Mangi Dam protests force highway closure

QUETTA:

The national highways in Balochistan remained closed and traffic was suspended to Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday due to the strike by protestors against the martyrdom of Levies personnel in Ziarat last week.

Police managed to arrest PkMAP leader Pashtun Kakar and others for blocking the highway and creating a nuisance for people travelling from one city to another.

Police personnel batoncharged the protestors on the Sabi Road in an attempt to open the roads for traffic.

According to sources familiar with the matter, a shutter down strike was organised in all the districts of the province during which the national highways were closed for traffic due to which the traffic from Balochistan to Punjab and K-P remained suspended.

Due to the closure of Loralai National Highways between Quetta, Loralai, Zhob, Musakhel and DG Khan, the Quetta-Chaman International Highway remained closed at Mezai Ada.

Political activists were beaten with sticks and several including PkMAP leader Yousuf Khan Kakar were detained at the police station.

However, the arrested activists were released after negotiations.

The sit-in continued in Ziarat on the 12th day under the patronage of the committee chairman Nawab Ayaz Khan Jogezai.

The sit-in committee and the protestors have strongly demanded that Frontier Corps personnel be evicted from Ziarat and Harnai districts and confined to their strongholds.

The demands made by the sit-in committee included a high-level judicial commission to investigate terrorist incidents in Ziarat and Harnai districts.

The committee members urged authorities to accept their demands at the earliest.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2021.