Pakistani forces compel Baloch drivers to march through desert: Report

Pakistani forces allegedly forced several drivers from the ethnic minority areas of Balochistan to abandon their vehicles and march through the desert to their homes in the Chagai district near the border with Afghanistan, local media reported.

According to reports, the Frontier Corps, one of Pakistan's paramilitary forces, harassed and tortured the drivers before forcing them to leave their vehicles and march in the desert, leading to many of them dying of dehydration and starvation.

The reports emerge after violent protests were held in the Nokkundi and Dalbandin areas of the Chagai district against the killing of a driver allegedly by security forces after he tried to speed away despite being signalled to stop in the Panch Raik area near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Dawn reported.

Protestors expressed concerns about those left to fend for themselves and demanded that the authorities bring them back amid extremely hot weather.

"I with my few other friends travelled for six hours on foot and luckily found a vehicle in midway which brought us to Nokkundi. We were told by the security forces to leave the border area and go back," Habib, one of the protesters, told Dawn.

One video that reportedly belongs to the area, depicts at least three people lying in the sands in the middle of a desert.

Notably, the Chagai district is home to the Chairman of the Pakistani Senate, Sadiq Sanjrani who belongs to the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP). The district is also known for hosting the Pakistani nuclear test sites.

"The billion-dollar Reko Diq and Saindak copper-gold projects are located in Chagai. Still, poor people are dying of starvation and thirst in Chagai. This is how Balochistan is," Kiyya Baloch, a freelance journalist said in a tweet.

( With inputs from ANI )