Baloch protesters accuse police of ‘disrupting’ seminar preparations in Islamabad
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), one of the groups organising the Baloch protest march in Islamabad, accused the police of sabotaging their seminar preparations in the capital, by allegedly switching off their sound system.
The BYC also shared videos of police at the venue outside the National Press Club. In one of the videos, Dr Mahrang Baloch, another organiser of the protest that is demanding an end to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of their community, can be heard requesting a policeman to leave and not disrupt their programme.
Rights activist Sammi Deen Baloch posted a video of the speakers being lifted and taken away as a crowd looks on.
At the venue, one of the organisers, Saira, from Khuzdar said: “We were going to hold a press conference but the police tried to take away the speakers and the participants.
“The police and the administration are panickig. There is no household in Balochistan that has not found a mutilated body. Institutions make our household members disappear before our very eyes.”
She lamented that previously mutilated bodies would be found, but now people are being “killed in fake encounters”.
The development comes days after hundreds of participants of the long march were detained by the capital police, which the police said had subsequently released in batches earlier this week. However, the BYC says several protesters were still in custody.
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 Dec 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. The action was strongly condemned by human rights organisations, politicians, the Islamabad High Court (IHC), President Dr Arif Alvi and caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar and analysts.
Later, the Islamabad police on Dec 24 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 custody of the police.
IHC 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.
He asked the police not to harass the protesters and allow them to stage their peaceful protest.
The SSP operations had 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 Dec 29.
The Islamabad police are 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.