The Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Tuesday permitted the family of detained activist Dr Mahrang Baloch to visit her in prison.
A two-member bench, comprising Justices Rozi Khan Barraich and Shaukat Ali Rakhshani, heard a petition filed by her sister, Nadia Baloch, challenging her detention. The court accepted the petition and issued notices to the relevant authorities, granting them a week to provide case details.
Dr Baloch was arrested under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO), which her lawyer argued, violated constitutional rights. The court found the matter worth reviewing and approved a request allowing her family and legal counsel to meet her at the District Jail in Quetta.
Dr Baloch, the chief organiser of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), was taken into custody along with her several supporters after a clash with the police on Sariab Road near the Balochistan University in Quetta last Friday.
The police, in response to stone-pelting by the BYC protesters, used tear gas, water cannons and blank shots to disperse them. The BYC accused the police of using "excessive force against protesters and killing three people and injuring dozens".
Provincial government spokesman Shahid Rind, however, refuted the allegations, stating that the protesters resorted to stone-pelting and unprovoked violence, injuring several police officers, including a female constable.
Subsequently, Dr Baloch, who was leading the protest, issued a call for a shutter-down strike across the province. However, in the wee hours of Saturday, Dr Baloch was arrested, along with 17 other protesters – 10 men and seven women.
Meanwhile, the Sindh government on Tuesday detained Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leader Sammi Deen Baloch and four others for 30 days under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) following the group's protest in Karachi.
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