Revolt in SW Pakistan nearly put down: Governor

Quetta (Pakistan), Aug 3: Pakistan security forces have nearly quelled a revolt led by a tribal chieftain in Baluchistan, the governor of the Southwest Province said today.

Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani told journalists that 84 tribal militants had been killed along with 45 members of the security forces since a military operation was launched last December to put down an uprising led by Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

Some 62 civilians, including women and children, have also been killed in the conflict so far, Ghani said, and a further 96 have been wounded.

Critics believe the casualties may have run into hundreds.

''Over 98 per cent of Bugti tribesmen have surrendered and joined hands with the government, while the rest are also in contact with officials to abandon Nawab Bugti,'' Ghani said.

''The security forces have destroyed all militant camps in the Dera Bugti area, but around half a dozen camps and hideouts still exist,'' the governor said.

The tribesmen have been fighting for more autonomy and royalties from the exploitation of the province's mineral resources, notably its gas fields.

They frequently attack pipelines, power transmission cables, railroads, buses and military and government installations.

The Indian and Afghan governments regularly complain that Pakistani-based militants stoke violence in their countries.

The largest and most sparsely populated of Pakistan's four provinces, Baluchistan borders both Afghanistan and Iran.

Its political situation is complicated by support for the Taliban among ethnic Pashtun tribes close to the Afghan border, and around the provincial capital of Quetta.

But the ethnic Baluch resentment of Islamabad's rule goes back decades, and the conflict flared anew in December after tribesmen fired rockets on a Baluch town during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf.

The army responded, using helicopter gunships and warplanes, and Musharraf has been heavily criticised over the amount of force used, and over detentions of many Baluchs.

Despite Musharraf's plans to boost infrastructure in the country's poorest province there are fears that he has alienated ethnic Baluchs, already disenchanted with the Pakistani state.

Reuters