SUKKUR, Oct 22: More than 200 leaders and workers of Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, including JI Naib Amir Liaquat Baloch, were arrested in different cities of Sindh on Monday.

The arrests were made to thwart plans by the two parties to stage a sit-in in Jacobabad on Tuesday in protest against the support the government has extended to the United States in its so-called war against terrorism.

The Sukkur police had literally besieged the Sukkur airport where they expected the arrival of JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed.

Talking to newsmen in the police custody, Liaquat Baloch said that the Punjab home department had served a notice on Qazi Hussain Ahmed, banning his entry into Sindh. Qazi had arrived at the Lahore airport to board the PIA for Sukkur, but he was refused the boarding card.

Liaquat Baloch said that their detention showed the hollowness of the Musharraf’s government which had arrested them though there was no ban on their entry into Sukkur.

Despite all coercive tactics, he announced, the sit-in at Jacobabad would be staged at all costs.

He advised the US government to adopt diplomatic channels to solve the crisis.

The JI leader has been kept in the Abad police station.

Besides, police conducted raids in Jacobabad, Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Gambat and Ranipur and picked up more than 200 leaders and workers of two parties.

Prominent among them were: Ameer Hamza, Syed Kamal Shah, Saadullah Soomro, Hafiz Naik Mohammad Mangrio, Raza Mohammad Shaikh, Liaquat Ali Memon, Ansar Aslam, Hafiz Abdul Wahid Brohi, and Qari Lal Mohammad.