QUETTA: Hundreds of people on Saturday staged a rally in Nushki against enforcing the ban on the business of smuggled Iranian oil.

The Balochistan government decided to implement the ban following the killing of Makran Commissioner Captain Tariq Zehri, his driver and gunman after their vehicle collided with another vehicle carrying smuggled oil on Oct 18 last year.

The protesters, who were involved in Iranian oil business, said they had no other means to earn bread and butter to feed their families.

They marched on Mir Gul Khan Naseer Road and other roads chanting slogans against the government. Mir Khurshid Ahmed Jamaldini and Nazeer Baloch of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal, Hafiz Abdullah Gorgaj and Fida-ur-Rehman Rakhsani of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and the president of the Iranian oil sellers alliance participated in the rally.

Addressing the demonstrators, they said thousands of people associated with the business of Iranian oil in Chagai, Nushki, Makran, Kharan, Washuk and other border areas had become jobless.

They urged the provincial government to lift the ban on Iranian oil business.

The speakers expressed apprehension that the situation could create law and order problem in the province. They said criminal activities had increased in Nushki and other areas of the Rakhsan and Makran divisions after the government banned the Iranian oil business.

They urged the government to make alternative arrangements for providing jobs to the people affected by the ban.

They also expressed concern over erecting a fence along the Iranian border and said that it would affect economic conditions of the people living in the area.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2020