The Karachi police briefly detained seven Aurat March activists on Tuesday as they made their way to the Karachi Press Club for a press conference about their ongoing efforts to secure a no-objection certificate (NOC) for a march planned for Sunday.
Among those stopped were veteran dancer and activist Sheema Kermani and Karachi City Council member Shahzadi Rai. The group was released later the same day on the orders of Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar, but the short detention touched off a wave of public protest on X, where many users decried it as a worrying sign of ‘shrinking’ civil liberties.