Shahzain Bugti Admits He Smuggled Military-Grade Weapons From Afghanistan

click here to see the video

A politician smuggles landmines and anti-aircraft guns from Afghanistan. His cousin runs a terror group protected by foreign governments. Are politicians and political parties allowed to do this in a democracy or is it time to correct these flawed practices in Pakistan?


A video has surfaced that shows politician Shahzain Bugti telling the police he smuggled sophisticated military-grade weapons into Pakistan hours after misleading the media by saying the weapons were planted in his convoy.

The video was recorded by cellphone at around noon on Dec. 22, 2011.  Bugti is shown sitting on a sofa in what appears to be the office of a police official, telling the men in the room he did smuggle the weapons, including anti-aircraft guns and landmines. He also admits he lied to the media, claiming the weapons were planted in his convoy that traveled from the Afghan border to the outskirts of the provincial capital Quetta where Bugti was caught.

The video was filmed a few hours after Bugti was arrested at dawn, around 0430 hours, trying to smuggle lethal weapons in a convoy of sixteen cars. Tipped off by Pakistani intelligence, the Frontier Corp stopped Bugti’s convoy at Quetta’s entrance. The FC, treating Bugti with respect as a politician, negotiated with him for three hours to grant permission to check the convoy. Finally, the police and FC searched the cars and netted a dazzling list of weapons.

The weapons included:

50 Sub Machine Guns [SMGs]
4 Light Machine Guns [LMGs]
2 12.7mm Anti-Aircraft guns [See here]
2 14.2 mm Anti-Aircraft guns
1 SPG-9 [See details here]
1 9mm pistol
1 AUG assault rifle [See here]
46,000 rounds of SMG
1,600 rounds of 12.7/14.5
570 rounds of AUG
880 rounds of sniper rifle
39 rounds of 9mm pistol
17 mobile phones
Landmines
Explosives
Anti-personnel landmines
16 vehicles

Shahzain is the son of Tala Bugti, the chairman of the Jamhooro Watan Party, or JWP, and a grandson of Akbar Bugti.

Akbar launched an armed rebellion against the state in January 2005, unleashing a private army laced with sophisticated weapons smuggled from Afghanistan. He committed suicide in late 2006 inside a cave to avoid capture by soldiers who came to arrest him. He is known to have worked with the intelligence services of three countries operating in Afghanistan to help break Balochistan away from the rest of the country. 

For this purpose, Bugti and his foreign backers revived a terror group called BLA, or Balochistan Liberation Army. The terror outfit was first created by India and the Soviet Union in the 1970s to carry out bombings in Pakistan.  The group was re-launched after the United States landed in Afghanistan as a joint operation involving Indians, the CIA and Afghan warlords.

The BLA is led by Brahamdagh Bugti, Akbar’s grandson and Shazain’s cousin, who has been hiding in Kabul for several years, protected by CIA and Afghan intelligence. 

Brahamdagh’s cover was blown in early 2009 after his terror group kidnapped a UN official in Quetta who turned out to be a US citizen.

Several local Baloch supporters of Brahamdagh broke away from their boss and cooperated with Pakistani authorities in blowing his cover. [The episode was an embarrassment for CIA and opened the eyes of other parts of US government to what their main spy agency was doing in Afghanistan.]

Instead of handing him over to Pakistani authorities, the CIA negotiated an asylum deal for Brahamdagh in Switzerland, to keep him there as a tool to blackmail Pakistan.

In March 2012, Pakistan has warned Britain and Switzerland over their roles in supporting terror in Pakistan by giving asylum to BLA terror chiefs who orchestrate bombings that kill innocent citizens.

Unfortunately, the Balochistan High Court released Shahzain Bugti in January despite the huge cache of weapons that indicate Shahzain’s intent to wage war against his country and people in cohorts with foreign powers in Afghanistan. But the Supreme Court intervened and cancelled his bail on April 4. Despite this, Shahzain refused to appear before the court. The court waited for him for three weeks before finally issuing his arrest warrant over the weekend.

