QUETTA, April 8: About 100 young men of Zhob who set off on a long march for Quetta on March 24 reached the provincial capital on Sunday and set up a protest camp outside the press club.

The youth, who are demanding of the government to provide natural gas to Zhob and to connect their grid to Chashma barrage power plant, covered a distance of 330km in 16 days.

Earlier, they had announced that they would hold sit-ins outside the Governor’s House and the Chief Minister’s Secretariat but they had to alter their plans because the governor and the chief minister were both out of the city.

The Youth Action Committee that had organised the march would announce its future line of action on Monday.

When they reached the provincial capital, the 100 youths were received by activists of the Awami National Party and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Ideological) who then joined them in their march.

The committee chairman, Abdullah Jan Kakar, Aurangzeb Kasi of the ANP and Minister for Local Government Abdul Khaliq Bashardost and leaders of JUI-I led the procession.

The ANP and JUI-I leaders praised the determination of the youths. They said the government had provided natural gas to Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sukkur and Karachi, but the district headquarters of Zhob was deprived of the facility.