Shahzain Bugti, the grandson of the former Chief Minister of Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Bugti, was arrested by the Frontier Corps in Quetta on Wednesday for allegedly trying to smuggle a large cache of weapons into the capital of the restive province.
Mr. Bugti — who heads the provincial wing of the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) founded by his grandfather — was arrested in the early hours of the day as he was returning from Chaman along the Afghanistan border.
According to the Frontier Corps, they had acted on information that Mr. Bugti had purchased weapons and ammunition from Chaman where he had gone to condole the death of a Pashtun leader.
Acting on this information, his convoy was stopped at Baleli check post and the weapons and ammunition — including rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns — were found in one of the vehicles.
“Being framed”
Mr. Bugti claimed he was being framed by the authorities to stop him from leading a march from Kashmore in Sindh to his ancestral Dera Bugti on January 28 to resettle his tribesmen who were driven out of their homes during the military operation conducted by the former President, Pervez Musharraf, in Balochistan.
During this military operation, Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in August 2006 and Balochistan has remained on the boil since.
The JWP itself split as grandsons of the elderly leader of Balochistan differed with each other on the course of action. While the JWP, now headed by Shahzain Bugti's father, has a federalist approach, another cousin Bramdagh Bugti — who heads the Baloch Republican Party and is alleged by Pakistan to have an Indian passport — is fighting for liberation.
