GWADAR: Four drivers died after their condition deteriorated due to non-availability of food and water while they, along with hundreds of others, were stranded in border areas of Makran division.

Hundreds of pick-ups and other vehicles loaded with Iranian petrol and diesel were stuck up in the border areas when authorities stopped them from moving ahead after they crossed into Pakistan from Iran. The Pak-Iran border was closed at three points and the drivers of these vehicles had no other source to get food and water.

According to sources, Pakistani authorities closed the border with Iran at Gwadar, Turbat and Panjgur about a month ago and stopped the vehicles which had crossed into Pakistan from Iran at the check-posts of Frontier Corps.

They said the drivers and other people in these stranded vehicles were facing starvation.

Family members of one of the deceased drivers, identified as Fazal Ahmed, said that people with stranded vehicles were facing acute shortage of food and water due to closure of the border with Iran. They urged the government to act immediately to save lives of hundreds of people.

Thousands of people have lost their livelihoods due to closure of the border.

Hundreds of people belonging to different walks of life held a rally in Gwadar in protest against suspension of trade activities at the Pak-Iran border.

Chanting slogans, they marched on different roads of Gwadar.

Addressing the protesters, speakers opposed closure of the border with Iran and said that they would close national highways in Makran if their demands were not accepted by April 23. The president of the Border Trade Union, Mohammad Aslam, while speaking at a press conference along with Mir Shahdad Dashti and Gulzar Dost, said that majority of people in Makran earned their livelihoods from the trade with Iran.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2021