QUETTA: Participants in a sit-in stormed the deputy commissioner’s office in retaliation after local authorities cleared out protestors’ camps and opened the Quetta-Chaman Highway in the wee hours of Wednesday, leading to seven arrests.
Following the operation, the highway was blocked once more, which resulted in the suspension of all trade and traffic between Pakistan and Afghanistan from the border crossing.
Authorities reported that after conducting an operation, the Levies, the local government, and the Frontier Corps had cleared the route of all obstacles and stones. According to other reports, the protestors set fire to their camps.
Hundreds of trucks and other vehicles carrying Afghan transit, import, and export commodities that were stuck in Shela Bagh were able to cross after the road was reopened.
However, as soon as the security guards left the area, the sit-in participants blocked the roadway once more and threw stones at Levies officials and trucks in the Garang neighborhood, which is outside of Chaman.
Police and Levies officers deployed tear gas shells to break up the crowd and maintain order. But while hostilities persisted, a sizable crowd assembled in front of the DC office in Chaman on Wednesday to voice their opposition to the operation in Garang.
A group of demonstrators broke into the DC office during the protest and set fire to computers, furniture, and other items. Seven demonstrators were taken into custody by the levy force, which had been stationed at the office, after the gathering was dispersed.
Reporters from the area reported that some of the demonstrators also threw stones at the Chaman Press Club building, which is housed within the DC complex’s compound. Its windows were thus also broken.
DC Athar Abbas Raja said that the demonstrators were outside his office in the late evening and that negotiations were in progress to find a solution. He verified that seven persons had been taken into custody in relation to the assault on his workplace. However, demonstrators claimed that Ghousullah and Sadiq Achakzai, the sit-in committee’s spokespeople, had also been arrested.
The district government released a statement saying that during the anti-polio campaign, there was an unpleasant incident where several miscreants attacked the polio team, injuring two levy personnel and abusing female polio workers. It further stated that talks regarding law and order in Chaman were held between the deputy commissioner and the leader of the sit-in committee.
However, it stated that some of the demonstrators stormed and looted Deputy Commissioner Athar Abbas Raja’s office during the negotiations.
The statement claimed, “The demonstrators have crossed the red line and now FIR would be registered against them on terror charges.”
The government of Balochistan’s spokesperson, Shahid Rind, stated that throughout the previous few months, the demonstrators have repeatedly contested the state’s authority. He issued a warning, saying, “Provoking the people for revolt against the state in the name of the sit-in is no longer acceptable,” and threatened to take action against those who did so.
Home Minister Mir Zia Ullah Langove, meantime, proclaimed that by pursuing the troublemakers, the peace will be restored. Additionally, he stated that persons impacted by the border commerce were receiving compensation, and he noted that the “one document regime” is a “constitutional requirement.”
A representative for the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party also denounced the arrests that followed the crackdown on the sit-in. He called for the release of the demonstrators who had been arrested in a statement released on Wednesday.
