JI asks govt to pay heed to demands of Gwadar protesters

ISLAMABAD: As the Gwadar sit-in entered into fourth day on Friday, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) called upon the government to listen to the demands of the protestors and address their grievances.

“Thousands of the residents of the area are not making illogical demands. They have long been protesting for their rights but the authorities never paid any heed to the problems of the poor and deprived masses,” JI Secretary General Ameerul Azim said in a statement on Friday.

He said the JI would raise the issue at the Islamabad’s sit-in scheduled to be staged on November 28. He warned the government against outcomes if it continued to ignore the due demands of the protestors. It was part of the history that the people resorted to violence after losing their trust on the democratic system, he added.

Meanwhile, the sit-in of thousands of people in the Gwadar district of Balochistan, staged on the appeal of the JI Balochistan chapter Ameer Maulana Hidayatur Rahman, entered into fourth day against what they said unnecessary check-posts and presence of fishing trawlers in the area.

A large number of people are sitting at the Gwadar Port main highways and they have refused to leave the site without fulfilment of their demands. The majority of the protestors included the local fishermen, who say they lost their source of income due to the presence of fishing trawlers in the area, which came from Karachi for fishing with large boats having water nets.