Pakistani authorities have declared security on high alert along
provincial borders and in major cities and towns across the country
after the killing of Bugti tribal leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti by
security forces on Saturday, local media reported on Sunday.
Protesters took to streets of Quetta, the provincial capital of
southwestern Pakistani province Baluchistan, and angry mobs burnt
some vehicles and public installations like banks and petrol
stations as news of Nawab Bugti's death spread late on Saturday,
the GEO Television reported.
Meanwhile, curfew was imposed in Quetta on Sunday for indefinite
period of time due to the violence in the area, and security has
been tightened at airports, railway stations, bus terminals and key
government and private buildings in Baluchistan, said the
report.
Red alert strict security arrangements were made especially at
border of Sindh, Baluchistan and Punjab provinces and exit and
entry routes of the big cities including southern Pakistani coastal
city Karachi and major eastern city Lahore, it said.
Nawab Akbar Bugti, leader of the Bugti tribe and the driving
force behind the anti-government rebellion in Baluchistan was
killed in a military operation in Dera Bugti district on
Saturday.
Some 37 armed tribals including the tribal leader Bugti and 21
security personnel were killed in the fierce clashes in Bhambhoor
area of Dera Bugti district, some 250 km southeast of Quetta, which
started on Friday and continued on Saturday.
Seventy-nine-year old Nawab Akbar Bugti, a former chief minister
of Baluchistan, went underground last year, joining militants who
have been waging an armed insurgency for a long time.
(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2006)
