Six political parties have announced a complete wheel-jam and shutter-down strike across Balochistan on 8 September to protest against the suicide bombing that targeted a BNP-M rally in Quetta earlier this week.
At least 15 people were killed and 38 injured in the blast at Shahwani Stadium on Tuesday. The rally was organised to mark the fourth death anniversary of Sardar Ataullah Mengal, a veteran nationalist leader and founder of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M).
The strike was announced at a joint press conference in Quetta on Thursday by Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai, BNP-M chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal, and leaders of the Awami National Party (ANP), National Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Majlis Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen.
The parties said highways, markets, government offices, railway stations and routes to airports would be closed. They urged transporters, passengers, government employees, students and farmers to refrain from travel and suspend normal activities.
Party leaders said senior figures, including Mr Achakzai and Mr Mengal, had miraculously remained safe, and described the suicide bombing as an attempt to “silence Balochistan’s collective voice”.
BNP-M chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal called the blast “a wound for all of Balochistan”. He said victims had been chanting slogans, not carrying weapons, before the explosion.
He asked why state institutions “never know where suicide attackers come from”, recalling that no lessons had been learned since the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006.
“It was the responsibility of the government and its state institutions to provide protection,” Mr Mengal added. “Instead, they are the ones who storm homes, snatch headscarves from women, drag away sons by their hair in front of their mothers, blindfold them, and take them away in vehicles.”
PkMAP leader Mr Achakzai said he had been unable to comprehend the purpose of the attack. “If the objective was to eliminate the entire political leadership, what benefit would that bring to Pakistan?” he asked.
He said his party would continue its democratic and political struggle. “We are no one’s slaves; here there are neither masters nor servants,” he declared.
He added that the first right over resources belonged to provinces and their people, and warned that if the state failed to find the perpetrators, “its institutions will be held accountable for our killings”.
Announcing the protest for 8 September, Mr Achakzai said: “If we had wished to exploit public emotions that night, our workers could have set fire to police stations and government offices across Balochistan. Instead, we chose a peaceful and effective political response. On 8 September, trains, airports, wheels and shutters will all come to a standstill.”