QUETTA: Following days of escalating hostilities in the port city of Gwadar, which has been the target of a road and communication blockade due to demonstrations by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), authorities declared a breakthrough in their negotiations with demonstrators, spearheaded by Dr. Mahrang Baloch.
The negotiations, which started on Wednesday at the DC House in Gwadar, were headed by Mahrang for the BYC and represented the government by Ziaullah Langove, the home minister of Balochistan.
Gwadar Assistant Commissioner Jawad Zehri made a late-night announcement stating that the administration and BYC had successfully negotiated, and the government will release the BYC protestors as a result of the discussion.
He claimed that while the BYC would end their sit-in, the government would reinstate cell phone service and remove roadblocks. In the negotiations between the BYC and the government, he said that the National Party, Jamaat-i-Islami, and the Balochistan National Party were crucial players.
BYC has “agreed to call off” the sit-in, according to the assistant commissioner; communications will soon be restored, and the demonstrators will be released.
However, as its leadership could not be reached, there was no confirmation from the BYC side.
Earlier in the day, barricades and demonstrations in favor of the BYC sit-in at Gwadar’s Marine Drive persisted throughout the province.
Conflicts between demonstrators and police were also said to have occurred in the port city. Authorities stated that the demonstrators had looted an FIA office and the women’s police station, and that for the previous four days, the police had neglected to disperse the protestors’ camp.
The area has apparently been completely dark since the demonstrators’ destruction to nearby street lights and power poles during the sit-in.
Despite the home minister spending the last three days in the city, there has been no internet connectivity, either through mobile or landline. Most information coming out of the area is difficult to independently verify because phone and internet connections are unavailable throughout the city.
The Gwadar Haq Do Tehreek leader, MPA Hidayatur Rehman, issued a warning earlier in the day that if the government did not act to end the standoff, he would also join the demonstration.
He added that there was a curfew in place in Gwadar, making it illegal for anyone to enter or exit the city, and that because of roadblocks, individuals had to arrange for air ambulances. One of the main requests of the BYC was that the government negotiate with its leaders and endeavor to recover those who went missing.
All across Balochistan, protests
In several regions of the province, including Gwadar, Turbat, Noshki, Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Awaran, Chagai, Dalbandin, Kharan, Barkhan, and sections of Lasbela district, BYC sit-ins and roadblocks persisted.
The closure of several highways and roads that connected Balochistan to other regions of the nation negatively impacted travel. Due to a BYC rally, the Red Zone in Quetta was fully sealed off, with containers lining the routes that go there.
Protesters held a sit-in at Assembly Chowk and marched around several routes while screaming anti-government and pro-protest slogans. There was a serious traffic gridlock in Quetta as a result of the police sealing off the Red Zone area with containers and heavy personnel deployment.
Leaders of the BYC also spoke at a news conference in the provincial capital, threatening to close down Quetta and the province as a whole indefinitely if their allies were not freed.
They called on the mainstream media to cover the current state of affairs in Balochistan, threatening to boycott it if it remained mute on the region’s pressing problems.
