October 21, 2024
By Shaukat Korai
KARACHI
Chaos marred what was otherwise a peaceful protest against enforced disappearances organized by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) on Sunday, October 20, as police personnel snatched up several demonstrators just as they were wrapping things up.
Since the past one week, Karachi Police have blocked all roads leading to the Karachi Press Club to prevent several demonstrations and gatherings. Earlier, the BYC had announced a protest against the October 16 disappearances of nine Baloch student activists, slated for Sunday outside the Club. Police, however, prevented the BYC from reaching the venue, following which the protesters staged their demo on the road adjacent to the KPC.
While the Committee was able to carry out its demonstration without any incident, things soon escalated once they announced an end to the protest, as police quickly arrived to sound sirens and began to forcefully disperse the already retreating participants. Police also briefly scuffled with the female protestants who tried to intervene as they began arresting BYC activists, including senior leader “Lala” Wahab Baloch.
Sammi Deen, another leader of the Committee as well as an activist for the recovery of missing persons, had her dupatta snatched by male police officers as she tried freeing Wahab Baloch.
Prior to his arrest, Wahab Baloch spoke to Voicepk.net and expressed his regret that they were not being allowed to hold a peaceful protest against the arrest of Baloch students.
“The BYC called a 12-day protest against the enforced disappearance of nine Baloch students who were picked up from Karachi. Our first protest is being held in Karachi,” he explained. “But when we arrived here, we saw that all roads to the press club have been blocked and we are being barred from holding a demonstration.”
Sammi Deen Baloch held that the BYC was only exercising their right to protest peacefully but were instead being besieged by the police.
“We are surrounded by a heavy contingent of police personnel; earlier we tried reaching the press club, but they stopped us and pushed us back so now we are holding our protest at the market’s chowk against the recent spate of disappearances in Balochistan,” she said. “Only our protest has been halted. A couple of other demonstrations were allowed to proceed, and only ours was stopped because we are talking about the rights of the Baloch people.”
Nasir Mansoor, an activist and General Secretary of the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), said that thwarting protests in an era of democracy is reprehensible.
“I have seen both Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf’s eras during which civil workers were indeed manhandled. But what I am seeing being done to activists in this era is nothing like before,” he said. “The Baloch, Pashtuns, and Sindhis are all asking for the right to live, but far from protecting the basic rights of the people, they are being abducted and killed.”
President of the BYC’s Karachi Chapter, Fozia Baloch, also lamented the arrest of their workers after they had already concluded their protest.
“We were prevented from protesting at the press club, so we took our rally to the mobile market in Saddar. We travelled on foot, but the police followed us here and picked up our comrades,” she said. “We only wanted to register our protest; we did not even enter the Red Zone.”
Wahab Baloch and other arrested members of the BYC were presented before a court on Monday, October 21. After hearing arguments from the police and the activists’ lawyers, the court ordered the immediate release of all detained protestors.