Locals face difficulties in carrying out daily routine after strict security measures introduced by the Para-military forces in the city.
The Balochistan Post Correspondent in Kech
Turbat, the headquarter of Kech district, has been witnessing a change in the behaviour of security forces, especially after the past few attacks on the para-military forces in the district.
Since last week, a new set of special rules have been imposed on the citizens in the pretext of security measures in the district.
After talking with the local residents, businessmen and students, TBP found following new rules have been imposed in Turbat city.
1: All shop-keepers are ordered to install CCTV cameras in front of their shops, if they fail to install cameras, they would be responsible for any mishappenings in front of their shops.
2: Motorcycles cannot be parked inside any part of the city, especially in front of the shops.
3: All owners are asked to re-register their motorcycles with the local authorities, previous documents would be considered null and void from now on.
Above stated three rules are among many new rules that have been imposed on the residents of the Turbat city on which the local administration kept silent when queried about the imposition of new rules in the city.
However, two shop-keepers and a student agreed to answer our queries on the basis of anonymity.
The shop-keepers, who sold canned food items, told TBP that the order came from Frontier Corps(FC), a paramilitary force in Pakistan, and the personnel of intelligence agencies.
“Sir our income is very low, we rarely earn a day’s meal, how can we afford an extra expenditure like sophisticated cameras? and we also cannot afford to quarrel with FC”, said the shop-keepers.
A student who uses a motorcycle for running errands, told TBP that he now goes out on foot because he could not park his motorcycle anywhere or they(FC) would pick it up as if it has a bomb planted on it.
Turbat, the second highest populated city after Quetta, felt like a cage to the citizens and they complained about their freedom being taken away from them.
To find out about the legal aspects of the rules we talked with a local lawyer, he told us that there was no official statement from the home minister’s office regarding the rules.
He said that these rules were not any different of Frontier Crimes Regulation(FCR), a set of draconian laws implemented in erstwhile FATA, where the whole population of the locality is punished for an attack on the security forces.
“No one is ready to challenge these rules in the court, laws of Pakistan always suffocate on their way to Balochistan”, said the Lawyer, who requested for the anonymity.
Whereas, there was no word from the officials whether these rules were temporary or permanent.