Saturday, April 11, 2009

Shutter down strike across Balochistan, 10 killed


QUETTA: The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the killing of six people whose bodies were recovered from Quetta's Margat area on Saturday, DawnNews quoted a BLA spokesman as saying.

Also on Saturday, unknown armed men shot dead a Balochistan Constabulary personnel on Quetta's Jail Road, police told DawnNews.

Latest reports said three more people were killed in firing incidents, one on Quetta's Kirani road and another on the city's Sikri road. While two others were injured during an exchange of fire in the city's Jinnah town.

A shutter down strike was being observed in Quetta, Khuzdar, Kalat, Panjgur, Awaran, Kharan, Noshki, Turbat and other parts of Balochistan against the recent killings of three Baloch nationalist leaders.

Strict security measures were in place across Balochistan to avert any untoward incident as political activists blocked the Quetta-Karachi national highway at Kalat, police sources said.

Separately, police detonated an explosive device planted at a roadside on the Quetta-Karachi RCD highway in Khuzdar district's Wadh tehsil.

In Turbat, a mob set the Pakistam Muslim League - Quaid's office, the district nazim's office, an old museum and a bank on fire. While in Noshki, the new district jail building was set alight, police told DawnNews.

Violence continued in other parts of Balochistan as well. In Dera Bugti's Loti area, three rockets were fired at a security forces checkpoint, officials told DawnNews. However, no casualties were reported from this incident.

Meanwhile, an angry mob set on fire a zakat office and other official buildings in Panjgur.

Separately, the Balochistan Bar Association will boycott courts across the province on April 13 on the call of President Supreme Court Bar Association Ali Ahmed Kurd to condemn the nationalists' killings, Baz Mohammad Kakar of the BBA said.

The BBA has also demanded the unconditional release of all detained political workers and the recovery of Balochistan's missing persons, Kakar said.

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