ISLAMABAD: Police came out in full force against relatives and sympathisers of the missing persons during a protest at Islamabad’s D. Chowk on Monday.

The police also used teargas shells and baton charged the protesters.

Protest demonstrations at Islamabad’s D. Chowk are routine for the local shopkeepers, business and corporate offices at the far-end of Blue Area. And usually, even traffic continues to flow unhindered amid the slogan-chanting protesters.

But the police action against the participants of the protest for missing persons, including rough handling of women, was surprising for most of the protesters.

The Defence of Human Rights (DHR), led by Amna Masood Janjua, had called the protest sit-in, which was attended by people, including women and children, from all over the country.

“Everybody knows Amna Baji. Have we ever resorted to violence or broken the law,” said a woman from Kanju village of Swat whose husband and a brother have been missing since 2009.

The police action against the protesters was condemned by human rights activist Tahira Abdullah, who even narrated her own experience of encountering misbehaviour in the hands of a male police inspector when she tried to enter the women police station.

“Now one thing is clear that the government’s signing of international conventions related to human rights, such as the one against torture, was just an eyewash and a formality to appease the international community,” she told the media.

The trouble began when some protesters started moving towards the Parliament House and were intercepted by the police.

“We were not getting any attention from anyone, including legislators, so we decided to go a bit near the parliament building and chant slogans there,” said Sheikh Farhan, who had come from Sialkot to support the DHR.

As the police tried to stop the protesters, some of them sneaked through the cordon which led to confusion and baton charging by the police. The police also fired teargas shells and live bullets into the air.

On the other hand, the Islamabad police blamed the contingents called from the Punjab elite force for the mayhem.

A senior officer of the Islamabad police told Dawn that the supervisory officers left the spot possibly to escape the wrath of the protesters who had started marching towards the Parliament House.

As a result of the scuffle that later turned into a clash, 13 people, including 10 policemen, were injured.

However, eyewitness accounts and the media footages showed Islamabad police personnel using strong-handed techniques to pacify the protesters who were not even carrying sticks or any other item that could be thrown.

The police manhandled and arrested 12 protesters, including Ms Janjua.

She was taken to the women police station at Sitara Market in G-7 and kept there for about four hours before being released on the special instructions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

A handout said the prime minister showed anger over the incident and police brutality. The handout issued from the PM office stated: “Inappropriate police treatment meted out to unarmed protesters was unacceptable.”

The premier said it was the right of all citizens to hold peaceful protests under the limits of the law. “Nobody can be deprived of this right,” the statement added.

“The PM ordered strict and immediate action against those who were responsible for the incident,” it added.

Meanwhile, Ms Janjua expressed resilience after her release and refused to end the sit-in at D. Chowk.“We will continue the peaceful protest unless a meeting is arranged with the prime minister,” she said.

She also held Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan responsible for the police crackdown on the protesters.

Speaking to the media, she said the police could not take such an extreme step without directions form the top officials.

“I do not demand the resignation of Chaudhry Nisar or any policeman. We are law-abiding citizens and have been staging peaceful protests for long. What I say is this was unfair,” she added.

In the meantime, ASP Secretariat Irum Abbasi and ASP City Yasir Afridi were suspended on the direction of the interior ministry. The chief commissioner has ordered the deputy commissioner to hold an inquiry into the incident. All the arrested persons were released on Monday night.