Brahumdagh's tweets not in line with Nawab Bugti view: Pakistan's March 27 Occupation

Its high time Baloch should distance themselves from India as @narendramodi @PMOIndia did not follow up on his promise at the Red Fort and @NavtejSarna has neither met Baloch nor helped the Baloch cause @SushmaSwaraj

— Ahmar Mustikhan (@mustikhan) April 1, 2018

It is apparently unfair to pin down an otherwise handsome, moderate, flexible and open minded Brahumdagh Bugti, who is even open to the idea that gays may be able to live their lives openly in Balochistan as sex should not be society’s business but a personal one.

Had it not been for the non-sensical actions of the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) which the Swiss believe he heads, he maybe as sweet as an angel!

Just a minor mistake and everyone wants to gun down an otherwise thorough gentleman, who had publicly posted on twitter he was “a lover, not a fighter.” And almost all diaspora activist, including this scribe, have engaged in scoring brownie points against Mr Bugti, unfortunately.

Brahumdagh Bugti had stirred a hornets nest by saying observing March 27 as Balochistan occupation day was wrong since some parts of Balochistan had acceded to Pakistan before that date.

On the face of it his statement is true, but if one goes to the story behind the story and going by what assassinated former governor and chief minister of Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, said I am sure Brahumdagh Bugti would revise his stand. I like to once against request internationals involved with Balochistan campaigns it is neither their station, not does it look good if they intervene in inter- and intra-Baloch affairs, their kindest intentions, notwithstanding.

Here is what Nawab Bugti said in his biography written by famous Balochistan journalist and pubnlisher Anwar Sajidi:

1947 Referendum and Vote in Favor of Pakistan

This was a limited referendum. Only members of the Quetta municipality and members of the Shahi Jirga were eligible to cast votes. By heavy majority they voted in favor of Pakistan.

Because in  the referendum the question that was asked was do you wish to join Pakistan or Hindostan (India). There was no other choice than these that was why the majority opted for Pakistan. 

Had they been asked about independence or joining Kalat then it would have been a different outcome altogether. This referendum which was limited to British Balochistan, merely three votes were cast against Pakistan. Khan Abdus Samad Khan Achcakzai, who used to be called Balochistan Gandhi, and was a leader of the Congress because of his efforts three votes were cast against Pakistan.

As the views of Nawab Bugti is very clear in the biographical “Nawab Akbar Bugti: Why Was he Assassinated,” it is hoped that Brahumdagh Bugti will admit poor choice of words in his tweets on March 27. The incident should be an eye opener for all that perhspas twitter is not the best place to share views on controversial topics in history.

It may also be noted, Nawab Bugti used to address the Khan of Kalat as "His Highness."

Twitter in hands of a frustrated  Baloch 

For lack of a better comparison, a twitter account in the hands of a Baloch frustrated freedom fighter is like a bull in the China shop or if you are in a “golden cage” bored to death, like Mr Bugti feels in the posh environs of Geneva driving from his super decent home to Kempinski, where a handful of his followers touch his feet?

Brahumdagh Bugti is no doubts one of the three claimants to a tribal fiefdom that is bigger than Cyprus, or almost as big as Lebanon, or half the land size of Israel, but in Geneva he is surrounded by a half dozen sycophant whose dream in life is to carry your suitcase, instead of half million people to whom he is God reincarnated. Small wonder if he is unhappy and extremely depressed, feeling a sense of terrible loss.  Or maybe some well paid advisers who have the gall and the ball to tell him the truth in his face. At such times, one needs grief counseling and one hopes he is not shy of seeking one. Bugti’s wine closet may be lined with best alcohol unlike by his own submission he saw one loyalist bringing booze on a camel back or donket back and he kept on looking at with his binoculars but by the time the donkey or camel reached him there was just one bottle left that he drank like aab-i-zam zam. My advise to him  not to smoke in the house not withstanding the frustration of no longer having the power to preside over the decadent witch court, called “aas janti” (fire hurts), in which the guilt or innocence of a man is decided by making him walk on burning coal to see if his feet are burned.

