QUETTA, Dec 22: On a call of the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), opposition parties held a demonstration here on Friday in protest against what they called military operation, extra-judicial arrests, and setting up of cantonments in the province.

Leaders and activists of the BNP-M, National Party, PPP, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Awami National Party, Hazara Democratic Party and Baloch Students Organisation assembled outside the press club.

The protesters raised slogans against General Pervez Musharraf. They carried placards and banners ascribed with slogans against arrests of political activists and torturing of prisoners in jails and Gwadar mega project.

BNP leader Nuruddin Mengal said that 1,500 activists of the BNP, including Sardar Akhtar Mengal, were arrested from November 27, till today for raising voice for the Baloch rights.

He said that political activists and lawyers were manhandled and insulted in the Quetta jail.

The BNP leader said that highways leading to Karachi, Taftan and Jacobabad would be blocked on Dec 26, in protest against the Balochistan oppression.

Opposition leader in Balochistan Assembly Kachkol Ali said that the Balochistan judiciary was silent on the arrests of political activists and lauded the Sindh High Court for providing justice to the Baloch and Sindhi people against the illegal arrests.

Pakhtun leader Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal, Ali Madad Jatak of the PPP, ANP leader Khudadad Khan, Ibrahim Hazara and Javed Baloch also addressed the protester.