QUETTA: A police constable was killed and at least 12 other people were injured in firing on Thursday as Balochistan slid into violence after the bodies of three Baloch nationalist leaders were found in Turbat.
The decomposed bodies of Baloch National Movement (BNM) chairman Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Lala Muneer Baloch and Sher Mohammad Baloch of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) were found in Pedarak, near Turbat, late on Wednesday night.
Kachkol Ali, an advocate and former leader of the opposition in the Balochistan assembly, had alleged at a press conference four days back that the three leaders had been whisked away by security officials from his chamber on April 3. They had gone to the court to attend the hearing of a case against them.
Baloch political groups and bar associations gave a call for a general strike on Friday and Saturday and a wheel-jam strike on Sunday to condemn the killings. Lawyers will boycott courts till Saturday. Nationalist parties also announced seven-day mourning in Balochistan and other parts of the country.
Police took the bodies to Turbat after receiving information about them. ‘The bodies appear to be four to five days old,’ a police official said.
Political workers, students and supporters of nationalist parties took to the streets early in the morning in Quetta, Khuzdar, Kharan, Nushki, Turbat, Mand, Panjgur, Gwadar, Kalat, Mastung and Dera Murad Jamali. A complete strike was observed in the towns.
The Balochistan University and all other educational institutions were closed till Sunday.
Protesters blocked the Sariab and Brewery roads in the provincial capital by setting tyres on fire and erecting barricades. They also pelted vehicles with stones and attacked several buildings.
A pick-up of the United Nations was set on fire on Sariab Road, so was a bus of the Women’s University on Brewery Road and a car in front of the Civil Hospital.
Students of the Balochistan University blocked a road and set afire a bus of a government department.
Protesters also torched a branch of Askari Bank in Hazar Gangi and attacked other banks on Sariab Road. A mob smashed windowpanes of several buildings on Brewery Road.
Police and Balochistan Constabulary personnel used tear gas to disperse the protesters. An exchange of fire between police and the protesters occurred near Sariab. Police arrested over a dozen people.
Armed men attacked a police van with a hand grenade near a bypass in Quetta, injuring three policemen. A group of people broke window panes of an office of the Water and Power Development Authority in Sheikh Manda.
A man was inured in a grenade attack on his house in Killi Bangulzai. In Karachi, tension gripped the Baloch-dominated areas when demonstrators blocked traffic, resorted to firing into the air and burned tyres in protest against the killing.
Condemning the killing, Karachi-based Baloch nationalist leaders called for shutterdown strikes in all Baloch-populated areas on April 10 and 11, and a wheeljam strike on April 12.
Baloch National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal alleged at a press conference that intelligence agencies were responsible for the killing.
In Khuzdar, constable Ahmed Khan Zehri was shot dead in Civil Colony while he was going to a police station.
Protesters clashed with police in different parts of the town and two people were reported to have been injured in an exchange of fire.
A blast also rocked the town. The administration called out the Frontier Corps. ‘FC troops have been deployed at important buildings and places,’ said Wahid Shahwani, a resident of Khuzdar.
The demonstrators blocked the highway linking Quetta with Karachi at different points in Khuzdar district, suspending traffic between Sindh and Balochistan. A doctor was shot in Ghazgi area of Mastung.
In Mand, a mob set a police station on fire after ransacking it. Branches of several banks were also set ablaze and vehicles were pelted with stones. FC personnel were deployed in the town.
In Panjgur, a mob attacked offices of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Balochistan National Party-A and government buildings. The PPP office was destroyed.
A mob damaged several shops in Gwadar Bazaar. Police foiled an attempt to set the shops on fire.
Law enforcement personnel stopped a mob from entering the port. In Hub, five people were injured in a grenade attack near a mosque.
Police arrested over three dozen workers of the Baloch Students’ Organisation (BSO) and political parties during demonstrations.
The BSO leaders said law enforcement agencies’ personnel baton-charged women of the Baloch Penal to stop them from taking out a procession.
Shakar Bibi advocate, who was leading the procession, was injured. Police and FC contingents started patrolling Quetta and adjacent areas in the night.
Ghulam Mohammad and Sher Mohammad were buried in their native town Mand and Lala Muneer in Chitkan village, near Panjgur. Thousands of people attended the funerals.
The bodies had been handed over to their relatives after legal formalities. According to sources, they bore torture marks and bullet wounds.
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