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QUETTA, Dec 2: The shutterdown strike call given by the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) against the arrest of its leaders and workers received a mixed response in Quetta and other parts of the province on Saturday.
Police arrested 10 people in Kalat including BNP-M district president Mir Mohammad Umrani, Shahzada Zaki Ahmedzai and Mohammad Sadiq Dehwar.
In Quetta, most of the shops, markets and business centres in Liaquat market, Prince road, Abdul Sattar road, Qandahari market, Mission road, Zarghoon road and Satellite Town remained opened throughout the day.
However, a majority of the shops at Jinnah road remained closed, while a complete shutterdown was observed till afternoon at Sariab road, Brewery road, Jail road and on the outskirts of the provincial capital.
According to reports reaching here from the areas in southern and central Balochistan, including Khuzdar, Kalat, Mastung, Turbat, Pasni, Panjgur Nushki, Dalbandin, Sibi, Dera Murad Jamali and Surab, traders and business community observed a complete shutterdown throughout the day.
After the burning of two buses, a jeep and several motorcycles by protesters in Sariab area on Friday, heavy contingents of law-enforcement agencies, including the district police and Balochistan Reserve Police (BRP), had been deployed in and around Quetta.
However, no untoward incident was reported in Quetta and other areas of southern and central Balochistan, said official sources.
WHEEL JAM CALL: The leadership of BNP-M has called for a wheel jam strike on Sunday.
“We are protesting against the massive arrests of party leaders and workers,” said Rauf Mengal, a central BNP-M leader in a statement issued here on Saturday.
Despite the arrests, long march would be staged as per the announced programme, he said.
He demanded of the government to “immediately release Sardar Akhtar Mengal and hundreds of party workers and local leaders arrested by police from different areas of Balochistan.”
