QUETTA: Workers and supporters of the Balochistan National Party staged a demonstration in the Bolan Medical College Hospital on Wednesday to protest against recent incidents of acid attacks on women in Quetta and Mastung.

Six victims of the incidents, two teenage sisters among them, are under treatment in the burns ward of the hospital.

A large number of BNP activists gathered in the hospital and staged a demonstration outside the burns ward, raising slogans against religious extremists believed to be responsible for the attacks.

The party’s Information Secretary, Agha Hasan, said such incidents had never happened in Balochistan in the past and that the “barbarian” act was against Baloch traditions and norms.

He said that extremist groups were free to implement their agenda (in the province) and no action had ever been taken against them.

The BNP leader criticised the government for its failure to protect the life and dignity of people, and urged it to ensure arrest of the perpetrators of the “inhuman” crime.

Published in Dawn, July 24th , 2014