Hundreds of rioters angered by the killing of a rebel tribal leader rampaged through a southwestern Pakistani city Sunday, burning dozens of shops, banks and police vehicles.
Police arrested hundreds on the second day of violent protests against the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, 79, in a raid on his mountain hideout.
Authorities imposed a round-the-clock curfew in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
Nine policemen suffered minor wounds in a clash with about 70 protesters, some firing pistols, who tried to loot a bank and several shops in northern Quetta, said police inspector Zahir Shah. Police fired tear gas to disperse the mob.
Hundreds of arrests
A bomb blast damaged a government building and arsonists set fire to a telephone exchange in Kalat, a town about 155 miles south of Quetta, said local police official Ghulam Farid Jamali. There were no casualties.
City police chief Suleman Sayed said 450 people were arrested in Quetta as security forces tried to crack down on the violence, which has spread to other parts of impoverished Baluchistan and into neighboring Sindh province’s capital of Karachi.
“All forces have been put on alert,” Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani told privately run Geo TV.
‘Never-ending war’
An alliance of four Baluch nationalist groups announced a 15-day mourning period over Bugti’s death and vowed to continue protests throughout the region. A strike of businesses and public transportation was planned for Monday.
“The government has pushed Baluchistan into a never-ending war,” said Hasil Bizinjo, a senior figure with the group Baluch Solidarity.
Government forces killed the silver-bearded Bugti, one of Pakistan’s most prominent fugitives, and at least 24 of his supporters during a raid Saturday on his cave hide-out in the Kohlu area, about 140 miles east of Quetta. Bugti went into hiding in late 2005 after tribal militants made an attempt on the Pakistani president’s life.
Security forces attacked the hide-out after intercepting a satellite phone call, officials said.
Bugti and his supporters were killed when the cave’s roof collapsed after it came under heavy fire, said the minister of state for information, Tariq Azeem Khan.
‘A very tragic affair’
Five soldiers also were killed in the Saturday raid, the government said.
“This is a very tragic affair for the whole family, the tribe and the people of the whole region,” Bugti’s son-in-law, Shahid Bugti, a senator in Pakistan’s parliament, told The Associated Press. “We consider him a martyr. He led a very graceful life and he had a graceful death, going out while fighting for his people’s rights.”
Baluchistan has been wracked by decades of low-level conflict, often flaring into larger clashes, as ethnic Baluch tribesmen led by Nawab Akbar Bugti pressed the government for an increased share of wealth from natural resources extracted from the province, including gas, oil and coal.
Bugti, a former Pakistani senator, interior minister and Baluchistan governor, described Pakistani army forces as “invaders and occupiers.”
The government accused Bugti of ordering attacks on government installations, including gas refineries, the electricity grid and train lines.
In December, militants fired rockets that landed about 300 yards from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf while he was visiting Kohlu.
In recent months, however, the government has said scores of fighters loyal to Bugti have laid down their weapons and surrendered to authorities as it stepped up attacks against the tribal chief.
The operation that killed Bugti was launched after a land mine blew up a vehicle carrying security forces in Kohlu, said a top security official, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic. Four security personnel were wounded.