Hundreds of civilians staged a sit-in protest at the call of the Haq Do Movement in front of the Gwadar Port gate, on Thursday.
According to sources, activists from the Haq Do Movement from Kech district also participated in the sit-in protest. Business centres in Gwadar city are fully shut down. Maulana Hidayat-ur-Rehman Baloch, the leader of Haq Do Movement had announced recently that if the government did not comply with their demands, a sit-in would be staged in front of Gwadar Port. The protesters said that the sit-in has resumed due to non-implementation of the demands made in the previous sit-in.
In November last year, the Haq Do Tehreek carried out massive rallies and staged a days long sit-in protest in Gwadar. They put forward 19 demands to the government. The major demands included the elimination of trawling in the sea, lifting of border commerce restrictions with Iran and removal of unnecessary army check-posts.
According to the provincial government, illegal trawling on the sea has been brought under control – however, local fishermen claim that illegal trawling continues and government authorities are also involved in the act.
As per most recent reports, works at the Gwadar Port have been temporarily halted, while helicopters fly above the city and police forces are deployed throughout the city for security reasons. It must be noted that the government has put the security forces on high alert throughout Balochistan. The government has collected intelligence that the next two days will be unpredictable in Balochistan and therefore the security forces have been put on high alert, sources said.