"Haq Do Tehreek" Gawadar Balochistan by liaqatraza

For over 50 days, a sit-in protest outside the main entrance of the Gwadar port was ongoing before the protests turned violent during the last week of December, resulting in clashes between the police and the protesters. The sit-in was staged by the Haq Do Tehreek (Gwadar Rights Movement), which has emerged as a popular activist movement over the last couple of years in the city. Gwadar is lauded as the heart of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and widely seen as the main plank of China’s Road and Belt Initiative, but locals have long felt cut off from any benefits that status bestows on their hometown. Led by Maulana Hidayat ur Rehman, who has emerged as a popular leader among the masses, the demonstrators blocked the Gwadar East Bay Expressway, the key artery linking the port to Pakistan’s main highway network. Protests were also staged outside the under-construction New Gwadar International Airport.