Doctors and paramedics at Turbat Teaching Hospital continued a boycott of medical services after accusing Frontier Corps (FC) personnel of blocking their access to the facility and threatening senior doctors during a tightly guarded visit by social media influencers from other parts of Pakistan.
Residents also staged a protest rally over road closures that sources said had disrupted movement across Turbat for four days, limiting access to the hospital and other locations. Local journalists were also allegedly mistreated during the visitors’ trip to the Turbat Press Club.
Hospital sources previously told The Balochistan Post that Frontier Corps personnel behaved aggressively towards several doctors, pointed weapons at some of them and issued threats.
Read More: Turbat Hospital Staff Boycott Services After Alleged FC Threats During YouTubers’ Visit
There was no immediate public response from the Frontier Corps or the district administration to the allegations.
The Young Doctors Association Balochistan described the treatment of medical staff and the obstruction of their work as “extremely concerning and intolerable” and called on the authorities to provide a safe working environment at the hospital.
National Party president and former Balochistan chief minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch and Senator Jan Muhammad Buledi said Kech district, particularly Turbat, had been “held hostage without justification” for four days.
They accused Pakistani forces of preventing patients and medical staff from reaching the hospital and condemned the alleged mistreatment of journalists at the press club.
All Parties Kech said the restrictions had been imposed during visits by YouTubers brought from Punjab, alleging that doctors were insulted, paramedics assaulted and patients denied access to the hospital.
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) described the restrictions as “curfew-like conditions” imposed to provide “VIP protocol” to TikTokers and content creators brought from Islamabad.
The group alleged that a gun was pointed at one doctor after medical staff questioned the road closures and that a pregnant woman was among the patients subjected to violence. It called for an investigation and action against the personnel involved.
Dr Shalee Baloch, chief organiser of the Baloch Women Forum, said the protest exposed what she called a “manufactured narrative of peace”, while BYC activist Mahzeb Shafiq accused the authorities of disrupting residents’ lives to project an image that “everything is peaceful”.