QUETTA, June 21: A grenade attack on the house of Mubarak Qazi — one of the most popular Balochi poet today — led to a strike in several towns of Balochistan on Friday. The poet’s wife got injured in the attack.

On the call of the Baloch Nation Front (BNF), shops and business centres remained closed in Hub, Gwadar, Pasni, Panjgur, Kharan, Mastung, Kalat, Awaran, Khuzdar, Nushki and Chagai.

Assailants had hurled a hand grenade at the residence of Mr Qazi in Pasni on Thursday, damaging a portion of the house.

Condemnatory statements from nationalist parties and organisations — including the BNF, the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, Baloch Salvation Front and Baloch Students Organisation-Azad — poured into offices of newspapers in Quetta.

They said that Mr Qazi, a revolutionary poet and intellectual, was a source of inspiration for the Baloch.