ISLAMABAD: A tense standoff unfolded across Balochistan on Monday as a shutter-down strike and widespread road blockades sparked by nationalist leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal’s call for a “long march” from Lakpass to Quetta paralysed the Pakistani province.
The protest by Akhtar’s Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), now in its second week, demands the release of detained Baloch activists, including women leaders of Balochistan Yakjehti Committee (BYC), amid escalating clashes with authorities.
Shops businesses and schools remained closed in cities like Quetta, Kalat, Mastung Khuzdar, and Gwadar. Mengal’s supporters blocked key highways, including the Quetta-Karachi national highway.
The provincial govt’s deployment of containers, trenches, and police checkpoints at Lakpass, roughly 30 km from Quetta, stalled the march, forcing demonstrators onto rugged mountain routes.
Reports of police using teargas and shelling BNP-M workers have intensified the unrest.
Mengal, addressing a sit-in at Lakpass, accused the state of oppression and vowed to press forward. “The state may crush us, but we won’t bow,” he declared, signalling plans to escalate the march into province-wide resistance. The protest began March 28 in Wadh, Mengal’s hometown, following the arrest of BYC leaders, including Mahrang Baloch, during a crackdown on their Quetta sit-in. A suicide bombing near the rally on March 29 left Mengal unharmed but underscored the volatile stakes.
Balochistan’s govt, led by chief minister Sarfraz Bugti, has taken a hard line. His spokesperson, Shahid Rind, warned Mengal of arrest under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Act if the march entered Quetta’s Red Zone.
Negotiations have faltered, with Mengal dismissing the provincial govt’s delegations as powerless to meet demands. BYC, however, rallied behind Mengal, urging highway blockades and strikes to amplify pressure.
Analysts see it as a critical juncture for Balochistan, where grievances over state repression, enforced disappearances and resource exploitation fuel dissent. The shutter-down has disrupted public life, with Quetta’s land links to 12 districts severed for over a week. With cellular networks down and security tightened, the province braces for what Mengal’s supporters call a defining fight.
