President Dr Arif Alvi and caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar voiced concerns over the mistreatment of Baloch protesters by the Islamabad police, the President’s House said in a statement.

During a telephonic conversation, both the office bearers said that the police should not have acted harshly against the protesters.

A group of Baloch protesters arrived in Islamabad on December 20 night after days long march from Turbat, Balochistan. They were stopped on the outskirts of the city and told to go to a public park while reports said that over 200 were arrested.

A day earlier, government officials addressed a press conference in Islamabad and told reporters that the Baloch protesters arrested on Wednesday night had been released.

Shortly after the press conference, there were reports that the Islamabd Capital City police tried to send the protesters back to Quetta in a private bus they had hired. There were reports of a confrontation between the protesters and the police.

Earlier today, the Islamabad High Court conducted a hearing on the petition for the release of the arrested protester. The petition was filed by organisers of long-march Simi Baloch and Abdul Salam through their lawyers Imaan Mazari and Attaullah Kundi in the IHC.

During the hearing, the court expressed its indignation over the appearance of junior police officers before the court and ordered Islamabad Inspector General of Police Akbar Nisar to appear in court in half an hour.

He later appeared before the court where he said that 216 people were arrested, and 34 were in judicial custody while one was on physical remand. “19 women were released.” But he did not share where they were.

“They can go wherever they want to. They can do peaceful protest if they want,” IHC CJ Farooq said and ordered police to take the organisers of the protest and hand over the arrested protesters to them.