ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: An ethnic Baloch activst leader said on Thursday protesters marching to draw attention to what they call a campaign of ‘enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings’ in their home province of Balochistan had been blocked by authorities from entering the federal capital and arrested, with police confirming they had taken demonstrators into custody.
The over 1,600 km long march is being led by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) under Dr. Mahrang Baloch, 30, who became an activist when she was still a teenager after what she says were the enforced disappearances and custodial deaths of her father and brother.
The march started from Turbat district in the southwestern Balochistan province on December 6, where protests have been ongoing since last month over the alleged extrajudicial killing of a 24-year-old ethnic Baloch man. The killing has renewed debate over extrajudicial detentions and deaths in Balochistan where such incidents are not uncommon, though state agencies deny complicity. The province has been the scene of a low-level separatist insurgency for decades.
In widely shared social media posts, the BYC said the protesters, who reached the outskirts of Islamabad on Wednesday evening and had planned a demonstration at the National Press Club in the heart of the federal capital, were blocked by police from entering the city and arrested.
In an X post on Thursday morning, Dr. Baloch, the protest leader, said arrested protesters were being moved to different police stations in the city.
“At this time they are taking women and children to another station. We are unable to connect to our male fellows, we fear that the state will abduct them.”
Police said it had arrested protesters because they pelted officers with stones and were blocking roads.
“Police retaliated and arrested several protesters,” Islamabad police said in a statement, which did not specify how many people had been arrested. “Legal action will be taken against those blocking the road.”
Police warned citizens against being “part of any illegal assembly or violent demonstration” and asked women and children to stay “away from violent protests.”
In an audio message sent to Arab News before reaching Islamabad, Baloch said dozens of young Baloch had been forcefully disappeared in the last many decades, but now “a new wave of extrajudicial killings” had started:
“Family members of all the disappeared have come together to instill fresh strength in this movement,” she said, describing the long march.
The Balochistan and federal governments have not commented on the latest events surrounding the arrival of the march in Islamabad and the arrest of protesters.
Last month, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Balochistan issued a statement, seen by Arab News, saying Balach Baloch, the man killed in Turbat, had confessed in custody to being a militant and carrying out a number of attacks. He was arrested on Nov. 20, as per the statement, in possession of five kilograms of explosive materials.
Balach was later killed in a raid on a militant hideout in the city of Turbat, the CTD said. The killing unleashed sit-ins and strikes across the province. Balach’s family has refuted CTD claims saying he was not involved in any unlawful activities but was picked up by the CTD on Oct. 29 and later killed in a “fake encounter.”
Political leaders, human rights activists and families of victims have for decades spoken against killings in Balochistan by security agencies in staged encounters, a practice where officials claim the victim was killed in a gunfight though they were summarily executed. Authorities deny involvement in such incidents.
