VZCZCXRO4591
PP RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHIL #7014/01 2411236
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 291236Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8930
INFO RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ALMATY 9568
RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 1053
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 3772
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 0878
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 1606
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 "