KARACHI: Heavy contingents of Sindh police, Rangers and plain cloth personnel attacked a protest camp held by families and relatives of Sindhi missing persons on Sunday evening.
Security personnel beat up women, children as well as others at the camp, video recordings of the incident circulating on social media showed.
At least five protesters were reportedly taken away by the security personnel.
The camp had been set up on the call of the Voice for Missing Persons of Sindh (VMPS), a volunteer group struggling for safe recovery of those allegedly picked by law enforcement agencies.
A large number of men, women and children associated with the group and its allied civil and political outfits were present at the camp outside Karachi Press Club on Sunday. The peaceful protesters sitting at the camp, holding banners and placards, were chanting slogans for release of their relatives.
“In the last few months, around 160 persons including 60 political workers and Sindhi nationalists went missing for unknown reasons and now families are unable to locate their whereabouts, so we are sitting here peacefully to demand their safe and immediate release,” a woman whose brother has been missing told Daily Times.She said her brother was an active member of a Sindhi nationalist political party.
Some of those who went missing recently have been identified as: Khadim Arejo, Hidayat Lohar, Sohail Bhatti, Raza Jarwar, Nangar Channa, Mukhtiar Almani, Shadi Khan Soomro, Ahmed Ali Bughio, and Munsoor Gurgez.
Among the participants of the camp on Sunday were Asad Iqbal Butt, the vice chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Sindh chapter; as well as Sindhi nationalist leaders Dr Nayaz Kalani, Ameer Azad Panhwar, writer Inam Shaikh, Taj Joyo and activists of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM)-Bashir Khan group, JSQM-Arisar group, Jeay Sindh Tehreek, Awami Workers Party, and Sindhi Adabi Sangat.
Heavy contingents of Sindh police, Rangers and plain cloth cops attacked the peaceful protest camp in the evening during fasting hours. They baton charged the protesters including women. Some women complained that while attacking them the security personnel tore their clothes as well.
Those taken away by the security personnel were identified by protesters as Sourath Lohar, convener of the Voice for Missing Persons of Sindh, Zahid Bugti, Jani Panhwar, Altaf Shah and Ishaq Mangrio. After video recordings of the incident went viral on social media, several prominent activists including Pushtun Tahaffuz Movement leader Manzoor Pashteen and Hazara lawyer Jalila Haider condemned the attack on their social media profiles.
Addressing Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto and his sister Bakhtawar Bhutto, Haider tweeted, “In the land of #Benazir Bhutto, Sindh Rangers and police tore off clothes of the sister of a missing person who initiated a peaceful protest for the safe recovery of her brother. @BBhuttoZardari @BakhtawarBZ #enforceddisappearances”
In his tweet posted in Urdu, Pashteen condemned the attack and said that PTM stood by all persecuted groups.
Published in Daily Times, May 21st 2018.