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QUETTA: Protesters in Kalat, Balochistan vandalized and looted cargoes of imported tomatoes, officials said on Friday.
In Mangochar town, a number of farmers and growers barricaded the Quetta-Karachi national highway with rocks and barricades, halting traffic.
An officer claimed that demonstrators stopped a truck carrying Iranian-imported tomatoes and began stealing or hurling tomato cartons into the highway.
The demonstrators declared that they would not let tomato imports from Iran and that their harvest was prepared for market delivery while screaming anti-government chants.
During protest & blocking main highway, protesters in #Manguchar #Kalat #Balochistan are disposing/ wasting tomatoes 🍅 & onions imported from neighbouring country #Iran in order to control prices that had hone up because of flood devastation, pic.twitter.com/fF9s1B9a90
— Ibrar Ahmed (@Info_Balochistn) September 8, 2022
Soon after the occurrence, Levies troops and members of the local administration flocked to the scene to take control of the situation.
The protest’s organizer, the Balochistan Zamindars Association, condemned the tomato poaching and distanced itself from the occurrence.
Haji Abdul Aziz, a spokesperson of the group, stated that “our protest was peaceful” and added, “We have nothing to do with the incident.”
According to the association, local farmers would suffer considerable financial losses as a result of the importation of tomatoes and other vegetables from Iran and Afghanistan since their product, which was ready for the market, would not sell for the correct price.
It has requested that these imports be suspended until the local tomato harvest is available for purchase.
In order to cut the exorbitant prices of both crops in the local market, several trucks filled with tomatoes and onions travelled from Iran and Afghanistan to Pakistan through the Taftan and Chaman border crossing.
After flash floods destroyed huge portions of crops, tomato and onion prices skyrocketed, forcing the government to permit imports from nearby nations to reduce prices.
