Samina Omar | Pakistan

Human rights defenders Tahira Abdullah and Samina Omar were released following a short detention in Islamabad on Friday, a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) activist told Dawn.com. The HRCP earlier condemned the “arbitrary arrest of human rights defenders Tahira Abdullah and Samina Omar in Islamabad” in a post on X. According to the post, the pair was taken into custody outside the National Press Club ahead of a protest in solidarity with the people of Gaza. “Given that neither of them was part of any public gathering at the time, their actions in no way constitute a violation of Section 144 as the police have alleged,” the statement said. Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code is a legal provision that empowers district administrations to prohibit an assembly of four or more people in an area for a limited period. The statement said the commission was “concerned to learn that [the women] are allegedly not being given access to their legal counsel”. “Both Ms Abdullah and Ms Omar must be released ...