KARACHI: Police picked up around 65 participants of a rally held in Lyari to express solidarity with the Baloch Yakjehti Council (BYC’s) sit-in in Islamabad a day before and booked them in multiple cases pertaining to rioting, it emerged on Saturday.

“Over 50 protesters have been arrested in Lyari and booked under relevant sections of laws,” confirmed DIG-South Syed Asad Raza.

One of the cases against 15 of the 65 held persons at the Chakiwara police station was registered under Sections 147 (rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 290 (punishment for public nuisance) and 341(punishment for wrongful restraint) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Another official, who wished not to be named, said that police high-ups had given strict directions to SSPs of City and Keamari to not allow any gathering by Baloch activists on Friday.

An elaborate security plan was in place at Lyari’s Ath Chowk as two platoons of anti-riot police, two prison vans and water cannon were deployed there.

The Kalri police arrested 15 when the protesters tried to assemble at Ath Chowk on Friday evening.

Separately, the SHOs of the Mauripur, Pak Colony and Mochko police stations had set up pickets to prevent protestors from assembling and heading towards Ath Chowk. A total of 25 individuals were arrested by the three police stations.

The official said that mostly women and children assembled at the venue as they reached there through various streets. Many other participants reached Lyari from Malir and East districts as well as from Hub. However, the police took action, stopped the rally and confiscated some buses and sound system.

However, the official said that women and children were not detained.

Meanwhile, the FIR registered at the Chakiwara police station on behalf of the state said that around 300 women and 150 men took out a rally against ‘Baloch genocide’ and police attitude towards participants of a sit-in in Islamabad.

It said the protesters chanted slogans and allegedly resorted to rioting by pelting stones and disrupting vehicular traffic. When the police attempted to disperse them, the protestors chanted slogans. The police also booked around 400 unnamed men and women in the case.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2024