Baloch activist Brahumdagh Bugti on Tuesday recalled the killing of his father and former leader of the Bugti tribe, Nawab Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti, who was dubbed a 'traitor,' despite contributing his entire life for his people and motherland irrespective of his age and health.
Bugti's remarks have come after a special court announced death sentence for Pakistan's former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf in the high treason case earlier today.
Nawab Bugti, who served as the Minister of State for Interior and the Governor of Balochistan Province under the presidency of Musharraf, was killed in a military operation on August 26, 2006, after a prolonged conflict with the former president of Pakistan.
"Musharraf called #ShaheedNawabAkbarBugti a 'traitor', the time has shown who a real traitor is. Nawab Bugti was a true patriot who gave his life for his people and his motherland despite his age/health. Musharraf is a traitor of his country who is running away and hiding behind his illness," Bugti said in a tweet.
A special court today handed death punishment to the former military dictator for abrogating the Constitution and declaring a state emergency on November 3, 2007.
However, the Pakistan Army, following the sentence, lashed out at the country's judiciary and came out in support of its former chief, saying, "An ex-army chief, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) and President of Pakistan, who has served the country for over 40 years, fought wars for the defence of the country can surely never be a traitor."
Speaking on the Army's reaction, Bugti said: "This reaction is obvious because current Army leadership is 80 per cent doing the same Musharraf did just the ways of doing things are bit different."
"In other words, below press release mean it is OK for an Army chief to remove an elected government and dismantle constitution!," the activist, who is also the president of Baloch Republican Party, added.
The court verdict on Musharraf, Bugti said, also shows that those who accused Baloch people of working for foreign interests and persecuted them, have themselves been working for the interests of a specific group and even undermined their country's constitution.
"Better late than never. This shows those who accused the Baloch of treason, called them traitors and committed war crimes against them were themselves traitors," he stressed.
According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, an entity established by the Pakist government, around 5,000 cases of enforced disappearances of the Baloch people have been registered since 2014. Most of them, however, remain unresolved so far.
Independent local and international human rights orgsations put the numbers much higher. Around 20,000 have reportedly been abducted only from Balochistan, out of which more than 2,500 have turned up dead as bullet-riddled dead bodies, bearing signs of extreme torture.
Pakistan's establishment has been long criticised over its practice of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by International bodies and local human rights orgsations that dare to speak out on the issue.
Before being elected as Prime Minister, Imran Khan had admitted in multiple TV interviews the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and vowed to resign if he was unable to put an end to the practice, holding those involved responsible.
Bugti, himself, has taken up the matter before the UN Human Rights Convention in June this year, alleging that the Pakist state authorities have been using enforced disappearances as a tool to crush the voices of oppressed people like Balochs, Pashtuns, Muhajirs, Sindhis and other religious minorities in the country.
( With inputs from ANI )