City hostage: cops in protest beat public, ransack property

Intended to demand an increase in their salaries, thousands of armed policemen in Balochistan’s provincial capital, Quetta, took to the streets. Initially, everyone viewed it as a routine exercise of democratic right envisaged in a political dispensation. Public perceptions proved wrong. The policemen forcefully blocked all roads; burnt tyres, broke traffic single lights, shattered windowpanes of various vehicles. As thick smoke became visible from all four directions of the city, the protesting policemen reassured themselves that they had terrorized the whole city. Carrying clubs in one hand and pistols in the other, they slapped civilians, damaged motor cycles and smashed cars. Thousands of people stranded on the roads were disallowed to go home. Women, children, elderly citizens, hungry, thirsty, ailing and wailing passengers were subjected to inhuman treatment.