Quetta, Feb 3 Gwadar port city and the entire district in militancy-rocked Balochistan province were blacked out for several hours after Baloch Freedom Fighters fired two rockets, one of them hitting an electricity pylon.

Both rockets were fired from Padi Zar, the eastern part of the city, at about 12am. 'One of the rockets fell into the sea while the other landed in the port area,' Baharam Baloch, a Gwadar-based journalist, told the new agencies.

Balochistan has witnessed militancy and even Freedom movements ever since Pakistan was created in 1947. The local tribals have been demanding that they should have control and should be compensated better for the Sui gas that meets much of the country's energy needs.

Gwadar port, near the Gulf region on the Arabian Sea, witnessed protests after the Chinese financed and built a large port and naval complex.

President Pervez Musharraf, who opened it last year, extolled its strategic and commercial importance as the gateway to west and central Asia.

Anticipating rise in land prices in and around Gwadar, VIPs from the powerful Punjab province have made investments that has been a sore point with the local tribals.

The militancy has received a major fillip after a top Baloch leader, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, was killed in a military operation last August.


BSO activists held for blocking road

QUETTA, Feb 2: Police on Friday arrested over two dozen political workers and activists of the Baloch Students Organisation from different areas on charges of blocking the highway at different points and damaging private and government vehicles.

Activists of the BSO in Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Wadh and Hub and blocked the RCD highway putting barricades to protest against the arrest of BNP-M chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal and other leaders of the party.According to police, BSO activists pelted vehicles with stones, smashed their windscreens and damaged them.

BSO secretary-general Zakir Majeed said that over two dozen vehicles were damaged while two vehicles were set on fire in Mastung area. He also claimed that traffic remained completely suspended between Quetta and Karachi.

However, official sources said that some groups tried to block the national highway linking Quetta with Karachi at different points but law-enforcement agencies foiled their attempt and restored the traffic at the RCD highway.

They said that police arrested over two dozen political activities from Hub, Kalat and Mastung area for damaging vehicles and blocking the highway.

Bugti’s daughter’s land seized

NAWABSHAH: The police have seized more than 200 acres of agricultural land belonging to late Nawab Akbar Bugti’s daughter and relatives in Nawabshah.

Jam Sahib police cordoned off the land on Friday and blocked all roads leading to it. They also set up a picket on the site. Revenue officials in Daur town told PPI that they had been directed to identify the land. According to revenue department record, the land belongs to Bugti`s daughter and relatives Nabi Bux and Liaquat Ali Bugti.

Nawabshah DCO Dr Sarwar Jamali confirmed the report saying the orders were from “higher authorities”.

Police have already taken over about 2,000 acres of land belonging to late Bugti in Sanghar district.