Around 166 people have been detained by police in the twin cities under Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) and are currently languishing in Adiala Jail.
They were picked up in random swoops carried out by the police as a ‘deterrence measures’ to stop people from participating in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek marches.
“The marches are inching towards an end, but what would be the fate of those detained under the MPO,” asked the mother of Said Akhtar, a BSc student who has been behind bars in Adila after beigng arrested under the MPO.
Sources at Adiala Jail told The Express Tribune that around 166 people have been brought to the jail since Augut 1. Of the detainees, the sources said, 73 were sent by the Rawalpindi police, while 93 came from their counterparts in Islamabad.
The police, however, did not share details of those arrested under the MPO. A source in the Rawalpindi police said that of the 73 arrested people, only three were released after confirmation that they were not a threat to law and order.
Sardar Arshad, a lawyer by profession, said that under the MPO, no person could be detained for a more than three months unless a review board constituted by the high court sees sufficient cause for further detention.
The Express Tribune met with relatives of people who have been detained under the MPO and most of them denied that their loved ones have any affiliation with political parties.
Said Azhar, the younger brother of Said Akhtar, both of whom are from Skardu, said that on August 13, his brother was coming to visit family in Rawalpindi in a van from Rawalakot, where he is enrolled in the University of Poonch, when he and 15 other passengers were stopped by Morgah police officials near Soan. He said that the police asked the van driver to drop them at the police station.
He said that as soon as the passengers were dropped off by the van driver, the police booked all of them under the MPO and put them behind bars.
“My brother has no ties either with PTI, PAT or any other political party,” he said, adding that the police were illegally detaining his brother.
“If they do not release my brother, he will not be able to appear in his fall semester exams in September.”
Azhar said that he has moved an application to the City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi requesting the release of his brother.
Bilal Attari, a resident of Wah Cantt, said that his brother Iqbal Attari, a salesman at a dry fruit shop, was sitting in his shop, when a police party turned up on August 7 and picked him up. He said that the police alleged that he was affiliated with the PAT and could create a law and order situation.
He said that the police assured them that Iqbal would be released “soon” without giving a date or timeframe.
Bilal said that his brother or his family has no links with the PAT but they were affiliated with the “Dawat-e-Islami” which is an apolitical religious group.
Amer Ali from Tehsil Kahuta said that his brother Iftikhar Ali was sitting in his shop in the main Kahuta bazaar when a police party arrested him on August 11. He said the police booked him under the MPO and shifted him to the Adiala Jail. Similarly, several women told The Express Tribune that they were trying to approach the police high-ups for the release of their sons, who, according to them, have nothing to do with either protesting party. They have also appealed to the police high-ups to issue orders for the early release of the detainees.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2014.
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