QUETTA, Dec 13: Asif Baloch, the chairman of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO), was arrested soon after he had addressed a press conference here on Monday.

At the press conference, he condemned the arrest of Baloch students since the Friday bomb blast in Quetta and declared that students would observe a black day on Wednesday in the province against police excesses.

Mr Asif alleged that hundreds of Baloch students had been arrested in raids on hostels of the university, Bolan Medical College and the degree college arrests were also made from Nushki, Turbat, Khuzdar, Mastung, Kalat and Nasirabad, he said.

When Asif Baloch and Imdad Baloch and other members of the organization were leaving the press club after the news conference, a police party waiting outside arrested Asif Baloch and six student leaders.

When Mir Tahir Bizenjo, general secretary, and Dr Yasin Baloch, central executive committee member of the National Party, who also attended the press conference asked police officers to show the arrest warrant of Asif Baloch, they were told he was wanted in a case and a warrant was not needed for his arrest.

Mr Bizenjo told newsmen that pushing Baloch students and activists of nationalist parties to the wall would worsen the situation in the province. He said that such undemocratic acts would irritate the youths and that would not be in the interest of the Balochs and the federation.

Speaking at another press conference, Habib Jalib Baloch, Secretary-general of the BNP-Mengal, and Mohinuddin Baloch, Secretary-general of BSO-Aman group, declared that unlawful arrests would force the Baloch political leadership to dissociate itself from the process of negotiation with the government.

Senator Sana Baloch, MPAs Mir Akbar Ali Mengal and Akhtar Hussain Lango, Sajid Tareen advocate, Malik Wali Kakar and others were present on the occasion.

The BNP-M leader asserted that incidents of bomb blasts and firing of rockets in different parts of the province were the result of internal differences among law-enforcement agencies and innocent people were paying a heavy price for contradictions within government institutions.

The leader of opposition in the provincial assembly, Mr Kachkol Ali Baloch, in a press statement denounced the raids on hostels and houses arrests of activists and sympathizers of nationalist parties and said the repressive measures would not stifle the opposition of the mega-projects.