KARACHI: Journalist Alifya Sohail was detained for several hours on Friday and issued a clear warning over her reporting on Baloch enforced disappearances, directly contradicting a Dawn report that linked her arrest to the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) protest, an opposition alliance that includes the PTI.
Sohail went missing shortly after documenting a civil society demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) against the recently passed 27th Constitutional Amendment. Eyewitnesses said she covered the protest between 4 pm and 5 pm. At 5:25 pm, she sent her final message, stating, “I am being arrested.” Her phone went offline immediately afterward.
Following hours of concern and frantic efforts by colleagues, it was discovered that she had been taken to Artillery Maidan Police Station, where authorities confiscated her phone and barred her from contacting anyone. She was later shifted to the Women’s Police Station on Sharae Faisal. No FIR or written complaint was filed against her.
Police officials privately acknowledged that they were acting on “orders from above,” suggesting that the detention was not procedural but punitive. Her release, they said, also depended on these higher directives.
Earlier in the day, the police had sealed all roads leading to the Karachi Press Club, deploying heavy contingents and detaining several people to prevent them from reaching the TTAP protest site. Dawn’s initial report listed Sohail among those detained during this crackdown.
However, Sohail categorically rejected this claim.
Posting on X after her release, she stated:
“I was not arrested for being part of PTI. I was detained for covering Baloch missing persons protests and documenting human rights abuses in Pakistan, especially enforced disappearances. The SHO made it very clear that this was a warning.”
For years, Sohail has covered enforced disappearances, civil society activism, and the activities of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC). Her reporting on state abuses — particularly the issue of Baloch missing persons — has repeatedly drawn the ire of authorities.
Journalist unions and human rights groups condemned the detention, calling it a deliberate act of intimidation aimed at silencing independent coverage of Balochistan and human rights violations.
“This was not a routine arrest. It was a message,” a senior Karachi-based journalist said. “Journalists reporting on enforced disappearances are being warned to step back.”
Police announced later in the evening that all detainees had been released but provided no explanation for the unlawful detention, the confiscation of Sohail’s phone, or the warning reportedly issued to her.
The incident has intensified growing concerns within Pakistan’s media community, especially among reporters covering Baloch rights and security-related abuses — widely considered among the most dangerous beats in the country.
