Pakistan: Police personnel baton charge protestors at Mangi Dam in Balochistan

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Police personnel baton-charged Mangi Dam protestors in Balochistan on Sunday who were demonstrating for the withdrawal of Frontier Corps and armed forces from the district after three security personnel were killed in a roadside explosion.

Due to the protest, the national highways in Balochistan remained closed and traffic was suspended to Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, reported The Express Tribune.

Police also detained Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party leader Yousuf Khan Kakar.

“A shutter down strike was organised in all the districts of the province during which the national highways were also closed. The traffic from Balochistan to Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa also remained suspended,” a source was quoted as saying by Express Tribune.

However, the arrested activists were released after negotiations.

Three Levies personnel were killed and as many injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in Balochistan’s Ziarat district on Thursday, reported Dawn.

The explosion occurred when the Levies vehicle ran over a landmine near Mangi Dam, provincial government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani said.

Security sources said four labourers working at Mangi Dam were kidnapped by unidentified armed suspects. The Levies party was travelling to the area to get the workers released when it hit the landmine, reported Dawn.

The Balochistan Levies is a force in charge of maintaining law and order in the tribal areas of the province while the Frontier Corps is a paramilitary force of Pakistan that is currently stationed in the provinces of Balochistan. (ANI)