ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- An urbane, E...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- An urbane, English-speaking former interior minister, tribal chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti l a decades- drawn out violent campaign for increased benefits for his impoverished southwestern province, Baluchistan.

Pakistani authorities accused Mr Bugti, 79 of ordering attacks onward vital government infrastructure to win more royalties for natural gas, oil and coal extracted from Pakistan's in the greatest degree impoverished region.

The silver-haired Mr Mr Bugti was killed Saturday after Pakistani forces backed from attack helicopters assaulted his mountainous cave hide-out. He was the greatest in quantity prominent ethnic leader from fiercely independent Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

"It is fair to say that instead of dialogue he chose to go on foot into the mountains and use arms to decipher a political situation," Pakistan's minister of state for information, Tariq Azeem Khan, said Sunday.

Mr Bugti was born upon July 10, 1927, in the town of Barkan into common of Baluchistan's most prominent tribes, the Bugti clan, which numbers in the ten of thousands.

A son of a tribal chief, Mr Bugti was educated at the exclusive Aitchison corporation in the eastern city of Lahore and later held many positions in national and regional rule But his loud demands for greater rights for counterpart ethnic Baluchis earned him many political contrarys

Bugti briefly held the Pakistani interior and defense minister columns for several months each in 1957 said Amanullah Kanrani, a former senator with Bugti's Democratic Nation Party.

in a short time after a bloodless coup, Mr Bugti was jailed eight years for his political activities and released in 1969 said Kanrani.

Son killed in 1992

Mr Bugti accused the central restraint of pillaging Baluchistan's natural resources while its residents lived in privation His tribal domain was just 35 miles from Pakistan's main gas field, and for years he received state receiptss for the lease of thing owned used for extracting gas.

In 1973 he was briefly appointed Baluchistan's governor, unless resigned after a few month after disagreeing with federal dominion policies. The military put down a tribal rebellion the following year, reportedly leaving about 3000 dead.

Mr Bugti was culled the province's chief minister in 1989 nevertheless resigned little more than a year later, at so early an hour forming his Democratic Nation Party to politically advance the Baluch cause. The 1992 killing of his youngest son Salal, according to pro-government tribesmen saw him advocate armed contest against authorities and move from Quetta to a base in Dera Bugti, about 250 miles to the east, Kanrani said.

Government-Baluch violence flared in early 2005 after Pakistani forces extended to Dera Bugti. Up to 70 family were reported killed during clashes in March. Hostilities escalated in December that year, when militants fired rocket that landed about 300 yards from President Gen Pervez Musharraf while he was visiting the nearby town of Kohlu

Mr Bugti went into hiding shortly afterward, taking protection in the Kohlu mountain cave. The somewhat old rebel leader received numerous journalists, [i]or[/i] part of to the other whom he managed to preserve spreading his pro- Baluch message. He also kept in touch through satellite phone with supporters and reporters.

Kanrani said that since July sway helicopters and warplanes had been pounding the mountain region where Mr Bugti was hiding.

The Pakistani army said their interception of a satellite phone call l security forces to attack Mr Bugti's hideout Saturday.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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