ISLAMABAD: As Baloch protesters remain encamped outside the National Press Club to press authorities for the acceptance of their demands, some unidentified armed men on Monday night barged into the camp – right under the nose of the police – and took away the sound system used by the demonstrators.

Despite denial of any involvement or knowledge of the incident by the relevant authorities, including the Islamabad police and the ICT administration, social media was flooded with footage of plain-clothed people escaping the camp with the sound system in a white double-cabin vehicle. The footage by the participants of the camp was uploaded at around 3:30am. In the morning, Dr Mahrang Baloch narrated to the media that at midnight, while the women and children were asleep, some masked men arrived at the camp in a white vehicle, armed with guns.

“They harassed the people at the sit-in camp and stole the speaker and fled,” she said and added that all this was happening in the presence of the Islamabad police which had cordoned the area around the camp with barbed wires.

Ironically, the recently installed surveillance cameras in front of the camp for ‘the security of the protesters’ were not working at night, said police and ICT officials.

Participants say armed men stole sound system, harassed protesters

Besides in the morning, Dr Mahrang also confronted Magistrate Zeeshan Babar posted at the site in the presence of the media, as soon as he arrived at the press club. She said, “You were here to protect us but now you say that nobody knows who raided the place and took our equipment.”

While the officer expressed ignorance about the incident, the BYC leader demanded that he should inquire about the incident and inform everyone about the persons involved in the incident.

“We were sleeping with the portraits of our missing relatives when the incident happened and the children started crying; people even made the footage of the raid,” she said,

Talking to Dawn, Dr Mahrang said such pressure tactics would not bog down their struggle for the recovery of missing persons. She did not comment on the future course of action after the expiry of her movement’s three-day ultimatum.

According to the BYC, the police were using different tactics to harass the long marchers, and now they have installed surveillance cameras to threaten the peaceful protesters and families of Baloch missing persons.

Over the incident, the officers of the capital police and administration remained mum. They expressed ignorance and even denied that such an incident took place in which the sound system of the Baloch protesters was stolen.

Activists and mediapersons, including anchorperson Hamid Mir, visited the camp Tuesday morning and expressed sympathies with the protesters. “We condemn terror acts in Balochistan – but there is a need to condemn those who violated the Constitution, derailed democracy and even the judiciary provided relief to them,” Hamir Mir said, adding, “But there is no relief to the old poor lady sitting there helplessly seeking the return of her son.”

He added this was unfortunate “instead of listening to the woes of the citizens the state was dealing with them through such lowly tactics of raiding the camp like robbers”.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2023