ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistani police yesterday freed 290 Baloch activists who were arrested when they attempted to hold a protest last week in the capital, Islamabad.
Their release came days after protest organisers gave authorities a deadline to release all those detained.
The activists had travelled 1,600 kilometres on Thursday from Turbat, a town in Baluchistan province, to protest forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the militancy-ravaged southwest.
The protesters were mostly women and some had brought along their children, aged seven-12, when security forces used batons and water canons to disperse and arrest them.
They wanted to draw attention to the case of 24-year-old Balaach Mola Bakhsh, who died in November while in police custody in Baluchistan. Authorities said he was killed after militants ambushed the police vehicle transporting him.