The case raises serious questions about federal government’s practice of giving tribal chiefs like Shahzain and his family millions of dollars of gas royalties instead of directly spending them on the impoverished people of the province. Tribal chiefs like Shahzain spend the money on building private properties abroad and recruiting and arming private armies that indulge in abduction of businessmen for ransom and killing citizens.

The case also raises questions about the involvement of almost all Pakistani political parties in creating and running private armies, in direct violation of the Political Parties Act and the laws. The State is yet to ban or disarm any of these parties.

Pakistani investigators should probe the role of BLA and its secret supporters like Shahzain Bugti in smuggling advanced weapons from Afghanistan to Karachi, where three armed ‘political parties’ are holding the country’s business hub hostage for years.

Spying devices' found in vegetable consignment from India: Report

The devices hidden inside a crate of tomatoes included sound recorders and other equipment

A vegetable consignment from India was seized on Wagah border on Friday and “spying equipment” was recovered during security screening, Express Newsreported.

The devices hidden inside a crate of tomatoes included sound recorders and other equipment.

Express News quoted sources as saying that four men, transporting the consignment have also been detained and are being investigated. Their nationalities could not be ascertained as yet.

The devices have been sent off to experts for inspection.

Bizarrely enough

In December 2011, Pakistan captured a monkey, found wandering in Cholistan, all the way from India.

In 2010, Indian police held a pigeon under armed guard after it was caught on an “alleged spying mission” for Pakistan.

Quebec premier victory speech: Shots fired, 1 dead, gunman detained (PHOTOS)

Quebec’s newly-elected Premier Pauline Marois has been rushed off stage during her acceptance speech, after shots were heard inside Montreal's Metropolis concert hall. One man is reported dead.

Another person is in a critical condition and one more witness is being treated for shock, Montreal police have informed Canadian media.

Ian Lafrenière stated that the dead man was in his 40s and that two guns were recovered at the scene, but there was no reason to believe there was more than one shooter.

After firing shots the gunman started a fire behind the downtown Montreal venue where Marois’ supporters had gathered, Reuters reports.

Video has emerged, reportedly showing a man in a blue bathrobe and black balaclava with a gun on the ground surrounded by police. Video footage showed a high-powered rifle, which Twitter users identified as an AK-47 or Valmont Hunter weapon.

The gunman is said to be 62 years old and was apparently shouting “the English are waking up” in French with a Canadian-English accent before adding in English that there would be "payback."

Marois heads the separatist Parti Quebecois, which seeks independence for the French-speaking province of Quebec.

The premier-elect returned to the stage a few minutes after she left it, urging her supporters who packed the hall to leave calmly, stating that "there was a little unfortunate incident," so as not to create panic. Everyone was evacuated and police are investigating.

"We don't know what was [behind] that event," police spokesperson Dany Richer told CBC. "Our investigators are going to meet with [the detained] overnight."

Quebec’s election

This event comes as the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) won Quebec’s provincial elections and will form a new government there, once again raising the possibility of a referendum on independence being held in Canada’s French-speaking province.

According to the latest results, PQ has won or was leading in 57 ridings in Tuesday’s election, just shy of the 63 needed for a majority in the 125-seat legislature.

The party’s leader Pauline Marois, 63, will replace the head of the Liberal party, Jean Charest, and will become the province's first female premier.

Just before the shooting incident took place Marois took the stage for her acceptance speech telling her supporters that she hopes to put aside all the difference for a united Quebec.

"Voters have made a choice and we will respect it, and we will govern with all other parties at the national assembly,"she said.

PQ’s win is a significant loss for the Liberals, who governed the province for almost a decade.

Jean Charest miscalculated the mood of the electorate, believing voters would support the Liberals for a fourth term. He ended up losing his own riding of Sherbrooke to a PQ candidate.

"This is not the result I would have wanted. This is not a battle that I backed away from. I now have the firm conviction that our party will continue to serve Quebec, and will do it together," Charest told his supporters.

Independent journalist Robert Harneis told RT that the shooting in the Metropolis concert hall will not affect PQ’s policies in the future.

In his opinion, a “province the size of Quebec could easily be a country.”

