QUETTA, April 7: Hundreds of activists of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) resumed on Friday morning a blockade of the National Highway at several key points, cutting off road links between Quetta and Karachi for a second day.

“Since noon today there has been no road transport between Quetta and Karachi,” Ghulamullah Baloch, an activist of the Baloch National Movement told Dawn by telephone from Khuzdar.

Official sources confirmed the suspension of traffic between Sindh and Balochistan.

The blockade left hundreds of passenger buses, vans, lorries and cars stranded at different points on the highway after protesting workers of the BNP refused to allow them to continue their journey.

Leaders and workers of the BNP said they would not open the highway until security officials lifted the siege around Mr Mengal’s house in Karachi and released the three employees of Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

Reports reaching here from Nushki and Gwadar said that BNP workers also blocked link roads in the areas and were not allowing vehicles to proceed to the highways.

Sources close to the Mengal House said that law-enforcement personnel had blocked all streets leading to the residence of BNP chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal at around 2am.

“They are not allowing anyone to enter or leave the premises,” the sources said. Security personnel have also been deployed at the residence of Mir Javed Mengal, younger brother of the BNP chief, they said.

Immediately after hearing about the security cordon around Mr Mengal’s residence, BNP workers gathered on the Quetta-Karachi highway and blocked it at different points, including Wadh, Khuzdar and Zehri areas by erecting heavy barricades.

Nawabzada Mir Balaach Khan Marri and the Anjuman Ittehad Marri strongly condemned the siege and said that such provocative acts would not force the Baloch nationalists to abandon their struggle for rights.

A spokesman for the Jamhoori Wattan Party said that the police action was part of a conspiracy against the Baloch people.

He alleged that security forces had been using heavy weapons against the Baloch people and the three sardars who were struggling for the national rights of the people.

He warned the government of a strong backlash and called for an immediate end to the siege of Mengal House.

A spokesman for the Anjuman Ittehad Mari, Allah Bakhsh Mari, also criticised the government for its action and said that the time for negotiations with the government had passed.

“We are not weak, we are the owners of our land,” he said.