LAHORE, Dec 31: A peace rally organised by various human rights and professional organisations, trade unions, lawyers, writers, political workers and intellectuals, led by Asma Jehangir, was heavily baton-charged at Wagah checkpost by Pakistan Rangers on Monday.

A large number of women and other participants, including Asma Jehangir and Hina Jilani, were injured.

The rally started from the Lahore Press Club at 3.15pm in buses, wagons and cars and was stopped at Bab-i-Azadi as it reached the Wagah checkpost to hold a peaceful demonstration against the Indian war threats and terrorism.

The white peace flags, banners, posters, placards which contained the slogans against war and terrorism were snatched from the participants and torn into pieces.

The rally was stopped from proceeding beyond the Bab-i-Azadi to the area where the usual daily flag-lowering ceremony was being held jointly by the guards of both Pakistan and India before sunset.

A large number of people were already present to watch the ceremony at the stairs of the main gate. As the rally crossed the main gate, raising slogans against war and for peace, the commanding officer at the Wagah checkpost, Faisal Ghauri of the Pakistan Rangers, ordered the guards to stop the rally from proceeding to the parade area. The guards forcibly drove back the processionists beyond the main gate, hurling invectives and baton-charging the participants, not sparing even the women.

Some of the women were caught by neck and thrown on the ground while lawyers wearing black suit and journalists holding their notebooks were also hit. The rangers commanding officer was heard threatening Dr Mubashir Hasan with ordering a fire on the rally if it continued to march forward. Some of the foreign media teams, which were already there to cover the flag-lowering ceremony, watched the ugly scene and even recorded it.

The bruised participants of the rally held a meeting at the main gate which was addressed by Dr Mubashir Hasan, Asma Jehangir, Hina Jilani, Farooq Tariq and other human rights activists. However, they missed the flag-lowering ceremony for which they had marched a distance of 20 kilometres from the Lahore Press Club.

Later, addressing a press conference at the press club, former HRCP chairperson and UN rapporteur Asma Jehangir said the incident at Wagah was unfortunate and should not have happened, It would not have happened had the Rangers commanding officer at the checkpost not made it a point of ego, she remarked.

Asma said she had already sought permission from the home secretary and the SSP as she talked to them in the morning, informing them about the rally’s programme. The guards, she pointed out, had used filthy and shameful language against women and other participants of the rally when they were using force to push them from the parade area across the main gate.

She said she was certain that the government had no hand in what had happened at Wagah as it was the act of the rangers commanding officer who should have realized the importance of the noble mission of the rally which was to draw the attention of the governments of both Pakistan and India and the world against the horrors of war.