QUETTA: One person was stoned to death yesterday [July 14] at Fort Sandeman (Zhob district), about 200 miles north of Quetta. The Police have so far arrested 19 persons, and further investigations are in progress.

According to reports reaching here, the Jamiatul Ulema Islam, the National Awami Party, the Majlis Khatam Nabuwwat and certain other organisations gave a call for ‘hartal’ and took out a procession in Fort Sandeman yesterday to register strong protest … against the alleged publication of a distorted version of the Holy Quran. The procession [was] stated to have been led by the Deputy Speaker of the Baluchistan Assembly, Maulvi Shamsuddin, and certain other Ulema. The man killed was … [a] shopkeeper dealing in general merchandise. He was reported to have been accused by the processionists of non-participation in the ‘hartal’. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from New Delhi,] renewed looting and violence over food shortages and high prices today [July 15] brought the extension of a curfew in India’s riot-torn western city of Ahmedabad. Officials in the Gujarat state capital said here [there were] at least three incidents of looting when the curfew … was relaxed.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2023