ISLAMABAD: Balochistan is reported to have asked the federal government to transfer the investigation of Nawab Akbar Bugti’s murder to the Federal Investigation Agency.

According to sources, the request has been made by the Balochistan chief minister on the basis of statements of former interior minister Aftab Sherpao and former Balochistan governor Awais Ahmed Ghani recorded by the crimes branch reportedly claiming that the operation leading to the killing of Mr Bugti and others was carried out by federal forces on the instructions of the federal government.

Former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, Awais Ghani, Aftab Sherpao, then Balochistan chief minister Jam Yousuf and former provincial home minister Shoaib Ahmed were nominated as accused in the case lodged on Oct 13, 2009, three years after the murder had taken place.

Jameel Bugti, son of Nawab Bugti, had lodged the FIR with the Dera Bugti police station.

The crimes branch, Quetta, and a joint investigation team (JIT) investigated the case.

The sources said the director of the crimes branch, who headed the JIT, had recommended to the provincial government that in the light of the statements of the former governor and Mr Sherpao the case be shifted to the FIA forfurther investigation.

Subsequently, the home department sought the chief minister’s approval for requesting the federal government to shift the case to the FIA.

The sources said the interior secretary had opposed the move because of possible political repercussions.

Jameel Bugti had claimed in the FIR that his father and others were murdered by agencies of the federal and provincial governments and that it was confirmed by the electronic media.

He demanded that DNA tests on his father’s body should be carried out by an international laboratory to ascertain what type of ‘chemical weapons’ had been used to kill him.

He also claimed that government agencies had tried to kill his father in 2005 by bombing the Bugti fort in which several people were killed or injured. Fearing that Gen Musharraf and other government officials were determined to kill him, his father wentinto hiding in mountains where he was killed by government agencies.

The sources said after receiving the request to shift the case to the FIA, the federal government had sought some details of the case which were provided by the home department.