New Delhi: India is all set to grant citizenship to Baloch leader Brahumdagh Bugti, who is currently living in exile in Switzerland, Pakistani media reported late Thursday.
Brahumdagh Bugti, the president of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP), is the grandson of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti who was killed in an encounter with the Pakistani Army 10 years ago.
Geo News quoted sources as saying that India will also give citizenship to Brahumdagh's Switzerland-based key lieutenants, including Sher Muhammad Bugti and Azizullah Bugti.
A BRP source told Geo that Brahumdagh and Indian officials started negotiations regarding the Indian citizenship earlier this year, much before Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted Pakistan's human rights atrocities in Balochistan province.
"We will use Indian papers to travel around the world to campaign against Pakistan and to highlight our case. We have openly thanked Narendra Modi for his support and we are no more hiding anything. We have no other option. We do not care what our opponents think of our support for Modi and his support for us," the BRP source has been quoted as saying.
After fleeing his hometown Dera Bugti in Balochistan in 2006, Bugti lived in Afghanistan as a state guest. He was later flown to Switzerland in October 2010.
The report says that Bugti will formally apply for Indian citizenship in Geneva, Switzerland, after a meeting of BRP's officials on September 18-19.
"India has facilitated Dalai Lama against the pressure from a powerful country like China. It helped Sheikh Mujeeb-ur-Rehman as well. It will help Brahumdagh and his colleagues as well. Brahumdagh has asked for Indian citizenship for himself and all his colleagues. There are 15,000 Bugtis stuck in Afghanistan. Around 2,000 are in various countries including European countries. Their asylum applications have been either approved or are in process. Brahumdagh would like all these people accommodated along with his own case," the BNP source told Geo News.
Bugti has demanded a referendum of Baloch people under the supervision of the United Nations. Earlier, he said Modi's remarks during his Independence Day is the "most powerful statement" in the last seven decades.
"I am thoroughly indebted to Prime Minister Modi. I thank Prime Minister Modi for speaking raising the voice of Baloch people in his Independence Day address," he had said and alleged that Pakistani crime against people is a shocker to the global community.
