Red Zone action to ‘deter’ marchers

Islamabad police tell govt teargas shells, water cannons deployed on Baloch marchers

ISLAMABAD:

The federal police officials have sent a report of the police action on the participants of a long march, led by Baloch women against enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings, on the night between Wednesday and Thursday to the federal government and the Islamabad chief commissioner.

The report revealed that water cannons were deployed along with the use of non-lethal tear gas shelling on the participants of the march to prevent them from entering the high-security Red Zone and to disperse them. As a result, 14 protesters, including a woman, were injured.

According to sources, the report of police action has been sent to the federal interior secretary and Islamabad chief commissioner. According to the contents of the report, 250 protestors on eight vehicles, led by the Baloch Yekjehti Committee (BYC) leader Dr Mahrang Baloch and others, including 12 children and 45 women, arrived at the Peshawar Toll Plaza on the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

On this occasion, the SSP Operations and Saddar Zone SP were present and informed the protestors that protest was prohibited in the high-security zone of the federal capital and they would be provided proper space in Sector H-9, where they could record their peaceful protest “but the protestors refused to listen to the police officers”.

Read Baloch marchers stopped from entering Islamabad

The protesters were then offered a place to protest in the F-9 Park, but they refused. During the night, the protesters reached the National Press Club while others reached the D-Chowk, where some groups that were already waiting for them joined them. The protesters also pelted stones at the police and tried to enter the high-security zone. The protesters reached the Ayub Chowk, beyond which the Minister Enclave is located. The police repeatedly forbade the protesters to protest in H-9 or F-9 instead of the Red Zone but they did not comply.

The report further stated that the protesters protested at the D-Chowk and Ayub Chowk so the roads on both sides of the press club were blocked. “Then water was also thrown on the Baloch protesters from water cannons and non-lethal tear gas shelled to disperse them and prevent them from entering the high-security zone,” it said.

According to the report, the police took further action and arrested 283 protesters, including a woman, and transferred them to different police stations. It said two separate cases were registered against the protesters for disturbing the peace and raising slogans against the state in Kohsar and Tarnol police stations.

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The report said 14 people, including a woman, were slightly injured while three police officers also sustained injuries. It said three areas, including the Red Zone, were cleared and restored for traffic.

The Express Tribune tried to reach SSP Operations Malik Jameel Zafar to seek his opinion but he was not available for comment. However, a senior officer of the Islamabad police told The Express Tribune that there were instructions from the higher authorities to prevent the protesters from entering the Red Zone in any case.

When asked about the painful and harsh action of throwing water from the water cannon on women, children and elderly citizens on the coldest night of December in the capital, he said: “Despite all efforts, when the protesters were not deterred from entering the high-security zone, the police authorities had to take this drastic measure.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2023.