Pakistan: Baloch protestors accuse Islamabad Police of switching off sound system to disrupt protest
Dec 28, 2023
Islamabad [Pakistan], December 28 : The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which is organising the Baloch protest march in Islamabad, accused the police of sabotaging their seminar preparations by switching off their sound system, Dawn reported.
The development comes days after hundreds of participants in the long march were detained by the Islamabad Police, which the police said had subsequently been released in batches earlier this week. However, the BYC alleges several protesters were still in custody.
In one of the videos shared by BYC, Mahrang Baloch, a Baloch protestor demanding an end to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of Baloch people, was seen requesting a policeman to leave and not disrupt their protest, according to Dawn.
Rights activist Sammi Deen Baloch posted a video of the speakers being lifted and taken away as the crowd looked on.
The march, which started in Turbat on December 6 after the alleged 'extrajudicial killing' of a Baloch youth by Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officials, had reached the federal capital on December 20.
The Islamabad Police had subsequently used "brutal force" to disperse and detain the demonstrators, with over 200 taken into custody from different areas of the federal capital, Dawn reported.
The action was strongly condemned by human rights organisations, politicians, the Islamabad High Court (IHC), President Arif Alvi and caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.
Later on December 24, the Islamabad Police said the bail of all detained Baloch protesters had been approved and they were being released.
However, on Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court, while hearing a petition filed by Baloch protesters against unlawful detention, was informed that 34 protesters were still in the custody of the police.
Islamabad HC Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb had pointed out that the "police were not treating them like other groups," including those who staged public gatherings in the Red Zone, Dawn reported.
He asked the police not to harass the protesters and allow them to stage their peaceful protest.
The SSP operations subsequently informed the court that they could be released after the identification parade was completed. The court directed the police to complete the process and sought a report by December 29.
But the Islamabad Police is yet to issue a statement addressing the claims made by the Baloch protesters regarding purported disruptions caused by the local police in the organisation of their seminar, Dawn reported.
