A close ally and friend of Chief Minister Balochistan Sarfaraz Bugti was reportedly shot dead by unknown assailants in Sui, Dera Bugti, the chief minister himself confirmed.
The chief minister took to the social media platform ‘X’, formerly Twitter, to break the news that his close friend, whom he identified as Rakhia Bugti, was killed by unknown ‘terrorists.’ He said that his friend was a true Pakistani and an overall good human being. He said that the ‘terrorists’ have started a new trend of murdering innocent and unarmed Pakistanis.
Bugti vowed that the Government of Balochistan will breathe a sigh of relief once it has completely wiped out ‘terrorists’ from its soil.
It should be noted that Sarfraz Bugti himself has been accused of forming and running a private militia group, a “death squad”, in Girdonhwa and Dera Bugti. Social circles accuse this group of enforced disappearances, killings, and other social evils. These ‘death squads’ are primarily formed to spy on Baloch nationalists and ‘pro-independence’ groups and their sympathizers, and are compensated financially and given a free rein to do what they please in exchange for their services. It is widely believed that Sarfaraz Bugti and others like him rose to power by proving their loyalty to the Pakistani state by forming and running these ‘death squads.’
However, the motive behind the incident is yet to be ascertained.
The state-sponsored death squads have been allegedly involved in various brutal acts of violence all over Balochistan, while last year when the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) held a sit-in protest in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad against the extrajudicial killing of Balach Baloch in CTD’s custody. An armed ‘death squad’, headed by current MNA Jamal Raisani, travelled to Islamabad, allegeldy at the behest of the Pakistani authorities, to set up a camp directly in front of the BYC’s protest camp in an attempt to sabotage the efforts of Baloch human rights advocates.