WASHINGTON, Aug 27: Sunday’s newspapers in the US paid little attention to the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti and his supporters in Balochistan although some did carry news agency stories on their Internet editions.

In its print edition, The New York Times carried a 91-word news item under a larger story about a terror suspect arrested in Pakistan for his alleged involvement with the London plot to hijack US airliners.

The 433-word story details how and why the detention of Rashid Rauf, a key figure in the London plot, has been extended for 14 days.

Under the story, a news brief quotes Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani as saying that Nawab Bugti and his two grandsons were killed in an encounter with the security forces.

“The men were leading an armed rebellion against the central government in their native province of Balochistan,” the newspaper notes.

The story recalls that government forces have been fighting Mr Bugti and his followers, who are demanding greater rights for the Baloch people, since last year and forced Mr Bugti to flee his ancestral homeland and hide in the mountains six months ago.

The Washington Post was even shorter. In its World In Brief section, the Post ran a 28-word brief saying: “Security forces killed an anti-government Baloch tribal leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti, and at least 24 suspected rebel supporters in a blow to a long-running ethnic resistance movement, officials said.”

The Los Angeles Times also carried a brief agency story, dated Aug 27, noting that Nawab Bugti’s death was a blow to the Baloch resistance movement. At least five troops also died, the story adds.

“Mr Bugti, 79, a former senator and governor of Balochistan, turned against the government amid disputes over distribution of revenue for natural gas extracted from tribal territories in the province, Pakistan’s largest and poorest,” the newspaper notes.

There was no story in Christian Science Monitor and Chicago Tribune.