Newspapers not delivered in Quetta, other towns amid threats from militants

Banned groups threatened to stop distribution of newspapers till their statements were not published

QUETTA: The residents of Quetta missed their morning newspapers for the second day in a row as hawkers abstained from delivering them after receiving threats from banned militant outfits.

Militant organisations had threatened to restrict distribution if the media did not publish their statements outlining their activities.

Most of the newspapers did not make it to the readers in the provincial capital. Transporters also refused to take newspapers to other cities and towns of central, southern and western Balochistan.



However, few hawkers managed to deliver them to their clients in some Pashtoon areas.

“Less than 10 per cent of the local delivery was made in Quetta and other areas of Balochistan,” an agent told The Express Tribune.

Yousaf Baloch, president of the Anjuman-e-Akhbar Froshan, told publishers to not send newspapers to the market from October 25 [today] as hawkers have refused to carry them forward due to threats.



Baloch, along with newspaper agents of other cities and town, called on newspaper organisations of other provinces to refrain from sending their papers until the issue was resolved.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Inspector General Police Quetta urged newspaper organisations to publish their papers, promising police security to the province’s hawkers in all areas of Quetta. But the publishers remained indecisive.