A prominent local leader in Pakistan’s Balochistan province has threatened to close from July 21 the strategic Gwadar Port, a major project under the CPEC that provides China an opening to the Arabian Sea, if the demands agreed by the provincial government, including banning the trawler mafia, are not met, a media report said on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference, Maulana Hidayatur Rehman Baloch, who led the Gwadar rights movement and is also the provincial general secretary of the Jamaat-e-Islami, said the port would be closed to register a protest against the government for not fulfilling the promises it made in the agreement signed in April this year for ending a month-long sit-in in the port city.
He said that the main demands of the Gwadar rights movement were: to free the coast of Balochistan from trawler mafia, open border points in Gwadar, eliminate drug trafficking and remove unnecessary check-posts, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Baloch, who has led rallies in the past, has criticised the government, saying that despite the deployment of various security agencies, hundreds of illegal trawlers were involved in illegal fishing in Balochistan’s waters, depriving local fishermen of their livelihood.