In Dera Bugti, Brahumdagh Bugti could have killed a person but still get reprieve like his illustrious grandfather got.  Its is widely rumored he owns a gold Kalashnikov, but rather than being a rumor this might be true since he says on record that he inherited $100 million—killing his uncle with shock over the news! Brahumdagh Bugti made very simple demands to his tormentors in uniform in Rawalpindi GHQ in Islamabad that one of their trusted boys Chaudhry Nisar Husain may come to take him back in an official armyC-132  plane to Pakistan like the one they provided to Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri as a condition to stop blowing up gas pipelines-- and perhaps blow whatever the Punjabi generals want like the rest of his Baloch nawab ilk--, but the army humiliated him by refusing such small requests and minor demands.

Much happens in Baloch high society, if there is one. For instance a nawab can marry his aunt and one main intent of that action is just to prove to the world his uncle is impotent or zaala gaayaan (sleep with the wife). In a series of frustrated tweets, Brahumdagh Bugti, grandson of Nawab Bugti, whose main qualification in life is just that, grandson of the assassinated nawab, and fighting alongside him against the army, shocked the Baloch Diaspora by his uncalled for tweets, whose primary aim was to undermine the political position of Cardiff-exiled Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleman Daud Ahmadzai. Brahumdagh Bugti is great great grandson of a man who got “Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE)” for licking the boots of British imperialists; Sir Shahbaz Khan Bugti.

Mistreatment of scholar woman

Last fall at the Palace of Nations, Geneva, I was shocked to see some BRP workers from Bugti tribe trying to stop people from saying hello to a Baloch woman professor in stead of Brahumdagh Bugti inviting her to confer honors on her for being the most highly educated member of his party and a comrade of his slain comrade, Mir Balach Marri. Had Brahumdagh Bugti given her due respect he might have been in Delhi today with tens of thousands of crazy Indians, who worship Baloch nationalists, not in exile in Geneva surrounded by family and family members of one of his waderas, Sher Mohammed Bugti, and tweeting during unearthly hours.

Let me point out how Brahumdagh Bugti tweet can be best described. According to Mohinder Gulati, former World Bank and UN official, and member of the American Friends of Balochistan, "What the Baloch are doing is standing outside and pissing inside while what they need to do is stand inside but piss outside." So it is advisable for Mr Bugti to stop pissing inside since he is mostly a thorough gentleman.

Controversial tweets on March 27

In tweets on the 70th anniversary of the occupation of Balochistan, Brahumdagh Bugti opened a can of worms. “On March 27th 1948, Pakistan attacked and forcefully annexed Kalat, one of the states of #Balochistan. The other states and tribal areas had joined Pakistan before that. It is factually incorrect to 27 March occupation day of entire Balochistan.” His second tweet said, “After the annexation of #Balochistan, our forefathers always tried to adjust within #Pakistan. With all forms of struggle, the entire Baloch leadership, at one time or another, strived for the Baloch rights inside Pakistan.” A thirsd tweet said “It is as a result of constant treatment of #Balochistan as a colony & repeated injustices against the Baloch people by the Pakistani state that Baloch people now demand freedom from Pakistan.” A fourth tweet said, “Therefore, it is completely wrong to call Kalat's forceful annexation with Pakistan as occupation of entire Balochistan and calling for its restoration is equivalent to dividing Balochistan into several states & tribal areas (which were not part of Kalat). It is not acceptable.”

Many of his party colleagues, specially the good Baloch who do not believe in spooning the nawab, made their disgust over his tweets known. However, Bugti stuck to his guns and if to say his tweets were not his personal tweets but of his party, he said, "Baloch Republican Party rejects 27 March as occupation of #Balochistan. Our struggle is based on facts and we strongly discourage the use of twisted facts which damage Baloch struggle."

