The situation in Quetta returned to normal on Sunday – a day after a partial shutdown – while a shutter-down strike continued for a second day in some cities across Balochistan in response to a call by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee’s (BYC), which demanded the release of its leadership.
The strike call had been issued after the BYC claimed on Friday that three of its protesters were killed by blank shots allegedly fired by the police. However, Quetta Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat had denied the claim, saying the deaths resulted from alleged firing by “armed elements accompanying BYC leadership”.
According to media reports, the situation in Quetta returned to normal after the provincial capital observed a partial shutdown and wheel-jam strike the other day.
While the main businesses and markets remained open on Saturday, Sariab Road, Brewery Road as well as some other areas on the city’s outskirts had remained closed.
According to Hub Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Imam Bakhsh Baloch, six people, including Imran Baloch, the former chairman of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO), have been arrested.
However, shutter-down strikes continued in Kech’s Turbat as well as in Panjgur, Noshki, Kalat and Chagai districts.
Protests by BYC supporters were also held in Kech and at Bhawani near Hub on the Karachi-Quetta Highway, where traffic had been suspended yesterday due to road blockades.
The BYC shared purported visuals of closed shops in Kech, Noshki, Kharan, and Kalat. Videos shared by the committee also showed dozens, mostly women, at a sit-in in Kech and a rally purportedly held in Chagai.
On Saturday, strikes had been reported in Mastung, Khuzdar, Hub, Bela, Surab, Gwadar, Dera Murad Jamali and some other areas as well.
Moreover, the government on Sunday charged Mahrang Balcoh with terrorism, sedition and murder after she led a demonstration which ended in the death of three protesters, according to police documents.
Hamza Shafqaat, a senior administrative official in Quetta, said that Baloch and other activists were held under public order laws.