The Islamabad High Court (IHC) inquired of the capital’s police chief on Friday why the Baloch protesters, who faced harsh police action a day earlier, were being forcefully sent back to Quetta.
IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq while hearing a petition filed by Baloch protesters against unlawful detention and their right to protest questioned why these individuals were being forced to go back home after the police crackdown. ̶0;They can stay in Islamabad, protest, or go back home. The choice is theirs,” the chief high court judge observed while addressing Islamabad Inspector General (IG) Akbar Nasir.
Two days earlier, the Islamabad police employed brutal force against Baloch demonstrators protesting enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings in Balochistan. Over 200 protesters were detained, subjected to tear gas, water cannons, and police batons. Human rights organisations, politicians, and analysts strongly condemned these actions. By evening, the government claimed that 90% of the detained Baloch individuals had been released, excluding those ̶0;unidentified” by the police. However, during a petition seeking the release of the detained protesters, it was revealed that over 50 Baloch women protesters were reported missing after the police action.
The protestors were represented by lawyers Ataullah Kundi and Imaan Mazari among others. During the hearing, the court directed the representatives of the protesters and their counsels to approach the Islamabad SSP (Investigation) to record their version and requested a report from the police. Detailing the police’s ‘highhandedness’, Kundi said that the protestors were bundled into buses to be sent ‘back home’, on the purported orders of the prime minister.
Expressing displeasure over the police’s actions, the IHC CJ asked who was present in court to represent the police. A police officer presented himself. Irked by the representative not being the Islamabad IG, Chief Justice Farooq summoned the police chief in half an hour. Later, appearing before the court, IG Nasir said that he had arranged for the transport for protestors. Justice Farooq took exception to the police chief’s statement, again stressing that the protestors could stay wherever they wanted to. He then asked the IG where the protestors were being kept. At this, IG Nasir informed the court that the women were staying at a hostel in I-10. At this point, Kundi informed the court of the IG miscommunicating the release and whereabouts of the protestors a day earlier. The court instructed the police chief to oversee the matter and inform the counsels of the detainees’ whereabouts, release women at the I-10 hostel, and stated that a detailed order will follow.
The next hearing will be conducted by Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb. A day earlier, the IHC Chief Justice had warned the Islamabad police chief against creating any hindrance in the protest, observing that the marchers had the constitutional right to stage a demonstration. Later, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar formed a three-member committee comprising of federal ministers for negotiations with the BYC representatives.
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