“The difficulty of course is that you have English-speaking Canadians on both sides of Quebec, like in Nova Scotia for example, and they are definitely not interested in a French autonomous Quebec,” he added.

Attack on Shaheens

Washington DC - The holy night of 27th Ramadan is also known as “Lailatul-Qadr” or “The Night of Power”. According to Muslim beliefs, it is when the Noble Qur’an descended. Believers devote much of their time praying, reciting the Qur’an, and remembering God. Lailatul Qadr is better than a thousand months and peace reigns until the rising of the sun.
But not in Kamra. Around 2:00am PST, 9 heavily armed militants with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives strapped to their bodies stormed Pakistan Air Force Base Minhas (named after Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed, Nishan-e-Haider) located only about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Islamabad, host of fighter jets including F-16s, and a factory that makes aircraft and other weapons systems.
Two hours of intense firefight left a security officer (Shaheed) and nine insurgents dead. One of the rockets hit and damaged a Ukrainian built transport plane parked inside the hangar. The commander in charge of the base was wounded in the attack. After a few hours, without any surprise, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is not the first time that TTP/Militants attacked a military facility inside Pakistan. On May 2011, in the Southern port city of Karachi, 6 Taliban militants attacked Mehran naval base, killing at least 10 people and destroying two US-supplied surveillance aircraft. In October 2009, in the city of Rawalpindi, 10 militants attacked army headquarters (GHQ), killing nine soldiers and 2 civilians. Ironically one thing is common in all the attacks--ex-servicemen were involved along with Taliban fighters.
Some Defense Analysts do not consider the May 2011 raid by US Navy SEALs on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad a direct attack on Pakistani security forces or institutions. The relationship between US and Pakistan after the raid demonstrates otherwise.
Minhas Air Force base is also linked to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. According to western media, the facility is widely believed to store some of the country’s estimated 100 nuclear warheads, even though Pakistani military denies any connection between the base and the nuclear programme.
Almost all the foreign offices of many countries including UK, USA and France issued statements and condemned the attack. They also showed their concern over the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
On the other hand, Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, also an ally of Imran Khan’s PTI, requested Taliban leader Mullah Omar to allow Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) to take his march to Waziristan.
TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) spokesperson Ahsanullah Ahsan promised the safety of Imran Khan and his march to Waziristan. After few hours of Minhas base attack, Imran Khan became a mouthpiece for TTP and claimed that Minhas attack was a preemptive strike by TTP in reaction of planned military operation in North Waziristan in September and warned security forces about future suicide attacks.
The Pakistani Taliban and its allies have waged a bloody insurgency against the government that has killed over 30,000 people. This is almost 10 times more than the number of deaths in the World Trade Center attack.
They are attacking our military facilities, causing harm to national security, stability and endangering nuclear arsenals. Our leaders are asking for safety and protection from these criminals. Enough is enough; financial and moral support for these criminals should be stopped.
All parties should unite against this clear and present danger. Support for our security forces is the need of the hour and our security forces needs to follow strict policy of “no criminal left behind”. I hope next Lailatul Qadr will bring Peace and Prosperity until the rising of the sun and beyond, Insha’allah.

Iran to close Strait of Hormuz if its security is threatened, warns naval chief

Naval commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, says Iran can stop even 'a single drop of oil' passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic shipping route through the Persian Gulf. 

Photo by AP

Iran could prevent even "a single drop of oil" passing through the Strait of Hormuz if its security is threatened, a naval chief said on Saturday, as tensions simmer over Tehran's nuclear program.

Tehran will increase its military presence in international waters, said Ali Fadavi, naval commander in Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

"If they (the U.S.) do not obey international laws and the IRGC's warnings, it will have very bad consequences for them," Fadavi said, according to Iran's Fars News Agency.

"The IRGC's naval forces have had the ability since the (Iran-Iraq) war to completely control the Strait of Hormuz and not allow even a single drop of oil to pass through."

Fadavi added: "IRGC special naval forces are present on all of the Islamic Republic of Iran's ships in the Indian Ocean and to its east and west, to prevent any movement.

"This IRGC naval force presence in international waters will increase."

Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said his office has drawn up plans to make newly tightened sanctions against the Islamic Republic ineffective.

