February 25, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 23, 1423

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MULTAN, Feb 24: Two Mazari tribesmen were killed in a landmine blast near the inter-provincial border in Rojhan tehsil, Rajanpur, on Monday.

Information gleaned by this correspondent revealed that Ghulam Mustafa and Abdul Salaam were on way to Mazari Goth by a motorcycle when they hit the mine while ascending a causeway at 6:30am.

Eyewitnesses told Dawn that the blast was so powerful that it left the bodies and the two-wheeler scattered over two acres.

Hailing from a nearby village, the two were coming to Mazari Goth to inquire about the safety of its residents after an alleged attack by rival Bugti tribesmen a few hours earlier.

More than a dozen assailants had attacked Mazari Goth at 1am. The attackers reportedly crossed into the Punjab area from Balochistan on two pick-ups which they parked a few furlong away from the village.

The assailants fired rocket propelled grenades and also through submachine guns and AK-47 rifles for at least an hour and then drove back to Balochistan. However, the residents did not scatter, as they slipped to the ditches they had dug around to take refugee.

Surprisingly, neither Rangers nor police bothered to stop the attackers. The government had deployed 300 Rangers personnel and two platoons of the Punjab Constabulary at Mazari Goth to protect the gas pipelines passing through the area from Sui to the Punjab.

A resident of Mazari told this correspondent by telephone that the law enforces did not even fire a bullet to stop the attackers.

As the area of landmine blast was situated on the inter-provincial border between the Punjab and Sindh, the Rajanpur police called the revenue department officials to decide whether the scene of blast came under the Punjab.

The Dera range DIG police, Asif Nawaz, told this correspondent that the revenue officials had informed ‘it is not the Punjab.’ But the Sindh police have yet to confirm whether the area comes under their jurisdiction or not. The DIG, however, confirmed that Mazari Goth was attacked with the RPGs on Monday morning.

Denying police claim, Rojhan Tehsil Nazim Rafiq Azam Mazari insisted that the area of landmine blast fell under the Punjab. He criticized the apathy of the Rangers and police and alleged that the government wanted Mazaris to migrate from Mazari Goth and other villages along the Sui Road to please the Bugtis.

He said the failure of the state apparatus in Mazari Goth to check tribal clashes could be gauged from the fact that the government had so far tried to resolve the crisis through administrative officers, bypassing the local bodies’ elected representatives. “None has so far bothered to involve us at any level,” the Nazim averred.

The Mazari Goth village, about 340 kilometres from here to the southwest, become a known countryside when Bugti tribesmen blew away gas pipelines at the Goth on Jan 21 and Jan 26 last under the cover of their ongoing rivalry with Mazaris. Bugti chief Nawab Akbar Khan, however, claimed that “the gas pipeline blasts have nothing to do with the Mazari-Bugti feud.”

After the Jan 26 attack on gas pipeline, the government deployed the Rangers and the Punjab constabulary at Mazari Goth to protect the area from ‘Bugti onslaught.’ But, the deployment of paramilitary forces at the SNGPL expense has made no difference to the tribe’s atrocities.

The local people said presence of the law enforcers had made the Bugtis more ‘confident,’ as they had now crossed into the Punjab to attack because they knew that Mazaris could not retaliate because of restrictions on them to carry arms for being the part of Punjab.

It was learnt that a few days ago the Bugti tribesmen opened fire at Mazari Goth from a close range, killing Bugti tribesman Qaisran of Shambhani sub-clan, which was living in harmony with the Ehsani Mazaris Goth. The matter went unnoticed at the official level.

The police also have failed to retrieve inspector Farooq Leghari and two constables allegedly kidnapped by Bugti tribesmen from the Indus Highway on Jan 26 last. Reports were that the kidnappers had ruled out the possibility of the police officials’ release without getting Rs1.5m ransom for each.

It was also learnt that the Bugtis had planted anti-tank landmines on a large area along the Balochistan-Sindh-Punjab border to guard against any action.