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Bombs, riots rock Pakistan after killing of tribal chief
AFP
QUETTA, Pakistan
Petroleumworld.com 08 30 06
Troubled southwest Pakistan witnessed Tuesday its worst violence since the weekend killing of a popular tribal chief as mobs set buildings ablaze and four people died in a large bomb blast.
The explosion at a hotel in Hub, an industrial town some 600 kilometers (370 miles) south of the Baluchistan provincial capital of Quetta, injured six others, police official Ghulam Ali Lashari told AFP.
Hub has seen a string of bomb blasts this year and the area has been on edge since Saturday when tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in a military strike that sparked widespread rioting in the Baluchistan region.
Earlier Tuesday, a crowd firing weapons into the air had rampaged through the streets of Quetta following funeral prayers for Bugti.
The mob torched a local bank and set a district government building alight, setting off plumes of thick black smoke, an AFP reporter said. Four makeshift bombs exploded in shops near the venue of the prayers.
Police fired tear gas as well as rounds in the air to try to bring the situation under control, police official Abdul Khan said. Paramilitary troops were brought in to quell the violence.
A policeman and eight protesters were injured in the gunfire and rushed to hospital, a police officer said, adding that around 100 people were detained during the day's rioting.
The mobs set ablaze some two dozen shops belonging to settlers in Quetta city and blocked roads by burning old tyres, residents said.
Thousands of people including former ministers and provincial governors attended the mass prayers in a local sports stadium for Bugti, a fiery leader who fought to give Baluchis a greater share of the region's gas revenues.
Bugti, whose insurgency left hundreds of people dead over the past two years, was seen as a hero by many in the region for his battle against the central government of President Pervez Musharraf.
It was the third consecutive day of unrest in the area, which has led to more than 500 people being arrested and two killed. Baluch nationalists also called a general strike in protest.
Violence was also reported in several other areas in Baluchistan on Tuesday, including in the coastal town of Turbat where protesters were said to have torched three shops and one bank.
Bugti, who was in his 80s, was a tough and controversial figure, an Oxford-educated powerbroker who dominated Baluch politics for decades.
He was accused of running a feudal justice system complete with private jails, and had been blamed for the deaths of scores of police and soldiers. He was said to have a militia of thousands of fighters.
Bugti's body has not yet been recovered from the cave which collapsed during a heavy exchange of fire between Pakistan security forces and his armed men, officials said.
Pakistan military spokesman major general Shaukat Sultan told a press conference in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad, that it would take another four or five days to retrieve the body of Bugti from the rubble.
Sultan said it was not clear what caused the blast and denied that Bugti was the target of the strike.
"Our basic purpose is to retrieve the bodies from the cave," Sultan said.
Troops found two boxes in rubble which contained 100 million rupees (1.6 million dollars) and 96,000 dollars, some cheque books and a Thuraya satellite phone, Sultan said.
Former premier Benazir Bhutto called it a blow to the unity and integrity of the province. "His killing would further alienate the people of Baluchistan from the Centre (Islamabad)," she said in a statement from London.
She called for an end to military operations in Baluchistan.
Separatist sentiment has been bubbling in Baluchistan ever since the founding of Pakistan nearly 60 years ago, and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Monday the military had not deliberately targeted Bugti.
But President Musharraf warned that his government would crush the insurgency.
About 1,500 tribal militants who were part of the insurgency surrendered to authorities Tuesday citing unemployment and poverty as among the reasons.
The militants and three of their leaders laid down their arms in a town in Kohlu district and promised to support the government, the Associated Press of Pakistan said.
The militants were from the Marri tribe, and had been loyal to another tribal chief, although they were fighting for the same cause as the Bugti rebels.
AFP 291703 GMT 08 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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