Various cities across Balochistan observed a shutter-down strike on Saturday in response to the Baloch Yakjehti Committee’s (BYC) call, a day after its members in Quetta faced a police crackdown as they protested against alleged enforced disappearances.
The Balochistan government and the BYC had reported casualties on their sides as a result of each other’s actions — with the activist group claiming three dead and 13 others suffering injuries and the police saying around 10 of their personnel were hurt.
Subsequently, BYC chief organiser Dr Mahrang Baloch late last night issued a call for a shutter-down strike across the province, in response to the alleged casualties resulting from the police action.
The BYC, sharing her statement in the Balochi language on X, quoted her as announcing “shutting down the entire Balochistan against […] the state violence”.
“There will be a shutter-down and wheel-jam strike in the entire Balochistan tomorrow,” the statement added. The BYC further announced staging another sit-in at Quetta’s Sariab Road with bodies of the alleged casualties from yesterday.
It also posted purported visuals of protests held in Mastung, Dera Murad Jamali and Turbat, where demonstrators burned tyres to block roads.
According to a correspondent in Quetta, mobile services have been suspended in Quetta since Friday night while data services had been down since Thursday.
However, no notification officially announcing the suspension has been issued yet.
After Mahrang’s strike call, the BYC claimed she and other protesters had been arrested earlier today from the Quetta sit-in while the alleged bodies were “seized”.
“Today, at 5:30am, security forces carried out a brutal pre-dawn raid on the sit-in. Baloch women, children, and peaceful protesters were subjected to extreme violence,” the BYC said on X.
“The authorities forcefully seized the bodies that protesters had planned to offer funeral prayers for today. BYC organiser Dr Mahrang Baloch, along with many others, was dragged and arrested,” it claimed.
The organisation also shared a night-time video showing police personnel wielding batons and dragging some women. Another video showed dozens of policemen gathered on a road.
The protesters staging the Sariab Road sit-in were demanding the “release of its central committee member Bebarg Baloch, his brother Hammal, Dr Ilyas, and others who has been forcibly disappeared, as well as the release of Baloch woman Saeeda and several others”, the BYC recalled.
There were conflicting reports about the casualties yesterday, with Bolan Medical College Hospital sources saying two bodies were brought there while one body and nine injured, including a policewoman, were received at Civil Hospital.
On her part, Mahrang claimed that three people were killed and 13 others injured during the police action while they were protesting against the arrest of BYC leader Bebarg and four others a few days ago.
Meanwhile, a Balochistan government spokesperson claimed that protesters pelted the police with stones and beat them up, injuring 10 personnel, including a policewoman.
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has accused police of using excessive force against demonstrators in the provincial capital, claiming that they opened fire on peaceful protesters, killing three people and injuring dozens, including seven in critical condition.
However, Balochistan government spokesman Shahid Rind refuted the allegations, stating that the protesters resorted to stone-pelting and unprovoked violence, injuring several police officers, including a female constable.
The government maintained that law enforcement acted in accordance with the law to clear a blocked national highway, while BYC insisted that security forces used unnecessary force to suppress a peaceful demonstration.
The authorities have sealed Red Zone, citing security concerns and the need to maintain public order.
The Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) and the National Party (NP) condemned what they describe as excessive force against peaceful demonstrators and urged the government to engage in dialogue to resolve the situation.
Dr Mahrang Baloch, the chief of BYC, is leading the protest and has vowed to continue the sit-in at Saryab Road, demanding justice for the victims.
On Thursday, relatives of missing persons, who had been demanding they be allowed to identify dead bodies brought to the Civil Hospital, had managed to take away a number of corpses from the hospital morgue.
While it was not clear whether they had positively identified the bodies as belonging to their missing loved ones, hospital officials told Dawn that protesters linked to the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) forced their way into the morgue and took away at least five bodies.
