The civil society in Karachi demanded on Monday the release of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leader Sammi Deen Baloch, who has been in detention for the past week after she led a protest against the arrest of her colleague Dr Mahrang Baloch.
Sammi and five others were taken into custody last Monday for violating a freshly imposed Section 144. Despite a judicial magistrate discharging the activists and ordering their release the next day, Sammi was detained later under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance for 30 days.
Sammi’s sister Mehlab Deen Baloch — flanked by renowned lawyer Jibran Nasir, activist Sheema Kermani and academic Nida Kirmani, among others — addressed a press conference outside the Karachi Press Club on the first day of Eidul Fitr today.
Mehlab, who says her father was forcibly disappeared 15 years ago, recalled the Karachi protest earlier this week said: “Despite the court order for [Mahrang and others’] release, […] they were put behind bars again under MPO3 for 30 days on the directives of the PPP’s [Sindh] government.”
She alleged that the PPP, while advocating for women’s rights, was “not ready to give those rights to Baloch women”. She demanded that the cases against Sammi be quashed and she be released.
The press conference — which saw thin attendance on the first day of Eidul Fitr — proceeded peacefully without any obstructions, with police (including women cops) monitoring it from the opposite road.
