Tribesmen open road from Dera Bugti to Sui

A key 48-km road from the Dera Bugti stronghold of Baloch tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti to the Sui gas installations in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province was opened by tribesmen yesterday.

The road was blocked for nearly a month by them.

The artery from the dusty Dera Bugti town to Sui was closed by insurgent tribesmen after fierce clashes with paramilitary forces on March 17 that left around 70 people dead, including several soldiers.

Akbar Bugti ordered his men to lift the blockade following a series of meetings with ruling Pakistan Muslim League President, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who travelled to Dera three times and is expected to visit the town again in the coming days. The party said last week an agreement on reopening the Dera-Sui artery had been reached with Nawab Bugti.

"With the reopening of the road traffic has resumed and the tension that had been prevailing in the area is now fading away," said a Balochistan provincial government official contacted by telephone in provincial capital Quetta.

The tribesmen vacated the posts they had set up around the road and in a reciprocal step the security forces were also winding up several of their posts.