Police beat up Aurat March participants in capital

ISLAMABAD: A violent fight broke out outside the Islamabad Press Club on Wednesday as women and transgender people from various fields gathered for the Aurat March rally, where the police clubbed the participants and allegedly tried to stop the rally.

Aurat March is conducted every year by women across the country on the International Women Day to voice their grievances and celebrate womanhood.

The march remained blocked in F-6 for several hours due to containers. The administration tried its best to restrict the marchers to the area as a rally from Jamaat-e-Islami was already there at the D-Chowk.

In the late evening, the participants were finally allowed to take the route to D-Chowk where they performed theatre, made speeches and presented their charter of demand.

A verbal spat occurred between the participants of the rally and the police after they questioned a large number of transgender people trying to join the rally. Women at the march alleged that the police had “tried hard to stop the rally”.

During the rally, the participants chanted slogans for women’s rights and were joined by transgender people, whom the police stopped to question.

Soon there was a serious disorder outside the Islamabad Press Club, and the marchers began to raise slogans against the government and the media.

Several reporters suffered while covering the event. A woman reporter and a cameraman from a local news channel also sustained injuries.

Taking notice of the incident, IGP Islamabad Dr Akbar Nasir Khan sought an immediate report from DIG (Operations) and suspended three police officials found guilty in the preliminary inquiry, a police spokesman said.

“Islamabad Police, as a department, apologises for the regrettable incident, while the IGP has directed DIG (Operations) to determine the responsible and take a prompt action against them upon which three officials have been immediately suspended and further investigation is underway,” said the spokesman.

Quoting the top cop, the spokesman said the police stood with the participants of the march in their struggle and protection of women’s rights.

“The IGP has further directed the DIG (Operations) to ensure the safety of Women March and women rights protection rallies. Three cops involved in resorting to baton charge have been suspended following a preliminary inquiry report submitted to the office of the IGP,” the spokesman said when asked.

Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman also attended the march but left after talking to the media. She condemned the mishandling of marchers by the police and said the administration should have decided the routes for the march beforehand.

In a statement, the federal minister said the participants of the Aurat March were rightly disappointed and annoyed, as the Islamabad Police had no justification for baton charge on a small peaceful procession.

Senator Rehman added that the stick-carrying women needed to be pushed back and not the progressive women.

The minister strongly condemned the alleged police violence against the participants of the march and demanded an investigation into the incident.

“There is no excuse for this violence on the International Women’s Day. This is not the attitude we have fought for and will not tolerate. The incident has been brought into the notice of interior minister,” Sherry said.

“I am glad that at the end, we were able to give the message that we are never going to give up our political space and we were able to celebrate the courage of Pakistani women at D-Chowk,” said human rights activist Farzana Bari, who also got injured in the police baton charge.

“It was a very violent day indeed. There were planted people in the march who came with the agenda of creating unrest,” she claimed.

Rights activist Tahira Abdullah strongly condemned the initial obstruction and ‘subsequent violent tactics’ employed by the Islamabad ICT administration and police against the peaceful unarmed participants of Aurat March who were only exercising their constitutional right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly

She noted with great sadness and astonishment that there appeared to be not an iota of difference in official anti-women tactics and baseless antagonism against the Aurat March, between the former PTI government and the current self-proclaimed progressive rainbow coalition cabinet of a dozen political parties, including the PPP, which seemed to have forgotten the legacy of its woman PM Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.

“Why are the PPP co-chairs silent today and where is PM Shehbaz Sharif? Where is the Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, without whose approval the ICT LEAs cannot take such violent action?” she questioned.

Tahira Abdullah demanded an urgent, open and transparent inquiry with a credible list of inquiry committee members, including the respected retired police officials, judges, civil society representatives, rights activists and senior media reps.