- Families protested military abandonment after 21 police officers died.
- They accused military of leaving officers and taking credit.
- Military personnel allegedly snatched bodies from families for credit.
- Protesters raised anti-military slogans, continue demonstrating on Quetta roads.
Massive chaos erupted at the Civil Hospital in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, as family members of 21 deceased police officers launched fierce protests against the Pakistani military. The officers were killed in an attack by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the Ziarat region. The unrest broke out during the post-mortem procedures when authorities attempted to move the bodies from the Civil Hospital to the Quetta Police Lines for burial preparations.
Families Accuse Military of Abandonment and Credit Theft
Grieving family members leveled severe allegations against the Pakistani armed forces, claiming that the military left the police officers alone to fight the TTP militants. According to the families, no force or backup was dispatched for three hours during the attack. Furthermore, relatives stated that after the TTP militants took the bodies of the slain officers, the military made no effort to search for them. The families spent the entire subsequent day searching for and retrieving the bodies themselves.
However, tensions boiled over when personnel from the Frontier Corps (FC) a paramilitary wing of the Pakistani Army allegedly snatched the bodies from the relatives in Ziarat to falsely show that they had discovered the deceased police officers.
Following this, the bodies were brought to Quetta’s Civil Hospital, where authorities attempted to take them to the police lines instead of handing them over to the families.
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“Uniform Behind Terrorism” Slogans Raised
Angered by the military’s actions and the handling of the bodies, the families of the deceased officers caused a massive uproar outside and inside the Civil Hospital, chasing away the Frontier Corps personnel present at the scene. A crowd of thousands gathered at the spot and raised anti-military slogans, chanting “Yeh jo dehshatgardi hai, iske peeche wardi hai” (The uniform is behind this terrorism) and “Shame, Shame.”
Local residents expressed that the Pakistani military’s actions against ordinary people in Balochistan are driving up terrorist attacks, leaving the police caught in the crossfire. The families have taken custody of the bodies and continue to protest on the roads of Quetta.
