[ad_1]
Islamabad, Aug. 23, (dpa/GNA) – Police in Islamabad arrested prominent rights activist Imaan Zainab Mazari for an inflammatory speech against the country’s powerful military at a rally, officials said.
A heavy contingent of the capital’s police broke into Mazari’s house and took her away in the early hours of Sunday, her mother and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari said.
She said that the arrest reflected nothing but “state fascism.”
Security sources said that Mazari was booked in a case for an inflammatory speech against the security establishment at a rally of the Pushtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) on Friday.
Mazari was not the only activist who was booked in the PTM rally case.
Ali Wazir, a PTM leader and former lawmaker who spent more than two years in jail for criticizing the military was also arrested, sources in the group said.
The PTM is a body that defends the rights of ethnic Pashtuns and openly criticizes the military for the enforced disappearance of civilians, a charge the army denies.
The arrest triggered nationwide outrage as the move is seen by many as an attempt to muzzle free speech.
Condemnation poured in and thousands took to social media platform X, previously known as Twitter. #ReleaseImaanMazari is the top hashtag trending on the platform in Pakistan.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the arrest and said it “points to a larger, more worrying pattern of state-sanctioned violence against people exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly.”
GNA
Related
[ad_2]
Source link