The judicial magistrate on Saturday approved the bail of the arrested Baloch protestors – marching for the release of Baloch ‘missing persons’ in the federal capital.

According to the details, judicial magistrate judge M. Mureed Abbas Khan approved the bail of 162 Baloch protestors who were arrested on December 20th from National Press Club (NPC).

Arrests were made when the march of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee entered Islamabad on the evening of 20 December. The protesters were gathered at NPC to welcome the members of the long march. The long march was stopped at the entrance of Islamabad by the administration. 

Advocate Qaiser Imam, Advocate Musaddiq Aziz Khattak, and others were representing the protestors. They submitted before the court that the accused were innocent and had falsely been involved in the case. Additionally, they argued in court that the prosecution's case was riddled with flaws and doubts and that the local police had mistakenly implicated the defendants.

After hearing the arguments and looking at the record, the judge granted bail to 162 accused. Bail was denied to 34 accused because they were on identity parade.

The court order stated that the accused were implicated in the statement of S.I. Islamabad Police Asim Zaidi and neither specific roles were attributed to the accused nor any recovery was made from the accused. The accused are already behind the lockup and not needed for further investigation. No fruitful purpose shall be served by keeping the petitioners behind the bar. 

The judicial magistrate, granted bail to 162 detained Baloch protestors and instructed them to provide a Rs 5,000 surety bond against their bail.