Cellular services off in Gwadar for 5th day

DC claims normalcy has returned to city despite shops staying closed on GRM’s call

QUETTA:

Cellular services and mobile networks on Friday remained suspended in Gwadar for the fifth consecutive day as business centres and shops in the city remained shut on the call of an organisation, which has been leading protests and sit-ins there for over the last one month against “illegal fishing through trawlers” and “unnecessary check posts”.

Led by Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, the Gwadar Rights Movement (GRM) has also been demanding easing trade with neighbouring Iran.

However, the Gwadar deputy commissioner claimed that normalcy had returned to the city.

He added that people had started reopening their shops and business centres.

"People rejected the miscreants and elements disrupting the traditional peace of Gwadar", the deputy commissioner said in an official handout issued on Friday evening.

Despite repeated attempts, no contact could be established with the GRM chief.

Read more: Tensions high as GRM continues protest unabated

Police also arrested a journalist Obaidullah along with his three sons in Gwadar.

Sources said the police later released the three sons but the journalist was still under the custody till the filing of this report.

Security was tightened in and around Gwadar and baton-wielding policemen were deployed to maintain law and order.

However, no untoward incident was reported on Friday because of the increased security.

A court in Turbat, the headquarters of the Kech district of Makran division of Balochistan, released GRM activists Waseem Safar and Sibghatullah.

The police had arrested them over charges of inciting violence in the district.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Ziallah Langove, while addressing a new conference a day earlier, accused the GRM chief of inciting violence against the government and administration.

He was accompanied by Parliamentary Secretary of Information Mitha Khan Kakar, Inspector General of Police Abdul Khaliq Sheikh, and other high-level officials.

“The [provincial] government [has already] accepted 42 demands of the GRM,” Langove claimed.

He added that the provincial government was committed to address the issues faced by the residents of Gwadar.

He further claimed that the government had restrained the law enforcement agencies from using force against the protesters.

The Balochistan government has also imposed Section 144 on pillion riding and the display of weapons in Gwadar to maintain law and order.

GRM chief Hidayatur Rehman has accused the provincial government of depriving the fisherfolk of their daily bread by allowing the illegal fishing and trawling in the Arabian sea.

However, the provincial government has repeatedly contradicted these claims.