Over a dozen held for staging sit-in for Shia missing persons

The sit-in outside Pakistan President Dr Arif Alvi’s residence in the Bahadurabad neighbourhood under the umbrella of the Shia Action Committee against alleged forced disappearances of the people belonging to the Shia community continued on the 11th consecutive day on Wednesday despite a police crackdown on the protesters.

“They [the police] attempted to halt the sit-in by launching a crackdown, registering a case and arresting our people, but they failed,” said the spokesman for the Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM). “But now more people have joined the protest and it will continue until the recovery of every missing Shia person.”

The MWM strongly condemned the police action on the peaceful sit-in and demanded the immediate release of the arrested people. The spokesperson claimed that over 50 protesters were arrested by the police and shifted to undisclosed locations.

“On the one hand our community’s people are being targeted and killed, and on the other, crackdowns are being launched on our people,” said the MWM spokesman. “A conspiracy is being hatched to prove us as anti-state elements. We always gave sacrifices of our lives for the sake of our country and we will continue to do so.”

Late on Tuesday night the police had registered a case against the protesters, including the leadership of the action committee, and arrested several protesters, including a committee member named Hassan Raza Sohail.

An FIR No. 123/19 was registered on behalf of the state at the Bahadurabad police station under sections 147, 148, 149, 120B, 121, 121A, 341, 427 and 505 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The case was registered against Rashid Rizvi, Sagheer Abid, Safdar Shah, Hassan Raza Sohail and around 300 others.

The complainant, ASI Taweez Gul, recorded his statement that 250 to 300 people had been holding a sit-in near the president’s house on Fatima Jinnah Road in Muhammad Ali Society since April 28.

“The crowd has been holding a sit-in after the leaders of the missing persons’ committee, including Rashid Rizvi, Sagheer Abid, Safdar Shah and Hassan Raza Sohail, incited and provoked them to do so,” read the statement.

“The sit-in caused disturbance in law and order, intervention in government work and also caused traffic jams, as the protesters shouted anti-government, anti-state and anti-armed forces slogans, and some of the protesters were armed and had batons.”

ASI Gul said the protesters were issued with notices multiple times, asking them to leave the area, but they did not even receive the notices. Bahadurabad SHO Chaudhry Shahid said the protest continued on Wednesday despite the police action, adding that the police had arrested over a dozen protesters for taking the law into their own hands.

Meanwhile, former Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Dr Farooq Sattar has strongly condemned the arrests of 20 people, including Hassan Raza Sohail, for holding the protest outside Dr Alvi’s residence over Shia missing persons.

Sattar said the Sindh and federal governments should ensure the recovery of the missing persons, adding that making arrests to defuse a peaceful protest was not a solution.