Pakistan: Exiled Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti seeks political asylum in India

Exiled Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti is reportedly seeking asylum in India and wants to travel around the world to campaign against Pakistan. The news comes as a huge blow to Pakistan as it has come at a time when Islamabad is being cornered by New Delhi for its alleged involvement in terror activities.

India had announced on Friday (16 September) that it would grant political asylum to Baloch leaders who are fighting for freedom from Pakistan. CNN-News18 quoted government sources as saying that the Narendra Modi-led administration wanted Baloch leaders to send it applications formally for political asylum and that it would be granted within a couple of weeks.

Bugti welcomed Modi government's move and called it "historic". It is said to be to the biggest political asylum that India would provide post 1959, when the Dalai Lama was granted an Indian passport.

"We have decided to formally file asylum papers to the Indian government soon. We will follow the legal process for the application," he told reporters in India on Monday (19 September).

Bugti left his native in Balochistan after his grandfather Akbar Bugti was assassinated by Pakistani forces a decade ago. He has been in exile since then in Afghanistan and Switzerland. According to reports, around 15,000 people in Baloch are seeking asylum in Afghanistan.

He said that the plight of the people of Balochistan got global attention after Modi referenced it during his Independence Day address on 15 August.

Meanwhile, the Balochistan Republican Party (BRP) said that it would file a criminal case against Pakistan's army generals and China at the International Criminal Court and would seek help from India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Ethnic minority groups in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in south western Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan have accused the Pakistani army of violating human rights, carrying out executions, torture, illegal arrests and indiscriminate violence against the people living there.

BRP leaders have said that they would travel across the globe to campaign against Pakistan and China, just like the Dalai Lama. They said they wanted to highlight the plight of the people of Baloch and can now do so using Indian passports once they obtain it.

Further, India has announced that it will "diplomatically isolate Pakistan" and blamed it for the terror attacks in the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. On Sunday (18 September), at least 17 Indian army personnel were killed by four terrorists in a suicide attack across the border.