Civil society in Karachi demanded on Monday the release of the leader of the Balochjehti (Byc) Sammi Deen Baloch committee, who has been detained during the past week after he directed a protest against the arrest of his colleague, Dr. Mahrang Baloch.
Sammi and another five were arrested last Monday for violating a newly imposed section. Although a judicial magistrate unloaded the activists and ordered their release the next day, Sammi was later arrested under the maintenance of the Public Order’s Ordinance (MPO) for 30 days.
Sammi’s sister, Mehlab Deen Baloch, flanked by renowned lawyer Jibran Nasir, activist Sheema Kermani and academic Nida Kirmani, among others, went to a press conference outside the Karachi Press Club on the first day of Eidul Fitr of today.
Mehlab, who says that his father was disappeared by force 15 years ago, recalled that Karachi’s protest earlier this week said: “Despite the court order for [Mahrang and others’] release, […] They were put behind bars under MPO3 for 30 days in the PPP directives [Sindh] government.”
She claimed that the PPP, although advocated for women’s right, “was not ready to give those rights to Baloch women.” He demanded that the cases against Sammi be annulled and released.
The press conference, which saw a thin assistance on the first day of Eidul Fitr, proceeded peacefully without obstructions, with the police (including the police) monitoring it from the opposite path.
“Political circles think they can silence us, but as long as the forced disappearances do not end, these voices cannot be silenced,” said Mehlab.
Talking with Dawn.comMehlab explained that she and her sister had been recording their protests outside the press clubs in Quetta and Karachi during the last 15 days.
“Eid’s day is much more difficult to spend for us than other days, so we only satisfy our slimeThe photo of the press club and talking about him, ”he said.
However, he added, this year was more difficult for her, since Sammi, her activist sister who often saw the main protests, was behind bars, leaving Mehlab and her mother to the helm.
“I have come here only with their two photos, and I ask the State and the authorities that recover my father and release my sister, who has been imprisoned without any crime,” Mehlab said Dawn.com.
Going to the press conference after her, Nasir, who at the day at the day attended an audience of a cybercrime crime widely criticized against the main journalist Farhan Malick, criticized government actions.
“After asking for 15 years, the answer he received (Sammi) was that ‘you will also be missing and put in jail,” said the lawyer. “What do we want to achieve (the government) through this injustice and oppression?” asked.
Nasir said that the majority of the public “does not even want to look towards the country’s leaders.” If you do not leave space to respect yourself, do not complain about future generations.
“Those who try to speak democratically and peacefully, talk to them,” he said, urging the government to interact with protesters.
Nasir cited the claims of Mahrang’s sister, Nadia Baloch, that her detained sister was not receiving food or hygienic water, which had worsened her health. “Even if we consider us criminals and prisoners, he bent down so low that he cannot even give us the rights of a prisoner.”
The renowned lawyer also said that such actions were not limited to the “calls peripheries” in Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when Malick’s arrest highlighted. “How did your eid pass? His wife, his daughter and friends were waiting for the judge to arrive at the Court in the morning.”
In an Instagram publication after the press conference, Nasir said that the arrests of Baloch activists were a “question sign about the government and the independence of the judiciary.” “What freedom would give a government and a judiciary confined in the chains of fear and interests of citizens?” He joked.
Also present at the press conference, Kermani asked: “Is it peacefully protesting a crime?
“The State must think about the results of what it is doing, and the results will be very bad because when women and children go to the streets, a revolution begins, what we are seeing right now,” added the activist.
