ISLAMABAD: Dozens of rights activists from Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province issued a three-day ultimatum to the authorities in Islamabad on Saturday, seeking the release of their supporters and demanding the dismissal of all the cases against them while threatening to continue a sit-in until all their demands were met.
The Islamabad Police on Thursday arrested over 200 Baloch demonstrators, including women and children, who were rallying in the federal capital against what they called “enforced disappearances” and “genocide” of ethnic Baloch people in the resource-rich province.
The arrests were made only days after Dr. Mahrang Baloch, 30, led a 1,600-kilometer march from Pakistan’s Turbat district in Balochistan to Islamabad, under the banner of Baloch Yakjehti – or Solidarity – Committee (BYC).
The march was initiated after a 24-year-old resident of Turbat, Balach Baloch, was killed in the custody of the provincial Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) that said he had links with militants and was involved in a number of attacks in the region. However, his family and civil society activists denied the CTD claim and described it as a case of extrajudicial murder.
“We are issuing a three-day ultimatum to state for the withdrawal of [cases] registered against peaceful protesters and releasing the 100-plus Baloch students, whose status is still missing and who were arrested by the police in Islamabad during a crackdown,” Dr. Baloch said in a news conference.
Otherwise, she added, “the long march will be compelled to take harsh steps and the state and its administration shall be responsible for this.”
Dr. Baloch said the police arrested some 350 students and activists during the crackdown while 33 of them had been granted bail the next day.
“More than 250 of our students are still in jail,” she continued. “Out of which, more than 100 have still not been presented before any court and their status is missing.”
The arrests were made after clashes broke out between the marchers and the police on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital. While the protesters said the police attacked their peaceful rally, Islamabad’s top cop said some demonstrators had pelted stones at the law enforcers.
Dr. Baloch vowed to continue the movement “in the form of a sit-in at the National Press Club, Islamabad, till our demands are met.”
“We are persistent and will resist politically till our last breath,” she added.
Some fifty families of the Baloch missing persons have joined the sit-in, carrying the portraits of their loved ones who they claimed had either been killed or picked up by the security agencies. Most of the protesters include Baloch students who are enrolled in different universities in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad Police said in a statement it had presented 162 arrested Baloch protesters before a judicial magistrate, Mureed Abbas, and they had all been granted bail and released.
The police said that around 200 protesters had gathered in a ground outside the National Press Club and had been allowed to hold “peaceful protest” as per the rules and regulations.
“It is not permitted to take out a rally or gathering toward the high security zone,” the police said, adding that dozens of male and female police personnel had been deployed there for protection of the demonstrators.
Political leaders, human rights activists and families of victims have for decades spoken against killings in Balochistan by security agencies in what they call staged encounters, a practice where officials claim the victims were killed in a gunfight though they were summarily executed.
Authorities deny involvement in such incidents.