‘Child bombers’: Parents demand freeing of children
They insist the boys were arrested 10 days before the media conference.
Relatives of missing persons demonstrate outside the Governor House in Quetta on Thursday. PHOTO: PPI
QUETTA:
Parents and relatives of 11 children, who were arrested on Wednesday for their alleged links with a separatist group, staged a protest outside the city’s press club condemning the fake encounter and demanding their immediate release.
As they prepared to march towards the Governor House, they claimed that their children or at least most of them were taken into custody by officers clad in Frontier Corps uniform. They were only presented before the media 10 days after their arrest, they added.
On Wednesday, the police claimed that the arrests were made during raids made over 24 hours.
“Four vehicles of the security forces came to the Killi Geo area of Kirani and took my grandson, Muhammad Amir, into custody on unexplained charges,” claimed Naz Bibi.
The wailing grandmother told The Express Tribune that people, mostly dressed in FC uniforms, raided the area on March 5, and arrested Amir. She denied claims made by the Quetta police and insisted that they were being targeted. Bibi maintained that the children were being forced to give such statements. “It is a fake story which is made by the security forces,” she pleaded.
The brother of another detained child, Bharkan Lehri, stated that his brother too was arrested on March 5. “He was working in our field when a vehicle came and took away my brother. It was not until yesterday (Wednesday) that we realised that my brother was taken in custody by the police,” he said.
Rejecting claims made by the police, he said that his brother was not involved with any organisation. He added that the FC had carried out a search operation in the Killi Geo area and arrested some children from the houses in the area.
When asked, none of the families had registered an FIR regarding their children being missing except for one who had written a letter to the provincial governor but to no avail.
Meanwhile, the family of another suspect, Zahoor Ahmed, claimed that he went missing from work 20 days ago. “My brother left for work and never returned. When we inquired from his employers they said he had left for home but he never came” said the suspect’s sister.
Appealing to the Chief Justice to take notice of the situation, she denied claims of her brother’s involvement in any terrorist activity adding that they were being targeted for their ethnicity, they were ‘targeted for being Baloch’.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2013.
Parents and relatives of 11 children, who were arrested on Wednesday for their alleged links with a separatist group, staged a protest outside the city’s press club condemning the fake encounter and demanding their immediate release.
As they prepared to march towards the Governor House, they claimed that their children or at least most of them were taken into custody by officers clad in Frontier Corps uniform. They were only presented before the media 10 days after their arrest, they added.
On Wednesday, the police claimed that the arrests were made during raids made over 24 hours.
“Four vehicles of the security forces came to the Killi Geo area of Kirani and took my grandson, Muhammad Amir, into custody on unexplained charges,” claimed Naz Bibi.
The wailing grandmother told The Express Tribune that people, mostly dressed in FC uniforms, raided the area on March 5, and arrested Amir. She denied claims made by the Quetta police and insisted that they were being targeted. Bibi maintained that the children were being forced to give such statements. “It is a fake story which is made by the security forces,” she pleaded.
The brother of another detained child, Bharkan Lehri, stated that his brother too was arrested on March 5. “He was working in our field when a vehicle came and took away my brother. It was not until yesterday (Wednesday) that we realised that my brother was taken in custody by the police,” he said.
Rejecting claims made by the police, he said that his brother was not involved with any organisation. He added that the FC had carried out a search operation in the Killi Geo area and arrested some children from the houses in the area.
When asked, none of the families had registered an FIR regarding their children being missing except for one who had written a letter to the provincial governor but to no avail.
Meanwhile, the family of another suspect, Zahoor Ahmed, claimed that he went missing from work 20 days ago. “My brother left for work and never returned. When we inquired from his employers they said he had left for home but he never came” said the suspect’s sister.
Appealing to the Chief Justice to take notice of the situation, she denied claims of her brother’s involvement in any terrorist activity adding that they were being targeted for their ethnicity, they were ‘targeted for being Baloch’.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2013.