QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) – A court acquitted former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf Monday in a murder case involving the killing of a separatist leader, Akbar Bugti, who had died in a 2006 military operation in Baluchistan province, lawyers said.
An anti-terrorism court announced the verdict in the southwestern city of Quetta, Baluchistan’s provincial capital.
The court accepted the defense’s argument that Musharraf had nothing to do with the killing, said his lawyer Akhtar Shah. He added that he had been pleading his client’s innocence ever since the case was registered in 2009.
Musharraf’s government in mid-2000s launched a crackdown on separatist insurgents in Baluchistan province and Bugti was killed in a raid in 2006. Separatists in the province want complete autonomy from Islamabad and have been fighting for a greater share of revenue from their region’s natural resources.
The case against Musharraf was brought by Bugti’s son, Jamil Bugti.