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Conflict in Balochistan 24
including donkeys, on which people were fleeing Dera Bugti.
The Lahore team including Ms. Asma Jahangir and Mr. Afrasiab Khattak was fired upon by unknown
persons, about 25 minutes after Kashmore. Their car was singled out and several bullets were fired in their
direction for a period of at least five minutes. The team, there after returned to Kashmore and spent the night
at the FC headquarters.
Members of the team suspect that the attack was preplanned by an organized agency and carried out
in a brazen manner. The road on which the incident took place ran through an open field and anyone lurking
around could have easily been spotted by the frequent security patrols in the area. The place where the incident
occurred is located between two rangers’ checkpoints, minutes away from each other.
A number of HRCP members in Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan were contacted by members
of the intelligence agencies to inquire about the program and schedule of the mission. At Multan airport, a
number of intelligence personnel were present and photographed the car in which the team was traveling.
Similarly, at Dera Ghazi Khan, they were once again photographed.
On the night of the incident, an application was submitted to the DSP of Rojhan for filing an FIR.
Despite promises, no FIR has so far been filed, and there were no recoveries either made from the place of
occurrence or else the evidence was removed.
The following day, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) allegedly claimed responsibility for the
attack. According to a press statement appearing in the media, the BLA spokesman expressed his grief at
“Punjabis visiting the area in order to rub salt on the wounds of the Baloch people.”
HRCP is appalled at the incident and deplores such acts of violence calculated to threaten human rights
activists. They remain bewildered at the governments’ reluctance to investigate the incident. Moreover considering
the findings of the mission it is not quite clear why the BLA would want to scare the team away. We feel the
concocted statement regarding the BLA claim could at least have been spared an ethnic slant.
FC Headquarters, Kashmore:
The HRCP would like to express its appreciation for the hospitality and comfort offered to them by the
Rangers and FC officers. At the same time, the HRCP would like to put on record that the District Coordination
Officer (DCO), Dera Bugti, Mr. Abdul Samad Lasi, the DSP of Rojhan, and other police constables arrived at
the FC headquarters and took note of the incident that occurred. The DCO also gave a comprehensive
briefing to the team. The team members remain grateful to him for sharing his insights.
Briefing of the DCO, Dera Bugti:
The DCO regretted that he was formally not informed of the visit, but confessed that he was however
aware of it unofficially and had been awaiting the team’s arrival since three in the afternoon. He claimed that
shops and businesses in Sui had been forcibly closed under pressure from Nawab Akbar Bugti, in order to
confuse the team about the extent of official harassment and the nature of protests of ordinary people caught in
the crossfire. He assured the team that Sui was paralyzed and that there was some trouble in Dera Bugti owing
to ‘miscreants’.
The DCO denied any civilian casualties had taken place as a result of the conflict in Dera Bugti.
He also made several allegations of abuses and criminal acts committed by the Nawab. Amongst these
were running of private prisons, in which, according to the DCO, 250 people were being held captive. After
the HRCP team promised to visit these sights, he clarified that since last December, 55 prisoners had been
released, and the rest were taken to the “furari” camps to fight against the security forces. He also alleged that