Pakistan: Baloch activists allege camp attacked at midnight, women harassed

Protestors from Balochistan claimed on Tuesday that three men had broken into their camp on the outskirts of Islamabad on Monday night and had abused the women and other girls who were resting there. Sammi Deen Baloch, one of the activists, said that cameras were put in the camp yesterday night. But the attackers allegedly turned off the cameras, flashed their pistols and went inside the camp. “Closing the cameras that were installed last night, then getting off 3 people from 2 vehicles in the presence of the police, showing pistols to the comrades, entering our camp and harassing the women, taking the sound speakers from where all of us women and girls were sleeping, and escaping with them added to your low standard,” she wrote in a post on X. “We travelled 100s of KM & came to the capital of this state to protest against the #BalochGenocide, but you see the seriousness of this state. Instead of ending our genocide & HR violations, they attacked our camp at 3:15 AM, & stole our sound system,” she added. The Baloch Yakjahti Committee called for an end to the harassment of peaceful Baloch protestors by the Islamabad Police, blaming them for the incident. Taking to their handle on X, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee posted, “At this midnight hour, the masked persons pull the gun at peaceful protesters and picked up the speaker are a shameful act of Islamabad administration and the state. however, the @ICT_Police installed surveillance cameras to monitor the camp, state that Islamabad is a safe city. the @ICT_Police and the state should stop harassing peaceful Baloch protesters.” The committee had earlier reported that the Islamabad Police were intimidating the Baloch protestors and the families of missing Baloch individuals by installing surveillance cameras and using various methods to harass them. The Baloch Yakjahti Committee noted that despite the state’s “barriers and arrests” and other difficulties, the march from Turbat to Islamabad “united Baloch and revealed the government’s oppressive actions”. The committee stated that the movement started with a nonviolent 13-day sit-in at Turbat and then evolved into a lengthy, nonviolent march that travelled hundreds of km to reach the capital. Nonetheless, the state reacted to the mass movement with tremendous vigour, including fake police reports, physical assault, and arrests of the activists. (With agency inputs)