The president of BNP-M, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, said on Monday that the sitting of his party requires that the release of arrested leaders from the Balochjehti (Byc) committee continue until “our women are released and arrive at their homes.”
Mengal had announced a “long march” of Wadh to Quetta to protest the arrests of the BYC chief organizer, Dr. Mahrang Baloch, and other leaders, as well as police repressions in a sitting. However, the Quetta administration had denied permission of the part for the demonstration.
On Saturday night, a delegation from the provincial government comprising Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, Bakht Muhammad Kakar and Sardar Noor Ahmed Bangulzai met with Mengal and other BNP-M leaders at the Mastung Party site, but they could not convince Dengal to end the sitting, which continued.
Going to the protesters today, Mengal said: “The sitting will be written in history and will continue until our women get home after being released.”
“We promise that until we take our women imprisoned home, we will be prohibited from going home,” he said.
The first day of Eidul Fitr, EID prayers were offered in Lakpas, in which the protesters also participated, as well as the people in the Mastung areas and the nearby.
“Yesterday, the government came with its butterfly drone and took pictures of our sitting to demonstrate how small the sitting was. But today, I ask them to bring their great butterfly (helicopter) and see how many participants we have,” Mengal said.
BNP’s central leader and former Senator Sana Baloch said Dawn.com that BNP-M or Byc are not a campaign party or organization.
“They are raising their voice for their rights in a democratic way. Rana Sanaullah says that Sardar Akhtar Mengal’s speeches are promoting the extremism in Baluchistan, which is very sad.
“When PML-N leaders talked about respecting the vote, leadership, including Sanullah, were arrested and today those same PML-N leaders tell us that our speeches and statements are promoting extremism.”
Baloch added: “It is not our statements and speeches, but the government policies that are causing extremism, because Pakistan’s relations with neighboring countries are not good today and due to these policies, Mastung people offer EID sentences on roads today.”
Baloch said that if the report of the Commission headed by Mengal would have been implemented in the instructions of the Superior Court of Islamabad, the situation would not have deteriorated so much today and greater deterioration would have been avoided.
On the fourth day of the ongoing protest sitting in the Lakpas de Mastung area, head of BNP Awami and member of the Baluchistan Asad Baloch assembly, leader of the National Party, Sardar Kamal Khan Bangulzai, Prince Muhammad Baloch, son of Khan de Kalat, and other political leaders also expressed solidarity with the Protestants.
The protesters and motorists from different political parties had begun their trip to Quetta from the native city of Wadh de Mengal, around 9 am on Friday.
On Saturday, after the BNP-M said that more than 250 of its activists were arrested since its march met with police action near Mastung, Mengal and other party workers also survived a suicide bombing.
When heading to the seated on Saturday, Mengal had said: “The Government Delegation told us about cooperation and the search for a road.
“We told them that they must find a way and let us go to Quetta.”
Mengal elaborated: “The Government Delegation asked us if we wanted to celebrate a demonstration, to which we said that if we wanted to celebrate a demonstration, we would have done it in Khuzdar.
“We told the Government that our only demand is to free women,” Mengal said. “We told them that we will march towards Quetta, demanding the liberation of our women.”
