Islamabad [Pakistan]: A London-based rights organisation strongly condemned the use of excessive force by the police to disperse peaceful protesters at a sit-in against the enforced disappearance of two Baloch students outside the Sindh Assembly in Karachi.
The Karachi police on Monday night arrested dozens of protesters, including women, who were staging a sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly against the abduction of the two missing students, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
Subsequently, several rights groups had called for the release of swift accountability for the use of excessive force at the protest.
“Amnesty International strongly condemns the use of excessive force by the police to disperse peaceful protesters at a sit-in against the enforced disappearance of two Baloch students outside the Sindh Assembly in Karachi,” the London-based group said in a Twitter post.
“Violently cracking down on families demanding answers to the whereabouts of their loved ones only compounds the cruelty of the heinous practice of enforced disappearances,” the group added.
According to Pakistan media reports, authorities’ heavy-handed approach against Baloch protesters went gone viral on social media as people call for action to be taken against police brutality.
Sanaullah Baloch, a member of the Balochistan Assembly, condemned the Sindh police’s “inhuman act of violence against the innocent and peaceful protesters.”
Prominent journalist Hamid Mir said the violence against the protestors was “unfortunate and unacceptable”.
Human rights activists allege that the law enforcement agencies in Pakistan are responsible for the cases of forced disappearance in Pakistan.
Enforced disappearances are used as a tool by Pakistani authorities to terrorize people who question the all-powerful army establishment of the country, or seek individual or social rights.
Cases of enforced disappearances have been majorly recorded in the Balochistan and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces of the country which host active separatist movements. (ANI)
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