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By Aijaz Mehr
BBC Urdu Service, Dera Bugti, Balochistan |
Nawab Bugti (centre) has set up camp in the hills |
"Of course we are negotiating with the government," says Nawab Akbar Bugti, leader of one of the most powerful tribes in Pakistan’s troubled southern province of Balochistan.
"We negotiate every day."
The octogenarian Nawab is said to be the mentor and director of a fierce armed resistance by Baloch tribesmen against Pakistan army’s plans to build new cantonments in the province.
"You hear that?" he says as a rocket fired by the security forces explodes somewhere in the distance.
"That is the language that they use and we have no choice but to reply in the same."
Indeed, rocket-propelled grenades seem to have become the dominant language of negotiation between rebel Baloch tribesmen and the security forces in a festering conflict that seems to be headed nowhere.
Well-equipped
The small town of Dera Bugti - once Nawab Bugti’s home before he set up camp in the surrounding hills - is riddled with marks of this conflict.
The staff of all the schools and hospitals in the area has fled. Residents prefer to remain indoors and markets are sparsely populated.
On the way to Dera Bugti, one comes across several checkpoints manned by heavily armed Bugti tribesmen.
They are equipped with Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers, night vision goggles, satellite phones and powerful wireless sets that match the ones used by the security forces.
It is the equipment that they have, as much as how they use it, that is a cause of major concern for the security forces.
Security officials say Nawab Bugti is not only financing the rebels, he is also taking care of the logistics of providing them with communications equipment, food and arms.
Most such supplies are going to the municipality of Kahan, a hilly tract between the districts of Dera Bugti and Kolhu.
’Millions of dollars’
Thousands of rebel tribesmen, mostly from the Marri tribe, are said to be holed up in Kahan’s hills from where they carry out almost daily attacks on the security forces.
The rebels have sophisticated communication equipment |
Government officials say they are being supplied weapons and food on a daily basis by the Bugtis, who often use camels to transport the supplies across the hills as the roads are blockaded by the Frontier Corps.
Frontier Corps officials estimate that logistics alone are costing Nawab Bugti upwards of $2,000 a day.
"We need to ask where this money is coming from," says Colonel Furqan of the Frontier Corps.
Security officials say more than $1m may have gone into the logistics of supplying the rebels over the last year or so.
According to them, it could be the major reason why rebel attacks have become sharper and fiercer in recent times.
Running for cover
The BBC got a taste of "rebel attacks" last Wednesday when a fortress housing the Frontier Corps units near Sui came under rocket attack.
The fighting is forcing many villagers to flee |
The first loud explosion inside the fort did not seem to have ruffled any feathers. Well entrenched in the heavily fortified structure, Frontier Corps personnel went about their business even as rockets were thudding into the outer walls of the fortress.
But within minutes, the shelling intensified to such a level that even the more battle-hardened troops had to run for cover.
In over an hour of continuous shelling during which about 40 rockets were fired on the fortress, panic levels rose steadily even though no one was injured.
And then it stopped as suddenly as it had started. Colonel Furqan said it was almost turning into a ritual and was driving the local population away.
All through the day, several families could be seen piling their household belongings onto camels in order to migrate to safer areas.
Government officials point to these migrations as an obvious example of how fed up the "common man" was with the conflict.
But the sentiment seems to be in short supply out in the streets.
Most of the people interviewed by the BBC say the Baloch have been pushed into a situation where they have no option but to fight back.
We need to ask where this money is coming from 
