NEW YORK, Sept 3: The last thing that Pakistan needs is an upsurge in violence and repression in Balochistan, as it would be a distraction from developing a chronically underachieving economy; restoring a ravished democracy; and placing a dangerous nuclear weapons establishment, including exports of bomb-related technology, under firm and reliable civilian control,” said the New York Times in an editorial on Sunday.

The editorial “The wrong battle in Pakistan” the paper noted: “There are dangerous international terrorists hiding out in the mountain caves of Pakistan. But 79-year-old Nawab Akbar Bugti, the Baloch tribal leader, politician and rebel, was not one of them.”

In a wish-list of sorts the Times says that the army could finally seal its ‘scandalously porous’ border with Afghanistan, making it much harder for the Taliban to infiltrate into that country to kill American, Nato and Afghan soldiers.

The newspaper says: “Now Mr Bugti is dead and the impoverished but energy-rich province of Balochistan is in an uproar after an ill-explained military operation last month. After a week of contradictory government statements, the only things now clear are that Mr Bugti’s body was buried in the rubble of his blown-up mountain hideout, and that anti-government fury in the restive province is at a new pitch of intensity.”