In Balochistan’s coastal city of Gwadar, locals took to the roads on Thursday to protest against illegal trawling, water scarcity and power outages.
According to reports, a large number of people closed the Coastal Highway at Surbandar and suspended the traffic. As a result, Gwadar lost ground connectivity with Karachi and inland Balochistan.
The protesters said that Gwadar has been protesting for the last several days but no action has been taken by the government. False claimants of development can no more face the citizens, they said.
A delegation of ‘All Parties Turbat’ also participated in the sit-in protest at Surbandar and expressed solidarity. The leaders of All-Parties Kech and Gwadar said they will continue to struggle until Makran’s core issues are resolved.
The protests have been going on for the last three days in the coastal city and their demands are to supply water and electricity to the city including prevention of illegal trawling in the Baloch Sea. However, the government has not taken any steps yet to solve the issues.
It is to mention the National Party had given a call of shutter down strike and protest against the scarcity of water in the port city, on Tuesday. The NP workers were also protesting against power outages and illegal trawling in the sea.
However, Jan Muhammad Buledi, the Central Secretary General of NP asserted that the administration subjected party workers to torture during the protest.
As per reports, workers of the NP clashed with Assistant Commissioner Gwadar during the protest on Tuesday. Deputy Commissioner of Gwadar accused the NP members of attacking AC Gwadar. “They slapped the AC”, he said.
However, NP leaders have lashed out at the senior administration officers for what they claim torturing political workers. “Administration’s act is extremely condemnable”, the head of NP, Dr Malik Baloch said.
Related: Strike in Gwadar against rampant trawling, shops and roads remain closed