QUETTA: National Party (NP) president Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has warned against use of force to end sit-in staged by the people of Gwadar to seek their rights.

“The people of Gwadar have been protesting for three weeks for their basic human rights and needs. All of their demands are legitimate and within the reach of the rulers, but the provincial government imposed by the ‘Thappa mafia’ has no mandate to accept the demands of the people. And now they are planning to end the sit-in by force,” Dr Baloch said.

“It is still time to try to resolve the issues through dialogue instead of violence,” he said while addressing NP workers at a meeting here on Friday.

Dr Baloch warned that if the protesters were thrashed, there would be mass protests in every street of Balochistan for which the rulers would be responsible.

He said that illegal fishing by trawlers, curbs on border trade and unnecessary security check-posts had made the life of the people of Balochistan, particularly Makran, unbearable and as a result there was immense grief and anger among the people.

The NP chief alleged that the rulers had destroyed Balochistan, particularly the border areas of the province, economically and politically.

“In the 2018 general elections, the ‘Thappa mafia’ brought in ‘agents’ who want to usurp everything from school funds to marine resources. As a result, all areas adjacent to Pakistan-Iran border have fallen into disrepair,”.

He said that a drama was being staged to take over the border trade to use it for political purposes and earn bribe from it.

Dr Baloch said that the federal government by using the irrational term of south Balochistan had declared the region insurgency-affected and claimed that it would start development work worth trillions of rupees in these areas.

The NP leader said that the people did not consider the elected representatives as their representatives and were not ready to talk to them.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2021