QUETTA, April 25: The Balochistan Zamindar Action Committee announced on Monday that it would block highways on Thursday to protest against loadshedding in the province, which, it said, was damaging crops and orchards. Farmers led by the committee’s president Syed Taj Mohammad Agha staged a rally and raised slogans against the Quetta Electricity Supply Company and the provincial government.

Speaking to the protesters, Taj Agha alleged that Qesco was carrying out 18-hour loadshedding daily in Balochistan and the cultivators were facing serious problems due to lack of supply of water from tube-wells to the standing crops and orchards.

He said farmers were hopeful about their summer cultivation after the snowfall and rains in winter following an eight-year drought.