Quetta-Karachi highway blocked as protest erupts over enforced disappearance in Balochistan – The Tribune

Mangochar [Pakistan], February 14 (ANI): The main roadway in Mangochar has been blocked for several hours by a sit-in protest against a man’s enforced disappearance.

Mangochar residents in Balochistan’s Kalat area have blocked traffic on the Quetta-Karachi National Highway by staging a sit-in. Long lines of cars have consequently developed on the roadway, according to a report by The Balochistan Post (TBP).

The family and locals of Abdul Hameed Bangulzai, who was purportedly the victim of an enforced disappearance by Pakistani law enforcement, have organized the rally, TBP reported.

Frontier Corps (FC) men arrived in Mangochar Bazaar on Thursday night in seven cars and arrested Abdul Hameed Bangulzai, since then, he’s missing, according to Kalat sources as cited by TBP.

TBP highlighted that the demonstrators are calling on the government and security forces to ensure Abdul Hameed Bangulzai’s release and to produce him right away.

Abdul Hameed owns a bakery in Mangochar Bazaar, the protesters said. They claim that after assaulting him during a raid on his store, Pakistani forces took him by force and vanished him. They reiterated that until he is freed, they will keep blocking the Quetta-Karachi National Highway.

Authorities have not yet released a comment regarding the situation, and as of late at night, the route was still blocked.

Earlier, the Baloch Women Forum strongly denounced the recent spike in “state-sponsored terrorism, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances” in Balochistan, especially in the Makran region.

The group demanded immediate international intervention and has referred to these acts as part of a continuing genocide campaign against the Baloch people. The Baloch Women Forum issued a statement highlighting several recent events that show the serious human rights abuses taking place in Balochistan.

TBP reported earlier that Pakistan Army helicopters fled over the Tump neighbourhood of the Kech district of Balochistan, where four people have reportedly forcibly disappeared. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)