Islamabad police are carrying out random inspections of people’s mobiles phones, in an attempt to locate PTI supporters, claimed Shoaib Shaheen, part of PTI’s leadership. Speaking in the wake of the November 24-27 PTI protest march which has resulted in a crackdown by the government, Shaheen accused the police of carrying out profiling of people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, based “on their CNICs and ethnicity”, with arrests being made if material on their phones was found to be related to former PTI leader Imran Khan in any way. According to Shaheen, arrests were also made of anyone subsequently visiting people held in custody. Rights activists, including the DRF’s Executive Director, Nighat Dad, condemned these searches, noting that they breached Article 14 of the Constitution of Pakistan, concerning individual rights and dignity.

 

Though the police denied carrying out profiling, claiming that any security checkpoints were established per routine, journalists from Pakistan’s Dawn News reported witnessing at least one case of mobile phones being inspected.