QUETTA: Law enforcement agencies have taken three women into custody for allegedly having links with banned Baloch militant organisations.

A spokesman for the Balochistan government said in a statement, issued here on Tuesday, that the three women had been arrested in Chaman. He claimed that they had illegally crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan.

The spokesman said the women had been arrested by Frontier Corps personnel as they entered Pakistan on Monday. He said initial investigation disclosed that the women had links with banned militant organisations.

He did not disclose the identity of the three women, saying that their identity would be announced after the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Baloch Human Rights Organisation (BHRO) has alleged that security forces have arrested the wife and children of Dr Allah Nazar, chief of the banned Balochistan Liberation Front and relatives of another militant leader Aslam Baloch.

Activists of the BHRO staged a protest rally outside the Quetta Press Club on Tuesday in which women also participated. They demanded immediate release of the women.

They said the women should be produced before a court of law if there was any case registered against them. They appealed to national and international human rights organisations to take notice of the incident and play their due role for immediate release of the women.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2017