QUETTA, Sept 27: Leaders of nationalist political parties and student organisations have condemned the arrest of hundreds of people in the Killi Ismail locality of the provincial capital.

A house-to-house search was conducted after a senior police officer and his two guards were killed on Wednesday night.

Addressing separate press conferences at the press club here on Thursday, Mir Hasil Bizenjo, secretary-general of the National Party, and Mohammad Sadiq Raisani, organiser of the Baloch Bar Association, said the arrest of the Baloch and the insulting way in which women were treated during the search operation could trigger a strong reaction.

Mir Bizenjo said the occurrence of any incident in any locality did not mean that the whole community was involved in it.

Armed people had targeted police officials who escaped from the crime scene but the police besieged the entire area, unduly harassing the people.

Terming the action unlawful, he said that police had arrested about 500 people who had nothing to do with the incident, adding that if security forces continued to commit such excesses, the Baloch people might be provoked to take extreme steps against the state. He said the National Party believed in a political and constitutional struggle but police had arrested dozens of party activists from Killi Ismail.

The NP leader announced that his party would hold a protest demonstration against the illegal acts on Friday at the press club.

Sadiq Raisani, organiser of the Baloch Bar Association, claimed that at least two people had been arrested from every house in the locality, adding that even students and critically ill people were not allowed to leave the area. Meanwhile, members of the Baloch Students Organisation (Mohiuddin faction) staged a demonstration near the press club to condemn the arrests.

Mahmood Baloch said that Baloch people would not be subdued by the use of brute force and they would not be forced to give up their struggle for their legitimate rights.