A prominent Pakistani human rights lawyer criticizing the powerful military has been re-arrested hours after a court granted her bail.

Imaan Mazari-Hazir was due for release on Monday night until she was detained on a second terrorism charge.

She was placed in custody a week ago, prompting widespread criticism.

Analysts say a crackdown has increased after military installations were attacked in May by crowds protesting the arrest of former PM Imran Khan.

“There has been a gross overreaction to the events of 9 May. But the establishment doesn’t want to be seen as only focused against Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [PTI] party. So, now they are targeting different segments of the society,” prominent journalist Cyril Almeida told the BBC.

The basis for the second charge against Ms Mazari-Hazir was not immediately apparent. Video footage shows her being arrested outside Adiala jail in Islamabad, where she has been held on judicial remand.

Her lawyer, Zainab Januja, said police had provided neither a copy of the charges against her nor an arrest warrant.

“They only informed us that there is another case against her at a different police station,” she told the BBC. “The police will present her in court within 24 hours to get remand. We do not know why and in which case she has been arrested now.”

Several PTI members have also been re-arrested after posting bail in recent weeks.

Ms. Mazari-Hazir was detained two days after a rally organized by Islamabad’s Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) rights group on 18 August. Videos widely shared on social media show her making a speech in which she strongly criticizes the military for alleged abductions, a charge the army has always denied.

“You are being stopped as if you are terrorists while the real terrorists are sitting in GHQ [Pakistan’s military headquarters],” she told the rally.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party activist and supporter of former Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran throws back a tear gas shell towards police during a protest against the arrest of their leader in Quetta on May 9, 2023.

Imran Khan’s arrest in May sparked a wave of protests around Pakistan

Moments before she was first taken into custody, Ms. Mazari-Hazir posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that “unknown persons” were breaking down the security cameras in her home and that the gate to her house was “jumped over.”

Her mother, Shireen Mazari, alleged that security officials disregarded arrest warrants and legal procedures.

Ms. Mazari, the country’s human rights minister under Imran Khan, posted on X that the police had barged in, ransacked her daughter’s room, confiscated her phone and laptop, and forcibly taken her away.

“They did not even let her change out of her night clothes,” she told the BBC the next day.

Ali Wazir, co-founder of the PTM rights group and a former lawmaker, was also detained by police in Islamabad.

The two were later presented in an anti-terrorism court on charges of sedition and terrorism. Police have accused them of propagating anti-state messages.

Just before her transfer to prison, Ms. Mazari-Hazir rushed to her visibly distressed mother and hugged her.

Source: BBC News

Other Sources: Dawn