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PP RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHPW
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ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 291236Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8930
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RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 0878
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RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 6051
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 6989
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 9163
RUEHNT/AMEMBASSY TASHKENT 1737
RUEHKP/AMCONSUL KARACHI 2554
RUEHLH/AMCONSUL LAHORE 9936
RUEHPW/AMCONSUL PESHAWAR 7936

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 017014 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2016 
TAGS: PK PREL PGOV KTER
SUBJECT: REACTION TO DEATH OF NAWAB BUGTI SHIFTS FROM 
MILITARY TRIUMPH TO MARTYRDOM 
 
REF: ISLAMABAD 16944 

¶1. (C) SUMMARY: From Sunday's ""we've got him"" triumphialism,  the government's position on the death of Nawab Akbar Khan  Bugti has evolved to a denial that the Baloch tribal leader  was the victim of a targeted assassination.  The back  pedaling follows growing criticism of the security operation  that resulted in Nawab Bugti's death.  The harshest criticism  has come from Baloch politicians; most violent protest to  date has been limited to cities in Balochistan (Quetta,  Gwadar,and Kalat), although most of the province and much of  interior Sindh remains shut down in a ""wheel jam, shutters  down"" general strike. Politicans from outside the province  have joined the attacks on the government, that the action  ""martyred"" a Pakistani patriot working for the restoration of  the constitution.  Press commentators have followed this same  line, making it difficult to predict how long the wave of  bathos and recrimination will wash over the government.  Only  three days after Bugti's demise, his death has been  transformed from a military victory over an insurgent tribal  leader into the killing of a political leader, the specter of  which cuts close to the bone of Pakistan's political class. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C) The government's triumphant announcement Sunday of the  death of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, sardar of Baloshistan's  Bugti tribe and leader of an intermittent insurgency against  the Government of Pakistan (reftel), quickly yielded to  fallback explanations distancing the government from  accusations of extra-judicial murder.  Government sources  quoted in Tuesday's papers claimed that the Bugti hideout was  attacked after a GOP helicopter responded to ground fire;  that the collapse of the cave in which the Nawab and his men  were hiding was the result of structural weakness; and that  the incident was the result of betrayal at the hands of  another Baloch tribe, the Marri.  (Note:  For a more  expansive take on the government's evolving tale, post  recommends the August 29 ""The News"" article entitled ""Bugti's  killing in Marri area intriguing,"" by Muhammad Saleh Zaafir,  a journalist thought to be close to the military at  www.thenews.com.pk.  End note.) The government has stopped  short of pleading ignorance that Nawab Bugti was hiding in  the cave attacked by GOP forces on August 26.  Prime Minister  Shaukat Aziz, announcing the dispatch of earth-moving  equipment to recover the bodies still buried in the cave,  said the government did not know if the Nawab's grandsons  (and possible heirs) were also killed in the attack. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The new spin on Nawab Bugti's death was driven  largely by reactions from Pakistan's political class.  All  opposition parties condemned the action, staging an ad hoc  ""mourning session"" in the National Assembly to pay tribute to  the ""martyr"" who died in an ""extra-judicial murder."" Alliance  for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Chairman (and Pakistan  People's Party leader) Amin Fahim characterized the Nawab as  a supporter of parlimentary democracy and called the incident  ""murder of democracy.""  Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)  leaders condemned the government for ""killing politicians  after declaring them traitors"" and promised the issue would  be addressed at an All Parties Conference convened by the ARD  on August 31.  Both PML-N and the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal  (MMA) bench, consisting of an alliance of six religious  parties, have declared that they may tender their  resignations from the Assembly to protest the death of the  Nawab.  The MMA has threatened to play the mass resignation  card before, but only ""at an opportune time."" 
 
¶4. (SBU) Some in the governing coalition have distanced  themselves from the incident.  The Muttahida Quami Movement  (MQM) characterized the death as an ""extrajudicial killing.""  MQM member of the Assembly Syed Haider Abbaz Rizvi said the  party opposed the use of state force in Balochistan ""from day  one.""  MQM leader-in-exile Altaf Hussain condemned the  incident as well, while Farooq Sattar, convener of the party,  explained that the incident would not prevent the party from  supporting the government over the opposition. 
  ISLAMABAD 00017014  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Politicians of all stripes are distraught by the  scenario of one of their own -- a former provincial chief  minister and national minister and parliamentarian -- dying  at the hands of the military, even if the deceased led or  encouraged insurrections in his home province over the past  50 years.  Some in the Pakistan People's Party have gone so  far as to likening Nawab Bugti's death to that of Zulfiqar  Ali Bhutto at the hands of the Zia government in 1979.  Even  government ministers have public expressed their regret for  the circumstances surrounding Bugti's death. 
 
¶6. (C)  Comment:  The evolving hagiography in some press  accounts portray Nawab Bugti as one of the last bulwarks  against the Talibanization of the border region.  Like many  Baloch, the Nawab had no tolerance for militant Islamists,  but he also relished his status as a tribal lord answerable  only to himself.  Efforts to recast the Nawab as a standard  bearer for democracy are little more than revisionist  portraiture, as anecdotes depicting his penchant for  flaunting his powers and prowess abound.  Even in death,  Nawab Bugti continues to bedevil the government in Islamabad: 
 post's contacts say that opposition parties debating the no  confidence motion against PM Shaukat Aziz in the National  Assembly today are brushing over the corruption charges that  were to be the crux of their case, instead devoting their  floor time to excoriating the government for resorting to  violence to subdue amn iconic political rebel.  End comment. 
 
¶7.  (U)  Consulate staff in Lahore and Karachi contributed to  this cable. 
  BODDE  BODDE  "