Authorities in Islamabad this week arrested 23 peaceful protesters who were demonstrating against the detention of Manzoor Pashteen, who has led many peaceful demonstrations against the army for its alleged human rights abuses, according to Voice of America. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has pointed to this as a clear violation of the right to peaceful assembly and free expression. Tens of thousands of Pakistanis have protested Pashteen’s arrest since Monday when authorities detained him and other members of his Pashtun Tahaffuz (Protection) Movement (PTM). According to the BBC, the PTM began leading a series of non-violent protests starting in January 2018 over the extra-judicial killing of a young Pashtun man by police, and ultimately demonstrations expanded into what the New York Times called  “one of the most influential challenges to the military’s dominance of Pakistan.” The HRCP pointed out that the charges brought against 27-year-old Pashteen are particularly alarming, calling it an “arbitrary use of the charge of sedition under an archaic law to curb political dissent – that has in no way incited hatred or violence…” and called for the immediate release of him and the others arrested.

Read the HRCP’s full statement here.