KARACHI: The chairperson of a leading rights body in Pakistan said he was detained by police in Karachi on Thursday who questioned him for raising his voice for the people of oppressed communities, particularly those from Balochistan.
Asad Iqbal Butt, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) told Arab News police officials arrived at his house around noon on Thursday and took him to meet the Station House Officer (SHO) at Karachi’s Gulberg Police Station.
Butt said the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) at the Gulberg station asked him whether he frequently visited Quetta to organize the Baloch rights movement.
“I explained that the movement organizes itself and we support them when they face injustice, as we do for oppressed people of any ethnicity,” Butt said.
Enforced disappearances is an enduring issue in Pakistan where relatives, politicians, and rights activists say many people who have gone missing, especially in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, have been abducted by Pakistani security forces on the pretext of fighting militancy.
The Pakistani state denies involvement in enforced disappearances.
Butt said the police official accused him of having ties to the Baloch people. The HRCP chief said he responded to the DSP by telling him that he had ties to “oppressed people of every ethnicity, region, and religion.”
“I believe I was taken to police station because HRCP issued a strong statement on the Bannu issue,” Butt said, referring to last week’s shooting at a peace rally in Bannu that triggered a stampede, killing at least two and injuring 20 others.
He said another reason for his detention could be that the HRCP is trying to prevent people from Karachi’s Lyari area, who wanted to attend an upcoming protest rally for “missing persons” in southwestern Gwadar city, from being detained by police.
“They feared I would speak out, and HRCP’s support carries weight when it speaks,” he said.
Karachi police officials did not respond to a request for a comment.
