Body retrieved from cave, says ISPR: •Remains be given to heirs: Jamil Bugti •Burial in Dera Bugti today •Four other corpses found •Public funeral not possible: DCO
By Raja Asghar and Saleem Shahid
ISLAMABAD/QUETTA, Aug 31: The body of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was retrieved from the rubble of a remote cave in the Kohlu district late on Thursday night amid protests by some members of the grieving family over the government’s refusal to give them the body for burial.
Top military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said Nawab Bugti would be buried in Dera Bugti on Friday. He added that the Balochistan government had contacted the immediate family members of Nawab Bugti and would facilitate their visit to Dera Bugti.
But Nawab Bugti’s son, Jamil Bugti, told Dawn that the government had established no contact with the bereaved family.
“We have no idea whose body is being taken to Dera Bugti. Our demand has been that the body should be handed over to us – the heirs of Nawab Bugti – for burial,” he said in a voice cracking with emotion.
Maj-Gen Sultan told Dawn that the body was pinned under a boulder in the cave which collapsed following an unexplained explosion during the Aug 26 military operation.
“We can say in medical terms that the body is in an advanced stage of decay. The body, which was badly crushed, has been examined by doctors,” he said hours after a National Assembly debate on Nawab Bugti’s killing collapsed amid provocative remarks by the parliamentary affairs minister.
As political parties belonging to the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal made arrangements for a strike on Friday against the Kohlu killings, Jamhoori Watan Party secretary-general Agha Shahid Bugti said it was a widely held view in Balochistan that Nawab Bugti had died following a bitter shootout with military personnel in the open.
“And our suspicion is fuelled by the reluctance of the government to hand over the body of Nawab Bugti to his heirs. They fear that we will be able to find out exactly how they killed Nawab Bugti,” said Mr Bugti, who is son-in-law of the slain tribal chief.
Sources told Dawn that four more bodies had been retrieved from the rubble. “But they have been in a state beyond recognition. Doctors examined the body of Nawab Bugti before it was sent to Dera Bugti,” they said.
Dera Bugti District Coordination Officer Abdus Samad Lasi said he did not expect a public funeral because of a decision by a jirga of Bugti’s opponents not to allow more than two members of the bereaved family to attend the funeral. He added that the district administration was making arrangements for the funeral.
