Pakistan's Greatest Rebel Leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, is Killed

"Instead of a slow death in bed, I'd rather death come to me while I'm fighting for a purpose."
Nawab Bugti in 2006

In the Saturday night of August 26, 2006, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was killed in a military operation in the region around Kohlu near Dera Bugti in the gas-rich Pakistani province of Baluchistan. He was 79.

Islamabad Hurts Itself

The Pakistani establishment is once again on a suicidal mission.

After being informed that Nawab Bugti had been killed and his body is lying buried under the rubble of a stone cave, General Pervez Musharraf gleefully congratulated the secret service chief who carried out this operation.

These are no times for cheer. It must be a day for mourning in Pakistan. Nawab Bugti was one of Pakistan's most charismatic politicians; one of the most genuinely loved leaders of his people; and now he has reserved his place as one of the legends of this Islamic nation, a land that is still steeped in the ancient codes of blood-killings, tribal honors and unshakable loyalties.

The Roots, The Legend, The Life and The Resentments

Nawab Bugti, the Che Guevara of the Baluchi Desert, fondly known as the Tiger of Baluchistan, was educated at Oxford in England.

He was the head of the Bugtis, a warrior tribe that looks upon Islamabad with distrust and has always resented what it perceives to be the heavy-handedness of Punjab, Pakistan's most populated, powerful and richest province.

A popular Baluchistani leader, Nawab Bugti went on to serve as the Governor and Chief Minister of this desert province.

He was also one of the greatest warlords in Pakistan's history. The legend says that he killed his first victim at a young age of twelve. In 1992, he is said to have killed more than hundred members of an enemy tribe for the revenge of his son's assassination in the city of Quetta, Baluchistan's capital.

Nawab Bugti, like many other non-Punjabi citizens of Pakistan, believed rightly or wrongly, that the National Government as well as Pakistan army has always exploited the resources of his province. There is a widely accepted assumption among the people that the wealth produced from Baluchistan's natural resources, such as its vast gas reserves, has never been used to invest in the development of the province. It is this grievance which Islamabad has consistently failed to address and the consequence of which could be disastrous.

The Beginning of the End

In the early spring bloom of 2005, Nawab Bugti, provoked by the rape of a Baluchi woman doctor by a Pakistani army man in a remote natural gas plant, started a violent insurrection against the authority of the army-ruled Pakistani government.

Raids were successfully launched against infrastructures and military installations. Early this year, attack on a gas pipeline caused widespread outrage in the country with people being forced to cook on wood fire in the kitchens from Rawalpindi in north to Karachi in south.

There was already an unrest simmering due to the construction of a seaport in Gwadar - originally a fishing village on the Arabian Sea in Baluchistan. Gawdor Port is Pakistani government's dream project of recreating a mix of Dubai and Les Vegas by constructing a warm-water gateway to the gas and oil destinations of Central Asia. But Baluchistanis sees this Chinese-assisted grand undertaking as yet another game plan by Islamabad to deny the province of its deserving share in development. Besides, they view with suspicion as more and more non-Baluchistanis are settling in this port-site.

This molotov mix of Gwadar and rape were essentially the primary reasons of the bursting of this pressure-cooker of Baluchi sentiments that were simmering in rage and resentment, and the resultant breaking out of an uninhibited conflict between the Pakistani state and its most annoying rebel leader.

Unfaithful to His Nation; Unremarkable to His Province

Nawab Bugti was obviously not a patriotic Pakistani. Noted for his defiance, he was involved in failed insurgencies in Baluchistan in the years between 1950s and 1970s.

It must also be mentioned that in spite of all his accusations against Islamabad for ignoring the state's development, his tenures as the Chief Minister and Governor of Baluchistan were disappointing and dull. The truth was that his reigns had failed to witness any extraordinary development.

A Book Lover, Too

While being a full-time war-lord, Nawab Bugti was also an avid reader. He was known for his great library built in his clay castle that was lined with hundreds of books on philosophy, western and oriental religions and the European classics. Sadly the castle, and the library with it, was destroyed by an army cannon fire early this year.

Tomorrow is Darkness

What will happen to Pakistan now?

The manner of Nawab Bugti's death, the present unrest in his restless province, and the gleeful attitude of the Pakistani establishment will only assist in romanticizing the romantic legend of this great tribal leader. Nawab Bugti's life, and his death, is expected to inspire others to follow his violent path.

Pakistan stumbles into yet another dark quarter.