The United States called on Monday for a peaceful resolution of tensions in Balochistan after riots erupted over the military's killing of a prominent rebel chief, Nawab Akbar Bugti, in the restive area.
Nawab Akbar Bugti, who had been leading a violent struggle against the federal government over Balochistan's natural resources, was killed in a military strike on Saturday. The killing sparked deadly rioting in Balochistan over the weekend, and analysts warned there could be more trouble on the horizon.
"Mr Bugti was a tribal leader and politician, who had joined with those taking up arms to demand increased autonomy for Balochistan, which included local control of the province's natural resources," a State Department official said.
"The US would like to see these issues resolved peacefully and within the framework of a strong and unified Pakistan," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. Akbar Bugti, a colourful British-educated tribal chieftain in his 80s, fled his former stronghold earlier this year following a crackdown by the military.
Instability in Balochistan, straddling Iran and Afghanistan, has potential implications for the United States, as it is a launching pad for US military operations against Islamic terrorism, Frederic Grare, a visiting scholar at Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a recent report.
"If the United States were to undertake a military action against Iran, it could also use Balochistan for conducting subversive acts in Iranian Balochistan," he said, adding: "For the United States to be able to do this, Pakistani Balochistan would have to remain calm and not pose a threat to the interests of Washingtons allies."
Bugti's killing is probably a miscalculation, said Christine Fair, a senior research associate with the US Institute for Peace, an independent, non-partisan institution, established and funded by the US Congress.
"Obviously, Pakistan needs to have political solution to this and the killing is not going to do that and in fact, it probably is going to mobilise more than anything else some of the groups that had been previously not on the same page as Bugti," she said.
It is also "going to make a political solution all the more difficult," Fair said. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz denied the killing was deliberate, saying Bugti died when a mountain hideout collapsed under fire from forces responding to militant attacks. "It was not targeted," Aziz said.