QUETTA: A shutter-down strike was observed on Sunday in the coastal townships of Gwadar, Pasni, Jiwani and Ormara condemning the arrest of BSO leader Abdul Qayyum from his Gwadar residence on Saturday.The people were protesting against what they called arbitrary arrest. A large number of women and students participated in the demonstration condemning the state functionaries’ arrest of political opponents of the government. Protesters ransacked two bank branches and attacked a police post.The Balochistan National Party, the National Party and other political parties joined the demonstrations. The residence of provincial minister for fisheries remained under siege by the protesters, mostly working women, until late Saturday night and again on Sunday morning.Students and a large number of women took out a rally from Baloch Mohallah and marched through different parts of Gwadar city. They burnt tyres and put up barricades on several roads suspending the flow of traffic for the day. They also pelted commercial banks and official buildings with stones.
A demonstration was held in front the Gwadar Press Club, where speakers severely criticised security forces, saying that there was no law governing the unruly people in government service.Information secretary of the BSO-Azad and relatives of Abdul Qayyum alleged that personnel of a security agency in civil dress accompanied by Frontier Corps soldiers carried out the raid and whisked him away.Qayyum’s brother Dad Bakhsh lodged an FIR with Gwadar police station against the FC personnel for his kidnap.The Frontier Corps had categorically denied the allegations that it carried out raids and kidnap people and termed it baseless propaganda. Talking to journalists Frontier Corps Major General Obaidullah Khan said any person involved in any criminal or anti-state activity would be arrested by the police.More than 11 people were kidnapped, allegedly by the state functionaries, from Gwadar, Turbat and other major townships of Makran and bodies of some missing people were thrown at public places after their killing in custody, their relatives charged.It may be recalled that the body of journalist and BNM worker Lala Hameed was recovered last week. Baloch nationalists claim that bodies of 55 people have been recovered from different parts of the province during the last five months. Forty of the bodies have been identified and were found to be that of the missing Baloch youths – Dailytimes
