds had fired guns into the air and torched banks, government buildings and vehicles.
"We are exercising restraint in the use of force to avoid human losses and local administration officials are trying to persuade demonstrators to lift the blockade," Yaqub told reporters.
The authorities had arrested 670 people for inciting violence and for attacks on public and private property since late Saturday, he said.
"We have a large presence of security forces on the streets now to prevent any trouble," he added.
Bugti, who led a heavily armed private militia, had been involved in a long running confrontation with the central government over demands for provincial autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's resources.
He was seen as a hero by many in his struggle against the government of President Pervez Musharraf, and Pakistani opposition and Baloch groups said Bugti had been deliberately targetted by the army, which denied the charge.
Thousands of people turned out for funeral rites in his honour at a sport stadium in Quetta on Tuesday.
Afterwards a mob stormed through the city, setting buildings ablaze. Police fired tear gas as well as rounds in the air to try to bring the situation under control, and paramilitary troops were brought in to help.
Opposition parties have demanded an inquiry into Bugti's death.
Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said officers were entering a cave to negotiate his arrest when an explosion occurred.
Sultan said rockets and rifles were recovered from the cave as well as a box containing 100 million rupees (1.6 million dollars).
Separatist sentiment has been bubbling in Balochistan ever since the founding of Pakistan nearly 60 years ago and political analysts have warned Bugti's killing would radicalize ethnic Baloch.
In the scattered unrest, five people were killed when a bomb exploded at a hotel on Tuesday in the industrial town of Hub, hundreds of kilometers (miles) south of Quetta.
Protestors also caused damage to buildings and torch vehicles in the port city of Karachi in neighbouring Sindh province after the killing of Bugti, who also headed a major Baloch nationalist party.
Bugti was accused of running a feudal justice system complete with private jails, and had been blamed for the deaths of scores of police and soldiers. He was said to have a militia of thousands of fighters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
