Nearly 30 civil society activists were taken into custody by Frere Police on Thursday evening as they were protesting the government’s ‘soft approach’ towards militant groups. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD NOMAN/EXPRESS
The sit-in had been initiated against the Shikarpur imambargah bombing that claimed the lives of 62 people but the focus shifted to the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) when the protesters learnt about the religious party’s planned rally in the city.
The leaders of the protest, activists Mohammad Jibran Nasir, Khurram Zia and Shahryar Naqvi, were arrested on Thursday evening along with 29 others for allegedly violating the Red Zone. The police claimed that the demonstrators had scuffled with the police and removed barricades but the protesters denied these allegations.
“We were peacefully registering our protest without crossing the barricades; we were only sitting and shouting slogans,” Nasir told The Express Tribune on Friday. “An SP came and told the police to arrest us, after which they shifted us to different police stations.”
As the news of their detention spread, a number of people gathered to protest outside police stations in District South, including the Frere, Preedy and Saddar stations. The police later released them.
“It is the right of every citizen to know who is a militant and who is innocent,” claimed Nasir. “The apex court has also given orders to make the names of militant outfits public, so why are the government and law enforcement agencies not doing so, and why are these outfits’ leaders still enjoying police protocol?”
Meanwhile, Zia told The Express Tribune that they had the option of approaching the court to force the government to reveal names of the banned outfits. “However, going to court is a lengthy process so we are also planning short-term ways to make the government take action against banned or militant outfits,” he added.
The police said that they did not intend to arrest the protesters but had been forced to take this step because of their actions. “This was not the first time they were staging a sit-in; they protested here on Tuesday and Wednesday but left after a CM House official assured them of full cooperation,” said Frere DSP Iftikhar Lodhi while talking to The Express Tribune. “They came back when they found out that ASWJ was holding a rally on Thursday evening.”
He claimed that when the police tried to give them assurances, they resorted to hooliganism, upon which the SP gave orders for their arrests. DSP Lodhi said that all the detainees, including two women, were released within three hours.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th, 2015.
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I don;t expect anything from this government.
Arrest of 25 peaceful protestorson on the issue of mass murder at Shikarpur mosque few days back does not seem to be in order.It is going to spread sectarianism between two groups as another group is also preparing to have counter protest.Jibran Nasir is now a country wide name since his successful protests at Lal Masjid in Islamabad.Reasons for his protest are quite valid to know the names of outfits and their extremist leaders, so that adversely affected people may take precautions to avoid further killings.This is all the more necessary since the government has not done any thing concrete to apprehend the culprits who killed namazees so to say on praying mats.Since Pakistan is an Islamic Republic it is duty bound to save democracy[peoples voice] as well as all sects in Islam and legally its non-Islamic population.Even going to court, getting favourable orders is not the ultimate solution if the government remains lacklustre.Fight against terrorism is not going to succeed if government remains inactive in the matter.Urgency and strict action is the need of hour.