Bugti, who was spearheading an armed uprising against Pakistan and had vowed to make life difficult for President Pervez Musharraf, was killed on August 26 in a military operation at his cave hide-out in Kohlu, southeast of the provincial capital of Quetta.

As news of Bugti's death spread, angry mobs attacked petrol pumps, banks and fired on police. Protesters set tyres on fire and also torched several vehicles. Some people were injured but no loss of life was reported in violence. Pakistan government also declared red alert in the rest of the country, specially Karachi and Lahore, anticipating heavy public protest over the killing of Bugti.

Bugti's decomposed body was retrieved from the cave a few days later, crushed under a boulder, and buried at Dera Bugti. However, media reports have quoted Bugti's son and his other relatives as expressing doubts over whether the coffin buried in a Dera Bugti graveyard really contained the body of the Baloch nationalist leader.

Bugti's son Jamal told The News that the family had asked the government to hand over the body to the family in Balochistan's capital of Quetta as the late leader's heirs were present there but the authorities decided against it.

Senator Agha Shahid Bugti, son-in-law of Akbar Bugti, said: "Unless the body was handed over to his heirs, we would not believe the government has really buried him."

Image: File photo of slain Baloch rebel tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Also Read:
Why Musharraf had Bugti killed
Balochistan after Bugti

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