Pakistan: Baloch student arrested by police from university campus
Police arrested a Baloch student of Punjab University (PU) from the gate of the New Campus on Friday (October 27, 2023), media reports said.
Human rights activists, students and Baloch people condemned the incident.
According to CCTV footage circulating on social media, Fareed Husain Baloch, a BS Education 8th semester student and a member of the Baloch Council of PU, was leaving the campus from the main gate when he was intercepted by two policemen and two others in civvies, reported Dawn News.
The footage showed the student tried to resist his arrest but the police beat him up and dragged him into a private car.
The university security guards did not intervene when the police entered the campus to arrest the student.
The Baloch Council office-bearers approached the Garden Town Police Station where the student was detained, reported Dawn News.
They told Dawn that the police did not disclose the reason for the arrest nor allowed them to meet the student.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has voiced their concern over the issue.
HRCP is deeply concerned by reports of Pashtun and Baloch students having been harassed and intimidated by law enforcement personnel at universities in Lahore in the last several days, with at least two students having been forcibly disappeared. Students from Balochistan and KP…
— Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (@HRCP87) October 27, 2023
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan posted on X: "HRCP is deeply concerned by reports of Pashtun and Baloch students having been harassed and intimidated by law enforcement personnel at universities in Lahore in the last several days, with at least two students having been forcibly disappeared. Students from Balochistan and KP remain especially vulnerable in Punjab. This practice of subjecting students to ethnic profiling must end. All students must be equally allowed to pursue their education without the fear of harassment and enforced disappearance."