Confrontation between Pakistani tribal militants and security forces could erupt into a major crisis unless a political solution can be found quickly, a government commander said on Tuesday. Hundreds of ethnic minority militants have surrounded a security post in the remote southwestern town of Dera Bugti, in Baluchistan province, after a bloody clash last week. "The situation needs to be controlled, as soon as possible, so that a massive crisis is averted," Brigadier Salim Nawaz, commander of the paramilitary Frontier Corps troops in the area, told reporters in Sui town.
"The situation is very tense," Nawaz said of Dera Bugti, where well-armed militants have dug in around his troops. "We hope that political leaders tell these people to go back," he said alluding to prominent tribal chief, Nawab Akbar Bugti, a former chief minister of Baluchistan. Baluch militants have been waging a low-level insurgency in the province for decades for greater autonomy, but they have recently stepped up attacks on government targets, including natural gas and transport facilities. Security has been tight since an attack by the nationalist militants on the country's largest gas field in Sui on Jan. 11, in which at least 15 people were killed.
Last Thursday, eight soldiers were killed and 23 wounded in a battle with the militants on the outskirts of Dera Bugti. Dozens of other people were killed in the fighting, including 32 Hindu members of the tribe, women and children among them, said Ramesh Lal, a Hindu opposition politician. A delegation of politicians visiting the area on Tuesday was confronted by a crowd of about 500 people outside Sui chanting slogans against President Pervez Musharraf's government. "Stop military operations," the crowd shouted. "Down with the Musharraf government" and "Long live Nawab Bugti," they said.
Armed Bugti tribesmen could be seen on hilltops as the delegation traveled along a deserted road from Sui to Dera Bugti. Tribesmen cradling automatic rifles and rocket launchers peered from bunkers by the side of the road. |