ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), Thursday, directed the Inspector General (IG) of Islamabad police to submit a report before the court today (Friday) regarding arrest of Baloch students and activists and denying them permission to protest.
A single bench of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq issued the directions while hearing a petition moved by Sammi Deen Baloch and Abdul Salam through their counsel Imaan Mazari.
During the hearing, IG Islamabad Akbar Nasir appeared before the court and submitted the details regarding the arrested Baloch protestors.
Justice Aamer remarked that there was no restriction on protests in the federal capital. He added that these people did not commit any terrorism and they have marched on Islamabad because their relatives are missing.
He asked the IG why police have arrested the participants of the long-march. The IG replied that they have been holding the march for the last 25 days. He added that a day ago, more people came in eight to nine vehicles while some of them were armed and they tried to enter the Red Zone.
He further said that the protestors also pelted stones when the police stopped them.
The IG informed the court that the participants blocked the road for six hours and they were asked to move to some specific place but they refused to do so. He told that the protestors were not permitted to go to D-Chowk due to security situation in the federal capital.
At that, Justice Aamer remarked that peaceful protest is the right of every citizen.
The IG said the cases were registered against the protestors when they pelted stones on the police. He added that there is no woman included in the people taken into custody and the arrested women had already been released. He informed that the police have arrested 215 people in these cases.
The counsel for petitioners informed that some 50 women of the protest are missing. The IG told the court that there were some 70 women and children who were taken into custody but they all have been released and they will be sent where they want to go.
The chief justice said there are many reports that the people became victim of enforced disappearance after their arrest. He told the IG that it should not happen in the current case. He directed the IG to cooperate with the counsel of the petitioners and provide the details of the arrested persons.
Later, the IHC bench deferred the hearing until today (Friday) and directed the counsel to remain in contact with the SSP Islamabad as she had alleged that some of the protesting women are missing after their arrest.
According to Imaan Mazari, the petitioners are law-abiding citizens of Pakistan - students and activists - striving for the rights of Balochistan forcibly disappeared and seeking justice for families of victims of extrajudicial executions in Balochistan.
Petitioners added that they being citizens of Pakistan and while exercising their fundamental right of speech and assembly on 20.12.2023 participated in the "Long March against Baloch genocide", which left Turbat for Islamabad on 6 December after alleged extrajudicial execution of Baloch youth, Balach Baloch, by the Counter Terrorism Department, Balochistan.
They said that the long march against Baloch genocide is a grass-roots movement, led primarily by Baloch women and youth, and organised by the Baloch Yekjehti Committee (BYC), that has travelled from Khuzdar to Quetta; then to Kohlu, Barkhan, DG Khan, Taunsa Sharif, Dera Ismail Khan, finally arriving in Islamabad on the evening of 20.12.2023.
The petition said that key among the march organisers and participants is Mahrang Baloch, who is allegedly detained at the Ramna Police Station, along with at least nine other women, 15 men and one child (namely Ali Sher), without any charge.
It was alleged that families of several forcibly disappeared persons have also been whisked away to undisclosed locations including Mahzeb Baloch, Saira Baloch (who addressed this Court on 29.11.2023 in Writ Petition No 794/2022 about the forced disappearance of her two family members, Asif and Rasheed Baloch), Seema Baloch, and at least nine students, including at least two female students, namely, Noor Jehan Baloch and Sadia Baloch.
That on the evening of 20.12.2023, the long march against Baloch genocide arrived at the Islamabad Toll Plaza to be met with a huge contingent of armed police officials.
That simultaneously, the families of missing persons protesting for over twenty days outside National Press Club were also surrounded by police officials and threatened with arrest,†added the petition.
It further said that the petitioners, like all other peaceful protestors near the Toll Plaza and outside Press Club, being present in the sit-in demonstrations, fully observed the reasonability while exercising their right of freedom of expression and assembly.
The petitioners, like the hundreds of other peaceful Baloch protestors, marched from Turbat to Islamabad to be heard by the public functionaries but were instead subjected to indiscriminate use of force, while witnessing the arbitrary arrest of several Baloch youth, women and the elderly.
The petition said that at the time of filing the instant petition, the majority of organisers and participants of the March are being detained at various police stations across the Federal Capital, while many are in hospitals suffering the consequences of unprovoked use of water cannons and baton charge by Islamabad Police.
That despite peaceful demonstrations carried out by the Baloch protestors, the Islamabad Police, without any lawful reason and justification, began baton charge and use of water canons against unarmed protestors. In the freezing cold temperature of the Federal Capital, mothers, daughters and sisters of the forcibly disappeared were subjected to the use of water canons simply for attempting to voice their long-standing grievances against the illegal and unconstitutional practice of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions,†added the petition.
It continued that this indiscriminate, arbitrary and excessive use of force by law enforcement personnel has violated the fundamental rights of the petitioners and other protestors whose rights of expression and peaceful assembly are protected in the Constitution.
Therefore, the petitioners prayed that this court may declare that the acts of the respondents denying the right of speech and assembly to the organizers and participants of the "Long March against Baloch Genocide" illegal and unconstitutional and direct them to immediately release the unlawfully detained protestors.
They also requested the court to direct the respondents to furnish copies of FIRs registered against organisers and participants of the long march and direct the respondents not to harass, humiliate and act in a manner detrimental to the life and liberty of the petitioners and participants of the march.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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