In stead of discouraging his minions from attacking other party leaders, Brahumdagh Bugti retweeted a tweet of Jawad Baloch of Afshani Gulli, Lyari, who now lives in Germany. “Lies and twisting facts undermines the legitimate movement not the historical facts. Biggest shame is manipulating naked truths to gain political advantage.”

Brahumdagh Bugti also in juvenile fashion retweeted two tweets of one of his other fans, Abdul Nawaz Bugti, son in law of Sher Mohammed Bugti, spokesperson for the Baloch Republican Party. “In my view, the biggest shame is to build a just cause on twisted facts. Nothing can undermine a legitimate movement more than lies.” Abdul Nawaz Bugti also tweeted, “You cannot expect the world to believe your facts and support your struggle against oppression when you misrepresent well-documented historical facts.”

Sylvia Matheson on Nawab Bugti

When you are approaching 60 you like to dig facts from the world of your memories so I recall a wedding ceremony many years ago. That was my first face to face meeting with former governor of Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. Nawab Bugti was accompanied by his more decent, polite, and educated younger brother Ahmednawaz Bugti. That the younger brother was smarter than Nawab Bugti is the fact that they were in the same class despite the age difference and the younger Bugti commanded more respect in the nationalist political circles than the slain nawab. I remember in plain sight a high society woman shake hands with nawab Bugti at wedding in Karachi, but then the nawab did not let the woman’s hand go. Maybe it was three minutes or five minutes, but it looked forever as even the facial expression of the lady conveyed she was not feeling comfortable.

But one could expect anything from Nawab Bugti since he was among the first significant tribal chieftain from Balochistan who proudly shook hands with the villain of history, tuberculosis ridden Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Nawab Bugti was described as a “bloodthirsty character” by alleged MI6 agent Sylvia Matheson, who made no secret she was romantically inclined towards the Tumandar or chief of the Bugti tribe.

“About this man you killed,” now deceased, Sylvia Matheson wrote in her book Tigers of Baluchistan about the Bugti tribe. “Er – I mean why … ?”

“Oh, that! Well, the man annoyed me. I have forgotten what it was about now, but I shot him dead.  I’ve rather a hasty temper you know, but under tribal law of course it wasn’t a capital offence, and in any case as the eldest son of the Chieftain I was perfectly entitled to do as I pleased in our own territory.  We enjoy absolute sovereignty over our people and they accept it as part of their tradition. As a matter of fact my own father was murdered – he was poisoned – and what’s more, I know who did it. It was his half brother  whom I call uncle, and who’s been acting as Regent while I was in College…”

Matheson wote she choked on her tea. “I knew that the chieftain had only just left Aithison College in Lahore, one of the then so-called Princes’ Colleges of India. I knew that he had just come into full ruling powers over 42,000 Bugtis, all agitating for an independent Baluchistan (just as 20 years later they are full of impossible ideals). I knew, too, that while the tribe was notorious for its murders, its robberies and kidnappings, its Chieftains were remarkable for their audacious courage, their heroic accomplishments on the battlefield, their inborn hankering after any kind of a scrap, and their arrogant good looks.”

She wrote she tried to pretend she was used to hearing such tales of violence over the teacups. “So what are you going to do about it?” I asked. “Will you poison your uncle?”
The late Nawab Bugti seemed shocked at the suggestion.

“‘Good heavens no – poisoning’s too good for such a man. Besides, I don’t want a blood feud on my hands, which is what that would mean. No, I shall wait until I get rid of the whole family – discreetly o course’ and he smiled deprecatingly like some Medici nobleman discussing the removal of a tiresome fellow Florentine.’

But of course the betrayal Nawab Bugti committed against his own blood and bone in 1973-77 may never have been forgivable had he not thrown the gauntlet at Gen Musharraf  30 years later. So Mr Bugti, will be well advised to forget Balochistan history and concentrate on the dirty linen piled up in the Aegean stables of the Bugti fiefdom.