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Aug 30, 7:14 AM EDT

Protesters Block Roads in South Pakistan


World Video

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- Protesters angry over the killing of a rebel tribal chief blocked highways Wednesday in southwestern Pakistan, preventing workers from reaching the provincial capital and forcing most shops to close.

Police said up to 700 people have been arrested since riots erupted Saturday over the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti, who led an often violent campaign for greater control by the Baluch tribespeople of natural resources extracted from their region. He was killed in a military raid on his cave hideout in Baluchistan.

Scores of protesters blocked two roads linking the Baluchistan capital of Quetta to the southern port city of Karachi, and one heading west to Iran, said Baluchistan police chief Chaudhry Mohammed Yaqoob.

Boulders and crudely erected barricades blocked another road linking Karachi with Gawadar, a remote Baluchistan town on the Arabian Sea coast, Yaqoob said.

The blockades prevented many workers from entering Quetta, forcing markets, banks and shops to close. Dozens of buses were parked at a terminal in Quetta unable to leave for Karachi and the eastern city of Lahore, according to an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene.

"More than 70,000 of our supporters are active across Baluchistan to record their protest against the killing of their beloved leader," said Habib Jalib, a leader of the Baluch Solidarity movement, an alliance of four political groups that ordered the highways blocked.

Police were in contact with Bugti supporters to try to open the roads, officials said.

There were no immediate reports of violence in Quetta. A day earlier, a memorial service for Bugti descended into violence as protesters threw hand grenades at police and set fire to 20 businesses. Four people were killed in the bombing of a restaurant, but it was unclear if the blast was linked to the protests.

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At least two people have been killed over four days of rioting that has seen scores of government buildings, businesses and vehicles burned.

Yaqoob said between 650 and 700 people have been arrested, though Jalib claimed police had detained about 850 supporters of his alliance.

The military has not retrieved Bugti's body from the rubble of the cave, whose roof collapsed in an unexplained explosion during the raid Saturday. Pakistani authorities have said they were sure Bugti was inside before the blast. The slain tribal leader's son has questioned claims by the government that his father's body is still trapped under the rubble.

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