Army refused to accept small demands of Bugti: Gen Qadir

Brahumdagh Bugti with this writer at Bugti's favorite Kempinski Hotel in Geneva., June 2016. 

A main leader of Balochistan resistance who some say is quarantined in Switzerland had agreed to return to Pakistan two years ago, but the Pakistan army GHQ did not accept even his minor demands.

Islamabad had sent Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir along with former Balochistan chief minister Dr Abdul Malik in mid-July 2015 to hold talks with Brahumdagh Bugti, The general revealed in high Baloch circles in Quetta that Bugti had agreed to return to Pakistan and made very small and simple demands, but the generals who rule Pakistan declined even those small demands.

Dr Malik had revealed in an interview that both Geneva-based Brahumdagh Bugti and Cardiff-based, Khan of Kalat Mir Suleman Dawood Jan Ahmedzai had agreed to return to Pakistan.

"The dialogue I started received a positive response from exiled Baloch leaders. I met Mir Suleman Dawood Jan Ahmedzai, the Khan of Kalat, and Brahumdagh Bugti. Both agreed to come back [to Pakistan] after putting their demands on the government’s table. But I do not know what happened to the dialogue after I left office," Dr Malik said in the interview .

Neither Bugti nor Khan contradicted what Dr Malik said in his interview published in December in Pakistan's prestigious Herald news magazine.

A month later on August 26, 2015 Bugti on the ninth anniversary of the assassination of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, a former governor and chief minister of Balochistan, Brahumdagh Bugti held out an olive branch to Pakistan  by saying he was willing to meet interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Husain, who is one of the strongest Punjabi civilian leaders and member of the Pakistani Deep State as his family were all senior army officials Husain did not bother to return Bugti's message of goodwill. One of Bugti's relatives Sher Azam Mazari, who has solid links in the establishment, played a key role in these talks.

The late Nawab Bugti, was the judge, jury and executioner was the sole arbiter of his more than half million tribesmen, but today there are three claimants to the Dera Bugti seat of Bugti power, where Pakistan has directly placed an ISI colonel. These claimants are Brahumdagh Bugti, who is president of the Baloch Republican Party, his former brother-in-law and cousin Mir Aali Bugti, and another first cousin Shahzain Bugti, who heads the Jamhoori Watan Party all claim they are the real "nawab."

But the guy who has earned some place in the heart of locals is Shahzain Bugti's younger brother Gohram Bugti, who is rather humble and down to earth, unlike his rather arrogant late grandfather.

There are also some decent folks in the family like the nawab's own well-lettered son Nawabzada Jameel Bugti and Mir Fahd Bugti, son of the late Mir Ahmednawaz Bugti.

Brahumdagh Bugti acted rather immaturely, according to a scholar in Washington DC. After the historic speech of Indian premier Narendra Modi at the Red Fort, Brahumdagh Bugti, now 35, went to the Indian consulate in Geneva along with his brother-in-law Mehran Marri to seek Indian refuge. By doing so he put all his eggs in the Indian basket, according to the scholar.

A month later, one of the most active woman in the Baloch freedom movement Professor Naela Quadri, who was perhaps the most qualified woman ever to work for Bugti's BRP, asked this correspondent to talk to Bugti but his aide Sher Mohammed Bugti said Professor Quadri had "no status." Bugt also went on twitter to denounce Quadri move for a government in exile saying “Naila Qadri is not representing Baloch People, rather than supporting they are damaging Baloch cause by their insane actions(sic),” Bugti was reported as saying in the Hindustan Times.  Bugti tweets.were rightly described by an Indian researcher as "un-statesman." A Baloch claiming to be chieftain of a major tribe quarreling with a woman activist from the same lobby seemed quite cheap in Baloch eyes.

India's support to militants

Pragmatic Baloch analysts like Harvard-educated Malik Siraj Akbar warn that Indian support to militancy is not in India's interests and counsels India must try to build international diplomatic support for Balochistan. But to do that "India must firstly set an example itself. When you treat your own people in Kashmir with brute force, you will be left with no moral authority to urge Pakistanis to respect the democratic rights of the Baloch people.," Akbar said in an interview with the Indian Union Debate Forum. "India can embarrass Pakistan more by offering active diplomatic support to the Baloch than directly indulging in the insurgency there. Indians know nothing about Balochistan. They will be badly trapped there."

Late U.S. scholar Selig S. Harrison told this writer way back in 2005 that India was not sincere with Balochistan and only wanted to use the Baloch card to counter Islamabad on Kashmir. Harrison had met this writer's uncle in the early 1950s and became involved with the Baloch movement.

Analysts like Harrison and Akbar may be right as charges galore  India is backing militancy in Balochistan.

(Views expressed in this article belongs to the author and not to any organization)