By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad police said on Sunday that they had released all the Baloch protesters who were detained during a demonstration earlier this week that demanded an end to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of ethnic Baloch people.
The move came after the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), the organizer of the long march, gave the authorities a three-day deadline to drop the charges against the protesters and release them unconditionally.
The committee had led a long march from Turbat, a city in the southwestern province of Balochistan, to Islamabad, the capital, to protest the alleged killing of a Baloch youth by the Counter-Terrorism Department in early December.
The march, which began on Dec. 6 and covered more than 1,000 miles, reached Islamabad on Wednesday.
But their peaceful demonstration was met with a violent crackdown by the police, who used tear gas, batons, and water cannons to disperse and detain them.
More than 200 protesters, including women and children, were taken into custody from different areas of the city. The police action drew widespread condemnation from human rights groups, politicians, the Islamabad High Court, President Arif Alvi, and caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.
On Thursday, the government said it had released 90 percent of the arrested Baloch protesters, but the BYC disputed the claim, saying only half of them had been granted bail and their release had been delayed.
The BYC also accused the police of torturing and harassing the detainees and violating their legal rights.
On Sunday, the police said in a statement that they had approved the bail of the remaining protesters after a meeting with a cabinet committee formed by the prime minister.
“Keeping in view the legal requirements, the bail of the arrested protesters has been approved. The detained protesters are being released,” the statement said.
The police also said that they had set up a special help center to facilitate the release of the detainees and that relatives of the protesters should contact the police for information and legal assistance.
Earlier in the day, the caretaker government said it was holding negotiations with the protesters and respecting their right to peaceful protest.
“We have ensured, on the orders of the prime minister, that no protesters are harmed, tortured, or harassed in any way,” Interior Secretary Aftab Akbar Durrani said in a statement.
He also said that the government would abide by the court order that advised the police to focus on controlling street crimes rather than cracking down on protesters.
The committee, however, said that its movement was not over and that it would continue to stage a sit-in outside the National Press Club in Islamabad until its demands were met.
“Nearly 250 of our students and activists are still in the custody of Islamabad police but our courage and hopes are high and this struggle shall continue,” the BYC said in a post on X, a social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Mahrang Baloch, one of the long march organizers, said that the status of more than 100 Baloch students was “missing” and they had not been produced before any court.
“If the students are not released and first information reports against peaceful protesters are not withdrawn, then the long march will be compelled to take harsh steps and the state will be responsible for this,” she wrote on X.
Balochistan, the largest and poorest province of Pakistan, has been plagued by a separatist insurgency and a military crackdown for decades. The Baloch people have long complained of discrimination and human rights violations by the state.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog, more than 2,000 people have gone missing in Balochistan since 2005. Many of them are believed to be victims of enforced disappearances by the security forces, who accuse them of being involved in the insurgency.
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