ISLAMABAD: A global human rights advocacy group on Monday raised concern over the arrest of protesters from Balochistan marching toward Islamabad to highlight the issue of extrajudicial killings in their province, asking the Pakistani authorities to drop all charges against them.
The march began after people in the country’s southeastern town of Turbat accused officials of the provincial Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of killing 24-year-old Balach Baloch in November after arresting him on charges of possessing five kilograms of explosive material.
Baloch’s family and members of the civil society held a sit-in in Turbat for about two weeks to protest what they called his “custodial death” and demanded action against the CTD officials. The protesters, including women and children, set out on a 766-kilometer-long march to the provincial capital of Quetta earlier this month before deciding to move on to Islamabad.
According to Amnesty International, at least 20 of these people were arrested on December 17 while they were moving from Dera Ghazi Khan district in the Punjab province.
“The protesters have been released,” the international rights organization said. “However, 3 separate cases against the organizers and participants have been filed.”
“Amnesty International demands that the Pakistani authorities immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against all those charged solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression,” it added.
It also demanded an impartial investigation of all extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan, in line with international standards.
The global rights organization also urged Pakistani authorities to compensate families of victims of extrajudicial killings and those forcibly disappeared.
Pakistan has frequently faced allegations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the province of Balochistan, though its governments have always denied these allegations.
The province shares a porous border with Iran and Afghanistan and has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baloch nationalists for nearly two decades.