New Delhi: Four days after Baloch tribal chieftain Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was given a quiet, hasty burial in his native Dera Bugti town by the Pakistani authorities, Bugti's kin and Baloch leaders continue to dispute the identity of the body.
The decomposed body of Bugti was buried on Friday in the absence of his relatives and fellow tribesmen. The body was brought in a sealed coffin and no one was allowed to see the body.
Adding fresh fuel to the suspicions, Bugti's son Jamil Bugti on Sunday disputed the identity of the body, saying that a wristwatch, ring and glasses displayed by the officials as personal belongings of the slain rebel leader were not that of his father's.
Questioning the government's claims on Bugti's belongings which were displayed by local officials, Jamil said: "My father never wore a ring" while the glasses that were displayed looked suspicious.
Local official Abdul Samad Lasi had displayed a ring, a pair of glasses and a wristwatch after the funeral of Bugti on Friday, claiming they were recovered from the rebel leader's body, which was retrieved from his collapsed cave hideout six days after his killing.
"The glasses shown on TV were gleaming. Who would believe that they belonged to the Nawab? If my father was killed by being crushed under the rubble in a cave. How could his glasses not even get damaged or scratched?" Jamil was quoted as saying by Daily Times.
"We still can't believe that the body buried in Dera Bugti on Friday was that of my father. If it were his body, then why wasn't anyone, including the media, shown the Nawab's face," he said.
This has prompted the government to offer to conduct an immediate DNA test. To counter the allegations over the suspicious way Bugti's body was buried, the government fielded Balochistan Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, who told reporters that anyone doubting the government's version could conduct a DNA test on the buried body.
Meanwhile, the political turmoil in Pakistan over the killing of rebel tribal leader Akbar Bugti worsened on Sunday when the four-party Baloch Alliance announced resignations of its members from Parliament as well as Balochistan Assembly.
The resignations of Baloch parties were announced at a protest rally held in Balochistan capital Quetta by the alliance in association with the mainstream Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD). Similar rallies were held in all major towns in Balochistan.
Protestors shouted slogans against the President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan army as well as against the domination of Punjab, reports said. The Baloch Alliance, which includes Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) headed by Bugti, has one Senator and one member in the National Assembly and two members in provincial Assembly.
Resignations are also being planned by former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto's PPP and Nawaz Sharif's PML-N. Both have already collected resignations of their members of Parliament. Some constituents of Islamaist Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA) too have collected resignations of parliamentarians.
(With PTI inputs)
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