Aurat March says Karachi police briefly detain activist from KPC ahead of talk on Baloch ‘disappearances’ – Pakistan

Police briefly detained a female rights activist from outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Thursday, an organiser of Aurat March said.

The detention came ahead of a press conference by the Aurat March, which was scheduled for 3pm over the alleged “abduction” of two Baloch girls.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) member Qazi Khizar said activist Sara was taken by the police from outside the KPC. Within a few hours, Aurat March confirmed to Dawn that she had been released.

Dawn has reached out to the police for a comment on the detention.

Ahead of the press conference, the Karachi police also heightened security, with a considerable number of women personnel present outside the KPC, a Dawn correspondent reported.

Roads leading to the KPC had been closed off briefly but were reopened by about 5pm.

Senior journalist Dodal Chandio said in a post on Facebook that “police stopped the Aurat March women who were to hold a press conference” outside the KPC.

The police “misbehaved” with activist Sheema Kirmani, he added. In the video he shared, Kirmani could be heard saying, “You have no right to touch me. How dare you touch me?”

The video also showed policewomen grabbing another woman’s hand to detain her, as Kirmani told the cops that the woman was a reporter. As the tussle between them and the police continued, the woman said, “Let go of my hand. This is not a legal process.”

In other videos that surfaced on social media, the woman identified herself as Shakeela and a member of “JMDC, Joint Minority Development”. She showed a “slip” issued to her for the press conference, which was being attended by “10 people” from her group.

Journalist Zofeen Ebrahim, who was barred from attending the press conference, recalled to Dawn: “Police stationed outside KPC stopped me and asked me where I was going.

“I told them I am here for the press conference, to which they said that it is not going to happen,” she continued.

Ebrahim said that when she tried to make her way towards the KPC and was stopped by the police, she called the organisers to ask whether the press conference had been cancelled. “They also did not know what was going on,” she said.

“Some other women who were trying to enter were stopped at the gate as well,” the journalist added.

She also shared a video on X, asking, “What’s happening to my city, my country?”

In a press release issued yesterday, Aurat March had said their press conference would “address the escalating pattern of enforced disappearances in Balochistan — particularly the alarming rise in the abduction of Baloch women and girls”.

“The 4th Schedule has become a tool of coercion in Balochistan, with women — many of them entirely unaffiliated with activism — being placed on the list and denied freedom of movement,” the statement read.

On November 27, police had detained 24 PTI leaders and workers following a protest at KPC to voice their concerns over former prime minister Imran Khan’s well-being.

A week before that, the police had detained about half a dozen people to prevent them from moving towards the venue of a scheduled protest by the opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) against the 27th Constitutional Amendment.

In March, Karachi police had arrested six people at Fawara Chowk as the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) attempted to reach the KPC for a protest against the arrests of its leadership.

Civil society seeks recovery of Mahjabeen Baloch, teenage Nasreen Baloch

Mahjabeen, the daughter of Ghulam Mustafa and a student of the University of Balochistan, was picked up from Quetta Civil Hospital in May, as per the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) Chairman Nasrullah Baloch.

Activist Mahjabeen, who is disabled by polio, was “abducted” from the premises of Civil Hospital, four days after her brother, who had gone “missing” a few months back, was released by authorities, said one organiser.

Scheduled to start at 3pm, the press conference began approximately 20 minutes later as the organisers said they were “stopped by the police” at the gate of the KPC.

At the outset, Kirmani said she was “grabbed and pushed around” by police outside and questioned why the state was stopping them from holding a press conference.

“What right did the state have to stop them from demanding the recovery of young Baloch girls?” she asked.

“Are you a fascist government or a democratic government? What are you scared of?” Kirmani said furiously, adding that by meting out such treatment, the state was creating an atmosphere of hatred.

Aurat March organiser Moneeza Ahmed asked, “Why are the families of Nasreena and Mahjabeen not even being allowed to ask the state about the whereabouts of their daughters?”

She alleged that the state was attempting to intimidate activists and families of the missing young girls. “To what extent is the state willing to go?” Ahmed wondered.

Kirmani claimed that police had also attempted to arrest BYC activist Sammi Deen Baloch as she made her way to the press conference.

“The Baloch women have repeatedly stated that they have no relation to BLA, yet the state continues to harass them,” she lamented, referring to the banned so-called Baloch Liberation Army.

Khizer, the vice chairman of the HRCP’s Sindh chapter, addressing the press conference, noted that “at the moment, KPC is surrounded by police from every corner”. “This is fear,” he added.

He stressed that the “young Baloch girls fighting for their rights and those [militants] in remote mountains were not the same”.

“The state has now resorted to picking up young girls,” he alleged, expressing his disappointment.

Kirmani called on the government to “negotiate”, asking, “Why should they not know where their daughters are?”

“Seven months have gone by ever since she has been gone, and we don’t know anything,” she said, referring to Mahjabeen. “Why are we not allowed to ask about their whereabouts?” she questioned.

The activists demanded the “immediate recovery and safe return of both the girls, an end to enforced disappearances, protection for families of missing persons, and transparency from state institutions”.