A long march led by the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal), protesting the arrest of BYC central organizer Dr Mahrang Baloch and other political leaders, came under heavy police and paramilitary crackdown near Quetta on Friday night.
According to senior BNP leaders, Pakistani forces fired tear gas and arrested over 250 party workers at the Lakpass Tunnel, blocking the group’s entry into the city.
“With deep concern and anger, we confirm that state forces carried out shelling on BNP leaders and workers at Lakpass… and more than 250 workers were unjustifiably arrested,”
BNP President Sardar Akhtar Mengal said in a statement on X.
“We are currently at Lakpass, where all entry routes have been blocked. My senior leadership is being directly targeted,” Mengal added.
He appealed to the people of Quetta to gather on one side of Lakpass and urged residents of Mastung to mobilise from the opposite end.
“Let it be clear: we will continue toward our goal, even if we have to dig a new tunnel beneath Lakpass,” he said.
“We will camp here tonight and announce our next course of action tomorrow morning in front of the media.”
Mengal called the government’s actions a “reprehensible attempt” to stifle a peaceful and constitutional march.
“Our demands are legitimate and based on humanitarian grounds. Our primary demand is the immediate release of our mothers and sisters who have been illegally detained,”
he said, vowing that no negotiations, assurances, or promises would be accepted without their release.
‘We Brought Eid Clothes and Coffins’
The long march began from Wadh, the hometown of Sardar Mengal, at around 9 a.m. on Friday. Hundreds of vehicles — including trucks, pickups, and cars — joined the procession as it made its way towards Quetta.
Supporters from Khuzdar, Surab, Kalat, Mangochar, and Mastung joined the march in large numbers, welcoming the convoy and raising slogans in solidarity.
Speaking to participants in Khuzdar, Mengal said the protesters were prepared for any outcome.
“We have brought our Eid clothes as well as coffins,” he declared. “If we are not allowed into Quetta, we will march toward Islamabad.”
He said a sit-in will be staged at Hockey Chowk in Quetta, just outside the Red Zone, and will continue until the demands for the release of detained BYC activists are met.
“If needed, Eid prayers will be offered there,” he added. “Containers will not stop us. The Baloch nation will show the world what it means to harass our women and children.”