At least two people have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in Balochistan, southwest Pakistan, where thousands of people have blockaded the strategic Gwadar bridge.
Since Saturday, many thousands of protesters, mostly women, have taken to the streets to denounce the attacks and marginalization they experience in this province, the country’s largest. Balochistan is a region rich in hydrocarbons and minerals and poor in infrastructure and services.
“The government does not give us our democratic rights: it arrests us, shoots us and tortures us,” Beberg Baloch, the head of the Baloch Yakjeti Committee (BYK) who took part in the mobilization, told AFP.
The Balochistan Nationalist Movement has mobilized for the past two days and blocked a highway, demanding the release of its members arrested by security forces.
BYK reported one dead in Gwadar and two others in another city. A local official said only one protester was killed, “a trader from Gwadar” during yesterday’s demonstration.
The Pakistani military, for its part, announced that protesters taking part in a march in Gwadar attacked security forces, killing one soldier and injuring 16 others.
The authorities blocked the main roads in the area and the protesters tried to break the barricades to pass, resulting in clashes with the security forces.
In this region, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, insurgents have been launching attacks against security forces for decades. They also attack Chinese-funded projects on the grounds that the local population does not benefit from them.
In response to the protests, which the government describes as illegal, telecommunications were cut in many areas, according to residents.
The mobilization is centered on Gwadar, a “key city” for China’s grand project of linking western China to the Indian Ocean via Pakistan, aimed at improving trade links to Asia, Europe and Africa by building ports. railway lines, airports and industrial parks.
Amnesty International spoke of “unlawful and unjustified” use of violence against the protesters, reporting that 14 people were injured on Saturday. The local authorities of Balochistan, for their part, announced that 20 arrests had been made in Gwadar, but did not make any comment on violence.
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