His remarks, carried by ministry website shana.ir on Saturday, did not elaborate on the plans. Qasemi's comments come two weeks after an EU oil embargo went into effect against Iran for its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment program.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel, through which 40 percent of the world's sea-borne oil exports passes, in retaliation for sanctions placed on its crude exports by Western powers.

The sanctions were imposed over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at creating an atomic weapon. Iran says the program is for peaceful energy purposes.

The United States has beefed up its presence in the Gulf, adding a navy ship last week to help mine-clearing operations if Iran were to act on threats to block the strait. Tehran said last month it was building more warships, in part to guard Iranian cargo ships from pirates, and Iranian military leaders often assert Iran's strength in the region and dominance in the Strait of Hormuz.

Military analysts have cast doubt on Iran's willingness to block the slender waterway, given the massive U.S.-led retaliation it would likely incur.

Dangerous game: 'US almost daring Tehran to strike first'

With sanctions against Iran gradually showing their ineffectiveness, Washington is escalating the situation in the Persian Gulf, as if encouraging Tehran to attack first, a US politics professor told RT.

Amid pressure mounting on Tehran, a major Indian company, United India Insurance Co., has agreed to provide insurance for tankers carrying oil from Iran. Insurances are vital for sea transportation. Without insurance, tankers are unable to deliver oil from one destination to another.

The decision of an Indian company means a serious blow to the effectiveness of the US sanctions against Iran in a bid to crank up the pressure over the country's nuclear activities. The sanctions target companies accused of breaching a European ban on buying oil from Tehran.

Simultaneously, to give their sanctions policies some military support, the US is sending fourth air carrier to the Persian Gulf region. It has also been announced that America deploys underwater drones to deal with sea mines Iran might plant in the Strait of Hormuz to block the vital route.

“The more warships the US moves [to the region], the more threatened Iran is going to feel and there is more chance of triggering some kind of mistake,” explains Patricia DeGennaro, professor of politics at New York University.

She says the act of sending more warships to the region is a dangerous game of “dare”.

“I don’t know what they are going to achieve by putting more warships in the region. This is a very bad move. Maybe they are trying to make Israel feel safer, but in fact again that is a very dangerous game that is almost daring somebody to strike first,” the professor believes.

‘Mrs. Clinton should better promote peace instead of war’

A naval clash in the Persian Gulf region is very real, DeGennaro told RT, because military communications do not often go as they are expected to.

“The Iranian military is organized a bit differently than the American military. They can get orders not normally understood… within a context of a country being threatened.”

“We should do more negotiations and more diplomacy,” the professor concluded. “I’d like to see Mrs. [Hillary] Clinton lead the State Department as Secretary of State instead of really promoting more war in the region.”

Western intelligence claims Iran might be just a year away from building a nuclear weapon, while Tehran denies allegations of developing nuclear power for military use. This confrontation need to be resolved given neither side wants to lose face, which means negotiations in the first place, believes Patricia DeGennaro.

“Let’s sit down and talk before we start pointing weapons at each other, which should really facilitate a really large scale conflict in the region.”

Iran lawmakers prepare to close Hormuz Strait

An oil tanker cruises towards the Strait of Hormuz off the shores of Khasab in Oman (AFP Photo / Marwan Naamani)

Iranian lawmakers have drafted a bill that would close the Strait of Hormuz for oil tankers heading to countries supporting current economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

"There is a bill prepared in the National Security and Foreign Policy committee of Parliament that stresses the blocking of oil tanker traffic carrying oil to countries that have sanctioned Iran," Iranian MP Ibrahim Agha-Mohammadi told reporters.

"This bill has been developed as an answer to the European Union's oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Agha-Mohammadi said that 100 of Tehran's 290 members of parliament had signed the bill as of Sunday.

Iran's threats to block the waterway through which about 17 million barrels a day sailed in 2011 have grown in the past year as US and European sanctions aimed at starving Tehran of funds for its nuclear programme have tightened.

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping route through which most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq and nearly all the gas exported from Qatar sails.

An EU ban on Iranian oil imports came into effect on Sunday