QUETTA: At least nine people, including policemen, were injured after clashes broke out between police and protesters from an ethnic Baloch rights group, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, late Friday night in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, officials said.
The BYC accused law enforcement agencies of forcibly arresting its three central committee members on Wednesday and called for a protest on Sariab Road in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province which has recent witnessed a spike in separatist attacks.
The call for protest followed a clash between protesters and the police after people attempted to take away bodies of deceased militants who were killed after the Jaffar Express train hijacking last week, according to authorities. The provincial government lodged a police case against the protesters who stormed the mortuary at Civil Hospital Quetta and booked 12 protesters on Thursday.
Last week, militants from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group hijacked the Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express passenger train in the rugged, mountainous Bolan region, with more than 400 passengers onboard. The hours-long siege ended after Pakistan launched an operation and killed 33 militants. The deadliest train assault resulted in the killing of over 30 Pakistani security personnel and civilians.
“The Baloch Yakjehti Committee blocked highways in Quetta and the police took legal action against the protesters who were blocking the roads,” Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said on Friday.
“The protesters pelted stones at police and tortured policemen, injuring several cops and civilians.”
The BYC was staging a sit-in on Sariab Road with bodies of three protesters, which it alleged were killed by gunfire from the authorities.
Rind said the government was ascertaining whose bodies BYC placed in their protest: “It is impossible to know the causes of death of the bodies unless the bodies were brought to the hospital for medico-legal procedure.”
Dr. Arbab Kamran Kasi, head of Trauma Center Quetta told Arab News, they had received nine injured persons, including policemen.
“Six injured with minor wounds were discharged, two are being treated and one was referred to the Combined Military Hospital,” he shared.
Dr. Mahrang Baloch, a veteran human rights activist who heads the BYC, accused police of killing three protesters by shooting at a peaceful rally in Quetta.
“We called a peaceful sit-in today on the Sariab Road in Quetta but the police attacked our protesters,” she told Arab News. “Now we have camped at Sariab Road with the bodies of three slain protesters and we won’t end the protest until justice has been provided to our slain workers.”
The office of the Quetta commissioner denied reports of firing by authorities.
“No shelling was carried out by the administration during the BYC protest. No firearms or rubber bullets were used,” it said in a statement. “Only water cannons (non-lethal and safe method) were used to disperse the crowd.”
It said the administration respects the right to peaceful protest, however, lawlessness and attacks on state institutions cannot be permitted.
Amnesty International, a global human rights watchdog, voiced alarm over the reports of deaths of three protesters and nearly a dozen injuries following live ammunition fired by authorities against the protesters in Quetta, describing it as “a shocking indictment of the Pakistani authorities’ utter disregard for human life.”
“In blatant violation of the right to protest, the authorities conducted mass arrests and fired tear gas before resorting to unlawful use of lethal weapons against the unarmed protesters. Mobile networks in the city remain suspended, hindering free flow of information,” it said on X.
“Amnesty International urges the Pakistani authorities to immediately stop the reckless crackdown against the peaceful protesters and guarantee the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, in line with Pakistan’s international human rights obligations.”
Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province by land but its most backward by almost all economic and social indicators. For decades it has been plagued by a low-level insurgency by militants fighting for a greater share of the province’s wealth.
Separatist militants, such as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) accuse the central government of denying locals a share of Balochistan’s mineral resources. The federal government and the military strongly deny these accusations, and say they have launched several projects in the province to support its development.
Violence by Baloch separatist factions, primarily the BLA, killed about 300 people last year, according to official statistics, marking an escalation in the decades-long conflict.
At least nine injured as police, ethnic Baloch protesters clash in Pakistan’s southwest
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At least nine injured as police, ethnic Baloch protesters clash in Pakistan’s southwest
- The clashes erupted during a protest by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee rights group over the arrest of three of its key members by authorities this week
- Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land, has been the site of an insurgency for decades and has witnessed a surge in violence in recent months
11 killed, at least 60 missing after huge Karachi shopping plaza blaze
- Videos showed flames rising as firefighters labored through Sunday night to stop fire that started on Saturday
- Firefighters said lack of ventilation in the mall caused the building to fill with smoke and slowed rescue efforts
ISLAMABAD: The provincial government of Sindh has ordered an official inquiry after a fire at a major shopping plaza in the port city of Karachi killed 11 people and destroyed more than 1,200 shops, officials said on Monday, dealing a severe blow to one of the city’s busiest commercial districts.
