Military says it might take a week to find body of Pakistani tribal chief

(30 Aug 2006) 1. Journalists walk toward helicopter in Quetta 2. Aerial view of Kohlu district 3. Journalists walking though terrain 4. Wide of cave 5. Various of cave, Pakistani army soldiers working in cave 6. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Mohammad Ambeer, Brigadier in Pakistani army: "We are working to reinforce the top of the cave using wood columns, to enter in the cave. Then we will be able to enter the cave and retrieve the dead bodies." 7. Wide of cave STORYLINE Pakistani officials searching a collapsed cave for the body of a tribal leader killed in a military raid on Saturday, which they say is still buried in the rubble, said on Wednesday it could be another week before the remains were found. Nawab Akbar Bugti, a 79 year old ethnic Baluch politician and militia leader was killed on Saturday during fierce fighting between his supporters and Pakistani forces at his mountain hideout, where he had been holed up since December. Seventy soldiers worked in the sandstone rubble of the collapsed cave, trying to reinforce the entrance before removing boulders and rocks in the search for Bugti's body. Mohammad Ambeer, a Brigadier in the Pakistani army, said seven anti-tank mines, apparently planted by Bugti supporters as a security cordon, were found around the cave. Bugti's death, the military's inability to return his body, and conflicting accounts of how he was killed have angered many Pakistanis, from Bugti supporters who have staged daily protests throughout Baluchistan to an array of national politicians. On Wednesday, hundreds of supporters blocked major southern highways with boulders, crudely built barriers and trucks for hours. Violence on previous days left at least six dead, dozens wounded and about 700 rioters under arrest. The slain chief's son warned that the violence that has gripped southern Pakistan since the death, particularly in the fiercely independent Baluchistan province, will continue until his father's body is returned. Pakistani officials initially said the military did not know Bugti was in the cave during Saturday's attack in the remote Tartari area, part of the mountainous Kohlu district southeast of Baluchistan's capital of Quetta. But on Tuesday, the military's top spokesman said military officers "rushed" into the cave for talks with Bugti after one of the tribal leader's guides told officers he was there. An unexplained explosion occurred shortly after and killed five soldiers, whose bodies were later retrieved. Bugti and several supporters were believed to have been crushed inside the cave. Bugti fled from his ancestral town of Dera Bugti to Kohlu shortly after President General Pervez Musharraf survived a December rocket attack that some officials blamed on ethnic-Baluch militant's supporters. For decades, Bugti worked as a governor and elected lawmaker seeking greater rights for the impoverished region's people. In particular, he demanded Baluch people be given more control of natural resources extracted in the region. Baluchistan is home to Pakistan's main gas fields. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/85376a8e964e91b8cb0bf2f7247e42dc

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