QUETTA: The Balochis­tan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) held rallies in Nushki, Dalbandin and Kha­ran on Tuesday in protest against what it called extra-judicial killing of several Baloch people in recent incidents.

Addressing the rallies, the local leaders of the party, Nazir Ahmed, Mohammad Bakhsh and Haji Ghulam Hussain accused security forces for harassing women and children during raids on the houses of suspects.

Security forces had no right to kill innocent people, they said and added that if anyone was accused of being involved in militancy, he should be arrested and produced in a court.

They alleged that people were kidnapped by security forces and then it was declared they had been killed in encounters between law enforcement agencies and militants. “Strangely, no one is injured in such shootouts.”

The BNP leaders urged the government to disclose the identity of the slain people and keep their bodies in mortuaries to help their relatives to identify them.

They said that selective operations conducted by security forces, extra-judicial killings and harassment of women and children were aimed at intimidating people and silence the voice being raised by nationalist parties against injustices and looting of resources of the province.

The BNP-M has planned to hold a series of rallies in Quetta, Khuzdar, Gwadar, Turbat, Harnai, Barkhan, Sibi, Dera Murad Jamali, Dera Ghazi Khan and Karachi till June 1.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2015

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