Aurat March Lahore has issued a statement to condemn police brutality and tactics used by the government to suppress the right to assembly and political participation.
“We are alarmed by the police brutality & tactics used by the government to suppress the right to assembly & political participation; illegal detentions of students & activists during protests for Baloch missing persons in Karachi and the brutality against PTI’s political workers,” said the Aurat March statement.
“As a movement that has routinely faced resistance from the state & ironically the PTI itself, we recognize how important the right to protest is. We cannot allow this precedent to be set over and over again because it inevitablely harms marginalized groups the most.”
The police yesterday resorted to tear gas shelling to disperse PTI workers in Liberty Lahore and D-Chowk Islamabad. During the demonstrations in Karachi, several policemen including a superintendent of police (SP) were injured as the protesters pelted stones at them. The police then started aerial firing.
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Imran Khan addressed the protesters at Islamabad’s 9th Avenue and gave a six-day deadline to the government for announcing elections and dissolving assemblies and warned that he would return to the capital with the “entire nation” otherwise.
