Fresh trouble in Pak city after rebel killed

Quetta (Pakistan), Aug 28: Sporadic violence flared in the city of Quetta in Pakistan's turbulent Baluchistan province today during a protest strike following the killing of a nationalist rebel chief, police and residents said.

Political parties in the gas-rich southwestern province called the protest in the wake of Saturday's killing of veteran leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

Bugti, 79, died in a government attack on his cave-complex hideout in a remote corner of Baluchistan, a land of jagged mountains and deserts.

Protesters in the provincial capital set fire to half a dozen government offices and at least two buses and smashed street lights, witnesses and police.

There were no reports of casualties.

''In some places, students and youths have damaged public property but by and large, the situation is stable,'' provincial police chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqub told Reuters.

''The strike is on but we're not interfering unless they create disturbances,'' he said.

Most transport was off the streets and shops were closed in Quetta and other towns, a provincial government spokesman said.

At least three people were killed yesterday as protests spread from Quetta to other parts of the province, where nationalists have agitated for decades for a greater share of the profits from its resources.

Police said about 700 people, many of them students, had been arrested in Quetta since Saturday night.

Main road links between Baluchistan and other parts of the country had been blocked by protesters who set fire to tyres, and rail services had been suspended, police said.

''PUNITIVE ACTION''

Autonomy-seeking Baluch rebels waged a low-key insurgency for decades but in the past year they have stepped up attacks on infrastructure, including gas pipelines, and security posts.

Government officials said security forces had not targeted Bugti who was killed when explosives went off during heavy fighting in a cave, which then collapsed burying all inside.

His body has yet to be recovered.

Politicians and analysts said the death of Bugti, a former respected provincial governor, was likely to inflame opposition to the government in Pakistan's biggest but poorest province.

President Pervez Musharraf, who has vowed to stamp out armed opposition in Baluchistan, told a meeting of government and security officials yesterday every step would be taken to impose government authority in Baluchistan, the Dawn newspaper reported.

But he said the door was always open for talks.

''We neither closed these channels in the past nor will we do so in the future,'' Musharraf was quoted as saying.

''However, we cannot let anyone attack security forces and if someone will do this we will take punitive action against them,'' he said.

The Baluchistan provincial assembly condemned Bugti's killing and some members accused the provincial government of involvement in his death, a witness at the session said.

''We strongly condemn the killing of Nawab Bugti. We will take revenge,'' said assembly member Sanaullah Zehri.

The assembly speaker suspended the session, on the orders of the provincial governor. Police detained a senator and two assembly members as they left but it was not clear why, the witness said.

REUTERS

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