GILGIT – Advocate Ehsan Ali, President of Supreme Appellate Court BarAssociation and ex-Chairman of Awami Action Committee, was arrested lastnight from his house in Gilgit.

The detention came in relation to a case registered against him for sharing‘derogatory content’ posted by someone on the famous social media network,Facebook.The arrest was made on complaint of a resident of Khomer, Gilgit,who had approached the police to register a case against the prominent,progressive, human rights lawyer.

Advocate Ehsan had removed the content – a photograph related to theanti-government government protest in Iran, and he had also posted anexplanatory note, explaining the ‘rationale’ behind sharing the post. Hehad also apologized to the people who found the post derogatory, and whosesentiments were hurt. He had later met prominent clerics in the region toexplain his position.

During the last couple of weeks, wall-chalking against Advocate Ehsan Alihad appeared in Gilgit, demanding his arrest, and accusing him of sharinganti-religious content on Facebook, and creating sectarian disharmony.Ehsan Ali has rejected these allegations, and said that he is one of thebiggest proponents of peace and harmony in the region, and he haspractically worked to unite people from different schools of thought.

Advocate Ehsan Ali, a leftist leader, is known across the region as a humanrights defender. He had played a pivotal role in the establishment of theAwami Action Committee, a group of around two dozen political and religiousparties, and peacefully mobilizing tens of thousands of people acrossGilgit-Baltistan in April 2014, forcing the federal government to cancel adecision related to withdrawing of subsidy on wheat.

The movement spearheaded by Advocate Ehsan Ali, as Chairman of Awami ActionCommittee, was instrumental in bringing people from different sects andfactions together, and creating a peaceful atmosphere in the region, bypromoting religious harmony and tolerance.