Pakistan

Akbar Bugti - Update

By Khalid ⋅ August 31, 2006 ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Yesterday, the Government of Pakistan provided additional information about the death of Akbar Bugti. Based on information from the military command on ground, the government stated:

While following a guide that was familiar with the area, the military was able to find the cave in which Akbar Bugti was hiding in. The military sent the guide in to negotiate with Bugti and the militia that was in the cave with him to secure the arrest of Akbar Bugti. When the guide emerged from the cave and confirmed that Bugti was inside, the military moved in to make the arrest. When the military entered the cave, there was a massive explosion from within the cave that caused the structure to collapse. The source of the explosion is unknown.

Once the smoke cleared, the military started the recovery operation to remove the ruble of a collapsed mountain and take out the bodies. In the process, they found 100 million Pakistani rupees (a little over US$ 1.5 million) and an additional US$ 96,000, all in cash. The military also found a large store of weapons including rockets, grenades, mortar rounds, landmines and other military issue weaponry.

What normal person keeps US$ 1.5 million hidden in a cave with military weaponry? I can only think of one, Osama bin Laden. It’s must make it easier to buy weapons when there is no document trail to the money or the merchandise.

Now, the reason that I am posting this update is not to be the Government of Pakistan’s public relations division but to bring clarity to the situation.

Since the death of Akbar Bugti, the number of terrorist attacks within the country has significantly increased including riots in sections of Quetta, bombs detonated at Hub in Baluchistan, and 2 bombs detonated in a major commercial market in Lahore. You will notice that I have called them terrorist acts because when you take the life of another person to further a political or religious cause, that is called terrorism. In addition, the opposition leaders of the political parties (MMA, PPP, and PML(N)) have started using “Politics of Dead Bodies,” to further the call for more destruction in Pakistan. It should also be noted that this is not the first time in Pakistan’s history that the military has been accused of murder. During Benazir Bhutto’s 2nd term as Prime Minister, she rolled out the Army in Karachi to murder members of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), a rival Sindhi political party. Operation Cleanup, as it was called at the time enforced a full lockdown curfew on areas of Karachi with “shoot on sight” orders given to the military. Approximately 15,000 young men were “cleansed” from Karachi for not being from the right political party or social background.

At no point have any of these “politicians” called for an end to the violence that has plagued the country since the death of this warlord; instead they continue to add fuel to the fire by inciting the people to riot and destroy to further their cause of removing the Musharraf government. It’s one thing to mourn the death of a person, but when the political community of a nation encourages the people of a nation to riot in retaliation; it is nothing more than irresponsibility.

But while creating all the fervor over the military’s action, everyone missed the story in the national news that 3 militant commanders and 1500 militants handed over their weapons to the Government of Pakistan and promised to work for a peaceful solution that would lead to the growth of Baluchistan.

Why does Pakistan continue to struggle with this horrible mess?

1. Pakistan has been run by generations of feudal land barons - implanted by the British - who care only about their narrow parochial interests and nothing for the greater good of Pakistan. To this day, Pakistan’s great landowners pay almost no taxes in a nation where a minimum of 30% live in dire poverty. They use their fortunes to buy other politicians to fool illiterate voters, while protecting the wealth and privilege of the landowners.
2. Pakistani politics is really about tribal warfare and pillage. There is no sense of compromise, of sharing the nation’s wealth, of promoting the national good. Greed, selfishness and corruption guide the robbers, lawyers, gang chiefs and bagmen who infest Pakistan’s utterly rotten parliamentary system.
3. There is precious little sense of national unity in Pakistan. When the country was formed in 1947, it brought together 4 provinces with 4 provincial languages - Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto and Baluchi - mixed with innumerable regional dialects.
4. Loyalty in Pakistan is first to family, then clan, then tribe, then city/region, then to Nawab, Khan, or Chaudhry - but never to the central government in Islamabad.

No wonder Ralph Peters could confidently put forward a “New Middle East” in the June 2006 issue of Armed Forces Journal. If you check the map included in his article, the current Middle East is torn apart into new countries and regions.

When you look at these reasons, it is easy to understand why democracy doesn’t flourish in Pakistan. What is saddening is that a nation that was founded to be a beacon for the world’s Muslims has gotten on the expressway to destruction and it seems that getting off that road will be much more difficult than getting on it.

Tags: Armed Forces Journal, Baluchistan, Benazir Bhutto, Bhutto, Bugti, democracy, feudals, karachi, Middle East, MMA, MQM, Musharraf, Muslim, New Middle East, Pakistan, PML, PPP, Quetta, Ralph Peters, terrorism, terrorist