The blaze broke out late Saturday at Gul Plaza in Karachi’s Saddar business area and spread rapidly through multiple floors, according to emergency officials. Firefighters battled flames for hours to bring the fire under control, which was still blazing late into Sunday night.
Deadly fires in commercial buildings are a recurring problem in Karachi, a city of more than 20 million people, where overcrowding, outdated infrastructure and weak enforcement of fire safety regulations have repeatedly resulted in mass casualties and economic losses.
“Karachi fire death toll rises to 11,” said Chief Police Surgeon for Karachi Dr. Summaiya Syed Tariq.
“The fire has been extinguished but light smoke is still rising and the recovery of bodies has now begun,” says Muhamamd Amin, an official of Edhi present on the spot.
Taking notice of the incident, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Sunday evening directed the Karachi commissioner to launch an immediate inquiry and examine whether safety failures or regulatory lapses contributed to the scale of the disaster.
“Fire safety arrangements in the building must be checked, and strict action should be taken against those responsible if negligence or carelessness is proven,” Shah said in a statement.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. Police said a formal investigation would begin once firefighting operations were fully completed.
Officials briefed the chief minister that more than 1,200 shops were gutted in the fire, wiping out inventories and investments built over decades.
Firefighting operations managed to bring 60 to 70 percent of the blaze under control, while rescue and cooling operations continued well into Sunday. One firefighter was among the six who died.
Speaking to reporters later on Sunday, Shah provided new details on the scale and timeline of the emergency response, saying municipal authorities acted within minutes of receiving the alert.
“The first fire tender reached the site at 10:27 p.m. and firefighting operations began immediately,” the chief minister said, adding that at least 26 fire tenders, four snorkel vehicles and 10 water bowzers were deployed, with additional support provided by the Pakistan Navy and the Civil Aviation Authority.
Shah said preliminary information indicated that 58 to 60 people were initially reported missing after the blaze, though rescue and cooling operations were still underway and authorities were continuing to verify the figures. He added that the fire occurred during the peak wedding shopping season, compounding losses for traders and shoppers in the area.
He said the intensity of the blaze and limited access points inside the building made it difficult for firefighters to enter quickly, contributing to the scale of damage.
$10 MILLION LOSSES
The fire tragedy has also triggered urgent concern within Karachi’s business community.
The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) announced the formation of a dedicated committee to coordinate relief efforts, document losses and press the government for compensation and rehabilitation of affected traders.
KCCI said preliminary assessments showed that over 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses had been completely destroyed, leaving many families without income. The chamber appealed to both provincial and federal authorities to announce a special compensation package, citing precedents such as the 2009 Bolton Market arson, after which funds were approved to rebuild fire-hit markets and compensate nearly 2,000 affectees.
Ateeq Mir, a traders’ representative, estimated that losses to businesses from the fire would be over $10 million.
“There is no compensation for life but we will try our best that the small businessmen that have encountered losses here, we will try in a transparent manner … to compensate their losses,” Chief Minister Shah told reporters.
Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a telephone conversation with Shah on Sunday evening, the premier’s office said, to offer full federal support to provincial authorities.
Sharif said a “coordinated and effective system is essential” to control fires quickly in densely populated urban areas and stressed the need for stronger preventive mechanisms to avert similar tragedies in the future. He said the federal government was prepared to work with provincial authorities to help establish an integrated fire-response and safety framework, adding that Islamabad stood with the affected families and the Sindh government during the crisis.
Battling large fires in Karachi’s dense commercial districts is notoriously difficult, reflecting a mix of urban congestion, weak regulation, and chronic enforcement failures. Many markets and plazas are built with narrow access points, encroachments and illegal extensions that block fire tenders and delay rescue operations, while buildings often lack functional fire exits, sprinklers or alarm systems.
Although safety regulations exist on paper, inspections are sporadic, and penalties rarely enforced, allowing hazardous electrical wiring, overloaded circuits and flammable materials to go unchecked. In such tightly packed areas, fires can spread rapidly from shop to shop and floor to floor, leaving firefighters little room to maneuver and sharply increasing the risk to both occupants and emergency crews.
