KARACHI, Sept 1: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain termed the manner ‘tyrannical worse than murder’ in which Nawab Akbar Bugti was buried in his native town on Friday.
In a statement issued from the party’s international secretariat in London, Mr Hussain stressed that bodies of even those condemned for murder were handed over to their heirs. But the way in which Nawab Bugti was laid to rest was disgraceful, he said.
Altaf Hussain called for allowing the family members of the late leader to visit his grave.
MQM Rabita Committee had earlier demanded that the body of the founder of Jamhoori Watan Party must be handed over to the heirs.
Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party (Shaheed Bhutto) chief Ghinva Bhutto said that the way Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, former governor, chief minister and eminent politician, was killed in an army operation and later his body, instead of handing over to his heirs, was buried in a clandestine manner in the supervision of army in absence of his family members in Dera Bugti deserved condemnation in strongest words.
She said that this unethical and un-Islamic act of the military rulers and their contradictory statements about murder and body of Nawab Bugti were manifestation of some secret agenda as if rulers had some peculiar designs behind the assassination of the Baloch leader.
Ms Ghniva said refusal to hand over the body to his sons and close family members after his murder and even not allowing journalists to have a last glimpse of the late leader by the government makes the entire exercise doubtful whose consequences could be dangerous.
She expressed deep concern over the tragedy and extended condolences to the bereaved family and prayed to for eternal peace for the departed soul.
Labour Party leader Nasir Mansoor in a statement said Nawab Bugti and his other colleagues’ burial in a clandestine manner by the army rulers and their cohorts had trampled religious, cultural and tribal traditions. The rulers, he said, had replayed their autocratic attitude demonstrated earlier in cases of Nawab Nauroze Khan, Hameed Baloch, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
He said the way people had responded solidarity with Baloch people by observing a strike was a proof that the days of the rulers were numbered.
He also demanded setting up judicial commission to investigate state-sponsored terrorism in Balochistan.
Veteran politician Meraj Mohammad Khan strongly criticized the government for burying Nawab Akbar Bugti in official patronage and depriving Baloch people, his family and relatives of their legal and moral right of performing burial with Islamic and tribal honours, adds PPI.
In a statement, Meraj Mohammad Khan said that the government should have handed of Nawab Akbar Bugti to his heirs, allowing them to bury their tribal chief according to their family customs.
He charged that the rulers by committing this immoral guilt had rubbed salt on wounds of the Balochs. “This would result in dire consequences and only government would be responsible for it “, he added.