Violence flared in number of towns and cities of Balochistan, including provincial capital Quetta, for the second consecutive day yesterday as hundreds of Baloch nationalists protested the killing of a powerful tribal chief by the security forces over the weekend. Protesters also resorted to violence in various parts of Karachi, including the low-income locality of Lyari, dominated by the Balochi people. They were furious over the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti in a fierce battle with the Pakistan army on Saturday in the remote mountainous area of Bhambore in Balochistan.A barber from Punjab province was killed when protesters attacked his shop in a small town, police said. Nine people were wounded in an exchange of fire with police elsewhere. "Violence has continued throughout the province, especially in Baloch-populated areas. Protesters have burnt government offices, shops and vehicles," provincial interior minister Shoaib Nausherwani said. "We're trying to control the situation peacefully but there have been clashes," he said.
Raziq Bugti, the spokesman of the Balochistan provincial government, said that rescue workers were trying to dig out the body of Bugti, 79, from the rubble. "The work has to be done very carefully because there is a fear of explosives in the cave, which collapsed when insurgents hiding in it attacked the security personnel who went inside to ask them to surrender," he told Gulf News over telephone from Quetta. However, we have sent heavy machines including bulldozers to remove the debris, he said.