TOBA TEK SINGH: Scores of protesters, including relatives of the seven persons who were assassinated in Gwadar on Wednesday last, blocked Lahore-Multan National Highway for traffic over absence of officials, when bodies of the deceased persons were brought at Shamkot Interchange on M-4 motorway on Friday afternoon.

They were demanding copies of the FIRs of the murders registered at Gwadar and the autopsy reports of the deceased persons.

Local sources say that when the bodies of the victims arrived at the Shamkot interchange, none of the district administration and police officials was present there, which annoyed the relatives of the deceased and other area residents.

However, on being informed of the protest the administration and police officials reached the spot and held dialogues with the protesters.

Officials ‘conspicuous by their absence’

On being assured of provision of the murder FIRs and autopsy reports of the deceased persons, the protesters cleared the highway, opening it for the traffic.

Seven residents of Khanewal district, working as barbers in Gwadar, were brutally murdered and another was injured, by unidentified attackers.

The deceased also included two brothers and their cousin, and a man and his nephew.

DEMO: The Pakistan Seraiki Party (PSP) and other nationalists parties on Friday demonstrated at Kutchery Chowk, Multan, against the killing of Khanewal labourers at Gwadar.

Seraiki nationalists Zahoor Dhareja, Malik Allah Nawaz Waince, Multan Bar Association former president Riazul Hassan Gilani and others raised slogans against the provincial governments of Balochistan and Punjab.

They also criticised President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, holding them responsible for the deprivations of the people of south Punjab.

They demanded creation of a Seraiki province and “restoration” of South Punjab Secretariat, along with quota for Seraiki people in the government services, rejecting the recent creation of posts of 10 special secretaries for south Punjab.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2024