Cleric doubts if buried man was Bugti

Quetta: When Baloch leader Akbar Khan Bugti was buried in Dera Bugti on Friday, Maulana Abdul Malook Bugti, the Imam of a local mosque, was one of the very few people who saw the body.

The Maulana led funeral prayers Bugti’s body was lowered into an unmarked grave and covered with wooden planks and mud. On Saturday, the Maulana made a sensational statement that he was not certain whether the buried person was Bugti. “I am not sure whether it was Akbar Bugti’s body or not,” he said.

The body was hastily buried while Pakistan Army officials stood guard. The body inside the wooden coffin was badly disfigured, he said.

The rebel leader’s sons Talal Bugti and Jameel Bugti, grandsons Brahamdagh, Mir Aali and Tabish Bugti, have rejected the Pakistan government and army’s claim that the body was Bugti’s.

Jameel Bugti demanded that an international medical board conduct a DNA test on the buried body.

Government officials did not contact the family members for the burial, he said. "Unless the body of Nawab Bugti is handed over to his heirs, we would not believe the government has really buried him," said Bugti's son-in-law, Senator Agha Shahid Bugti.

Jameel Bugti criticised the military for burying his father's body in Dera Bugti and not in Quetta. "The government was scared the people would show their anger if my father was buried in Quetta. They buried him in Dera Bugti, where there are no family members present, so they can cover up this cold-blooded killing. It's unethical and immoral. We and the entire Baloch nation are not surprised over this act by the military, which has no regard for values," he said.

Balochistan government spokesman Abdul Raziq Bugti said authorities decided not to return the body to his family in Quetta to prevent Opposition parties from using the funeral for their own "political objectives".

Senior Baloch leader Ataullah Khan Mengal said on Saturday that the Balochis were determined to intensify their struggle for self-determination and economic rights, and there would now be no looking back till this objective was achieved.

The combined Opposition, which has been having several meetings over the Bugti killing issue, has said that their protests against the Musharraf regime will continue.