BNP-M warns of long march to Quetta amid sit-in at Lakpas

• BNP-M warns of long march towards Quetta as talks with govt fail.
• Protesters demand releasing BYC leaders including Mahrang Baloch.
• “Powerless” delegation came to hold talks last night: Mengal.

MASTUNG: Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) chief Akhtar Mengal on Wednesday warned of staging a long march towards Quetta as his party’s sit-in protest at Lakpas entered its fifth consecutive day.

His statement came as BNP talks with the provincial government have so far failed to make any headway, with participants still denied entry into Quetta.

The sit-in led by Akhtar Mengal and other party leaders was announced from Wadh to Quetta last month to demand the release of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leaders and activists, including Dr Mahrang Baloch.

Addressing the sit-in participants today, Mengal said last night “powerless” delegation of the provincial government came to hold talks with the them.

“If the women are not released by tomorrow, the containers will be removed from the road,” he warned, adding that women along with their children will also march to Quetta.

He said Sindh government has released BYC leader Sammi Deen Baloch but “powerless” Balochistan government “is looking somewhere else”.

A day earlier, Sindh government removed the name of BYC leader Sammi Deen Baloch from detention order under section 3 of the Sindh Maintenance of Public Order (3 MPO) with “immediate effect”.

Police detained the BYC leader after she led a protest in Karachi against the arrest of the movement’s leadership, including Dr Mahrang Baloch, in Balochistan.

Mahrang was taken into custody earlier, along with 16 other activists from their protest camp in Quetta, a day after they accused police of beating up three of their protesters to death during an anti-riot action.

Officials alleged that Sammi, along with Abdul Wahab Baloch, Raza Ali, and others, was inciting road blockades and sit-ins, which could disrupt law and order in the city.

Mengal and other party workers also survived a suicide attack on the party’s rally in Mastung on March 29.