Pak on alert over unrest in Baloch

QUETTA:  Pakistan was on alert for further unrest on Monday after violent rioting over the death of a top tribal leader in a military air strike.   

Three people including a policeman died in clashes and hundreds were arrested as protesters went on the rampage in southwestern province of Balochistan , where a rebellion has simmered over the past two years.   

A curfew was imposed in Quetta and paramilitary forces deployed as angry demonstrators torched buses and buildings, exchanging fire with police and setting off a bomb at a government office south of the provincial capital.   

Authorities braced for more trouble on Monday after an alliance of four Baloch parties called for a general strike over the death of colourful tribal chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti.   

The government said that in view of the law and order situation all educational institutions in Quetta would remain closed on Monday.   

Traffic was thin and markets were shut in several Baloch towns and cities.   

Bugti, a figurehead of the Baloch  insurgency, was one of the more than 20 people killed in a major attack on his hideout in the province's mountains in strikes launched on Friday.   

"We have asked the government to hand over the body of Nawab Akbar Bugti to us because he is a national hero and we want to bury him befittingly," said Kachkol Ali, leader of the four-party alliance.   

Information minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said body of Bugti was still buried under the rubble and the government would hand over it to the relatives when found and added that the work was in progress to dig out bodies.   

"Bugti was not targeted and his death was a result of an encounter which took place due to the resistance against the state," Durrani told a press conference in Islamabad late Sunday.   

The minister said that at least 17 insurgents and seven security personnel were killed in the operation, revising down a toll given by officials earlier.   

"There was no curfew in Quetta and flights and trains were operating," Durrani said.    Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told state television the situation was "under control" and added that "nobody would be allowed to violate the law."   

The colourful, British-educated Bugti fled his former stronghold earlier this year following a military crackdown sparked by a rocket attack during a visit by President Pervez Musharraf in December.   

He had been accused of operating private jails and running a feudal justice system, and was blamed for the deaths of dozens of soldiers and police.   

Balochistan  has been rocked by a near two-year insurgency blamed on autonomy-seeking tribesmen who also want a greater share of the gas-rich province's natural resources.   

Opposition leaders condemned Bugti's killing. Liaquat Baloch, leader of separate six-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, described the killing as "one of the darkest eras in Pakistan's political history."   

"It's the worst news for the Baloch nation," said Shahid Bugti, spokesman for the dead chieftain's Jamhoori Watan Party.   Balochistan has seen nearly two years of attacks on pipelines, railway tracks and government installations.   

Officials say hundreds of people have died since the unrest erupted in late 2004.