NEWS CENTER - Following the deaths of 28 people in a Pakistani airstrike on a village, shops were shut and roads blocked across Balochistan in protest.

 

Pakistani fighter jets carried out an airstrike on Gundan village in the Surab district of Balochistan province at around 2 a.m. on August 12. Initial reports said at least 28 civilians were killed and dozens more were injured. The victims identified so far include nine children, seven women and twelve men. Following the attack, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) called for a province-wide shutter-down and wheel-jam strike, urging people to close their shops and halt traffic.

 

Following the call, daily life came to a near standstill across the province, including in Turbat, Quetta, Khuzdar, Mastung, Nushki, Surab and Kharan, some of Balochistan’s largest cities. Shops and businesses remained closed, markets were shuttered and the streets fell quiet. International highways running through the cities were also closed to traffic.

 

‘LIFE IN BALOCHISTAN HAS BECOME A LIVING HELL’

 

Commenting on the issue on its social media account, the BYC said: “Civilians are not military targets. People sleeping in their own homes are not combatants. When bombs fall on villages and the dead include women, children, and the elderly, it is not merely an operational outcome. It is a violation of the most basic protections every human being is entitled to. Life in Balochistan has become a living hell. Aerial bombardments, enforced disappearances, and unchecked military violence have turned ordinary existence into a daily negotiation with death. Families do not know whether their homes will still be standing by morning, whether their children will return, or whether their grief will even be acknowledged.”