Families of four missing students from the Kech district of Balochistan blocked a China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) road to protest against their alleged kidnapping by Pakistani troops.

The families say that the four students were detained and taken to an unknown location by Pakistani forces as they were on their way to the Turbat University. Besides the families, thousands of Baloch students also are also carrying on with boycott of classes demanding the release of Hafeez Baloch, a missing MPhil student at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Kidnappings of Baloch people by the Pakistani intelligence agencies and military is a widespread problem. Activists say that hundreds of bodies are found thrown across Balochistan by State agencies or fundamentalist organisations acting on behalf of the Pakistani establishment.

Meanwhile, the Free Balochistan Movement (FBM) plans to hold protests in Germany and the UK to highlight the occupation of Balochistan on 27 March 1948. The FBM will protest in front of the British Prime Minister's residence while in Germany the protest will be held in Cologne city.

The Baloch people, who reside in south-west Pakistan say that Balochistan was forcibly annexed by Pakistan on 27 March 1948, against the will of the Baloch people. They commemorate 27 March as the ‘Occupation Day’ and have launched an armed struggle against Pakistan to free up their homeland.

The Baloch point out that they were an independent nation till the Pakistani army forcibly occupied it in March 1948. The FBM statement said: "March 27 was a dark day in the history of Balochistan as on this day the Pakistani army occupied the independent state of Balochistan at the point of gun and sword. From that day till today the Baloch nation has been resisting this illegal occupation".

Now the Baloch community also faces China as an added actor in the region with the CPEC becoming a mega symbol of exploitation of the Baloch people. The project, which aims at connecting China to the Arabian Sea through a network of road and rail cutting through Pakistan passes through Balochistan. The Baloch say that the CPEC has deprived the Baloch of dignity and taken away their livelihoods.