Separatist Baloch leader Brahumdagh Bugti to formally seek asylum in India: Report

Separatist Baloch leader Brahumdagh Bugti had earlier urged the Indian government to open doors for the Baloch community.

New Delhi: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the human rights violations in Balochistan in his August 15 Independence Day address, separatist Baloch leader Brahumdagh Bugti will formally approach India to seek asylum, said a report on Monday.

The Times Now report comes days after the Baloch separatist leader told the Navbharat Times in an interview: "We need political asylum in India."

Bugti, an exiled Baloch separatist leader based in Switzerland, had urged the Indian government to open doors for the Baloch community.

Notably, a brutal crackdown seems to have taken place in Pakistan's disturbed border province of Balochistan after PM Modi's speech.

The toll of dead and missing people has witnessed a sharp surge, with at least 67 dead and over 150 reported missing in August alone, local activists and multiple well-informed sources with access to inside information have averred.

Bugti is the grandson of former Balochistan chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was killed by the Pakistani Army in Kohlu in 2006.

His death had led to widespread unrest and the rise of a pro-independence sentiment in the region.