Sardar Akhtar Mengal and other workers of his faction of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) remained unhurt on Saturday after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the party\u2019s rally at Mastung.<\/p>\n
Mengal had announced a \u201clong march\u201d from Wadh to Quetta to protest the arrests of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) chief organiser Dr Mahrang Baloch and other leaders as well as police crackdowns on a sit-in. However, the Quetta administration has denied the BNP-M permission to go ahead with its rally.<\/p>\n
Marchers and motorists from different political parties had started their journey to Quetta from Mengal\u2019s native town of Wadh at around 9am on Friday. Earlier today, the BNP-M claimed that over 250 of its activists were detained as its march was met with police action near Mastung.<\/p>\n
As reports of a blast near the BNP-M\u2019s rally emerged at around 1pm, Mengal said on X that he was \u201csafe with all party workers\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Balochistan government spokesperson Shahid Rind said the same: \u201cAccording to reports, there has been no loss of life. Sardar Akhtar Mengal and the entire BNP-M leadership is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spokesperson noted that the BNP-M\u2019s sit-in was underway near the site of the \u201calleged suicide blast\u201d and that the public would soon be informed about the results of an inquiry into the incident.<\/p>\n
The official assured the party that the safety of the rally\u2019s participants, Mengal and other leaders was the provincial government\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n
Rind said the Balochistan government was in contact with the party\u2019s leadership since last night. According to him, a delegation of the BNP-M also met with the local administration on Friday night, after which it was agreed that a government delegation would meet with Mengal.<\/p>\n
The government called on Mengal, his party and the public to cooperate with it and \u201chelp in improving the situation through talks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mastung Assistant Commissioner (AC) Akram Harifal told Dawn.com that Levies personnel stationed at Luck Pass spotted a suspicious individual and attempted to stop him, but he tried to flee.<\/p>\n
The Levies officials pursued him, and as a result, the suicide bomber blew himself up. No other loss of life occurred, AC Harifal added. He stated that security arrangements near the rally site had been intensified, with additional Levies personnel deployed.<\/p>\n
However, addressing supporters at Mastung later, Mengal claimed that four participants from the rally were injured in the blast. \u201cWe have no threat from any group. If we have any threat, it is from the state,\u201d the BNP-M leader alleged.<\/p>\n
The BNP-M president asserted that the government wanted to worsen the situation, but his protest would \u201ccontinue peacefully\u201d.<\/p>\n
BNP-M President Sardar Akhtar Mengal addresses supporters near Mastung on March 29, 2025. \u2014 screengrab via video from author
\nResponding to the government\u2019s offer of talks, Mengal reiterated his demand for BYC leaders and supporters to be freed: \u201cOur answer is that the middle way is the release of women.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRelease the arrested women, and we will return. I am ready to give my arrest in return for the release of women,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He further alleged that the media was being \u201ctold to not even look towards\u201d the rally, let alone cover it.<\/p>\n
BNP-M claims 250 held in police action
\nIn a post on X earlier today, the BNP-M claimed that more than 250 of its workers had been arrested while \u201cdozens have sustained injuries due to the actions of the security forces\u201d near Mastung\u2019s Luck Pass.<\/p>\n
The party alleged that law enforcement personnel had employed \u201cintense tear gas shelling\u201d against the participants, adding that its march paused at Luck Pass due to road blockades by containers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sardar Akhtar Mengal and other workers of his faction of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) remained unhurt on Saturday after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the party\u2019s rally at Mastung. Mengal had announced a \u201clong march\u201d from Wadh to Quetta to protest the arrests of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) chief organiser Dr Mahrang […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7578,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576\/revisions\/7578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}