Baloch leader Bugti set to get asylum

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 6

The government is in final stages of granting asylum to exiled Baloch nationalist leader Brahumdagh Bugti, who is also the founder of Baloch Republican Party (BRP). Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs said the government was looking for a “right place” for his “comfortable stay”.

Sources in the foreigners division of the ministry, who are processing Bugti’s asylum application, said they had sent a note to the Research &Analysis Wing (RAW), asking it to provide a tentative list of people who would possibly accompany Bugti to India.

In a bid to finalise the proposal, ministry officials have already revisited the files related to the asylum granted to Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in 1959, as currently there are no rules to regulate such foreign nationals. “Bugti and his supporters may be given resident certificates by an executive order and thus will become political protectees in India, as is the case with Dalai Lama and his supporters,” said a senior MHA official.

Last month, Bugti had approached the Indian mission in Geneva and made a formal plea seeking asylum in India, which the Ministry of External Affairs had forwarded to the MHA to take a final call. The Baloch leader, currently living in Switzerland, intends to move near his homeland to carry forward his campaign for a “free Balochistan”.