KARACHI, Oct 11: The chief of the Baloch Students Organization, Dr Imdad Baloch, who is on a hunger strike unto death at the Karachi Press Club, on Tuesday – the ninth day of his hunger strike – demanded that his fellow party members be released immediately.

The health of Dr Imdad Baloch is fast deteriorating. A doctor who examined him on Tuesday also administered drip to him.

He has been on the hunger strike unto death since Oct 3 to press for the release of his party comrades particularly Dr Allah Nawaz Baloch. Majority of them are in their teens and are students of ninth and tenth classes.

Dr Baloch said that over 20 of his party comrades had been picked up and were being tortured by state spy agencies, but the government was not even accepting that they were in their custody. This raised fears that they might be killed during the interrogation.

He said that he and a few of his fellow party members were picked up by secret agencies from Gulistan-i-Jauhar in March 2005. He was released after many weeks of interrogation and torture.

But agencies had not yet accepted the whereabouts of the others picked up along with him, and many of them were still untraceable.

Leaders who called on Imdad Baloch on Tuesday to express solidarity with him included Yusuf Mustikhan and Usman Baloch of the National Workers Party; Ghulam Shah of the Jeay Sindh Quaimi Mahaz; Saleem Akhtar of the Community Party, and others.