Protesting students of the Balochistan University paused their sit-in for four days on Saturday after receiving assurances from the provincial government and the university administration regarding the recovery of their two missing fellows.

Sohail Baloch and Faseeh Baloch went missing several days ago, following which the students began their protest on Nov 7.

Days later on November 9 (Tuesday), as the negotiations with the authorities failed, students belonging to various factions of the Baloch Student Organisation (BSO) ​locked the gates of the varsity and announced that no one would take the semester examinations, and that their protest would continue until the duo were recovered.

Talking to Dawn.com today, BSO Central Secretary General Balach Qadir said that in the latest round of negotiations, which took place on Friday, the government provided assurance that the missing students would be found. The protest was subsequently paused till Tuesday, he said.

The BSO official quoted the administration as announcing that the university would reopen from Nov 15 (Monday) and educational activities, administrative matters and examinations would then resume.

However, a token protest would continue in front of the university's admin block, Qadir said, the protesters' stance was that if the missing students were not recovered till Tuesday then the protest would restart and the university would be shut down again.

The government had formed a committee on Nov 11 to address the students' issues and submit their recommendations. One of the committee members, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party MPA Nasrullah Zaray, confirmed the conditional agreement reached to Dawn.com and said that the matter had been brought before Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo.