July 04, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 29, 1429

QUETTA, July 3: A strike was observed by traders here on Thursday on the call of the Balochistan National Party-M and Anjuman-i-Tajiran Balochistan in protest against killing of the workers of the party, kidnapping of businessmen for ransom and the ongoing military operation in the province.

All shops and trading establishments in the provincial capital remained closed.

However, traffic was not affected and attendance in government offices and educational institutions was normal.

BNP-M secretary-general Habib Jalib Baloch told newsmen that the strike was observed also in Nushki, Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Hub, Gwadar, Panjgur, Turbat, Sibi, Dera Murad Jamali and Dera Allahyar.

He accused intelligence agencies of killing his party’s workers and sympathisers and other Baloch youths.

He said that after failing to suppress the political movement of the Baloch people through military operation and arrests, the ‘oppressors’ were now targeting innocent people.

Rickshaw drivers of the provincial capital parked their vehicles outside the city government’s offices and held a demonstration on the call of the National Rickshaw Association in protest against the killing of two of their colleagues.

The association’s president Yousuf Ghilji demanded arrest of the killers, payment of compensation to the families of the victims and protection for rickshaw drivers.