January 13, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 28, 1422

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LAHORE, Jan 12: The Punjab police in their post-Musharraf’s speech operation on Saturday night sealed the offices of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and the Tehrik-i-Jafria Pakistan (TJP).

They also arrested dozens of activists of the two organizations.

Lahore range DIG Javed Noor told Dawn by telephone that the operation had started. “Sealing of the offices of the two groups is in process,” he said, adding that “we don’t have the number of offices sealed and arrests made so far.”

Main offices and religious schools had already been vacated by the senior leadership of the two groups.

A police source said that students got panicked when a police party raided a seminary in Lahore. Most of the people taken into custody from the province were students, he said. It said that no significant men from the banned groups had so far been arrested.

Raids were in process and arrests were being made till the filing of this report at midnight.

KHATEEB: The Punjab police registered around 100 cases on charges of misuse of mosque speakers in the province on Friday and Saturday.

Police sources told Dawn that a majority of the cases were registered against Khateeb and prayer leaders on charges of ‘instigating’ people by using loudspeakers.

“We have been asked to go after every prayer leader who uses loudspeaker for any sermon except Aazaan and Friday Khutba in Arabic,” a senior officer of the security wing of the Punjab police said.

“The operation is on. Some two dozen prayer leaders and other activists have already been taken into custody in the Punjab,” he said. In Lahore, 26 cases were registered and five prayer leaders and Khateebs were detained.

A senior officer of the legal section of the Punjab police said that the cases had been registered under section 3 of the West Pakistan Regulation of Loudspeaker and Amplifier Ordinance, 1965.

The officer said that personnel of his wing and that of the Punjab police special branch and other intelligence agencies had joined the operation.

“The personnel have been detailed to note down all contents of the speeches, especially in main Friday gatherings. Audio and video evidence of the speeches has also been recorded at some places to produce them in courts,” the officer who did not want to be identified said. “We did that only in main mosques and imambargahs,” he said.

Earlier, Punjab IGP Malik Asif Hayat reportedly presided over a meeting late on Friday night and worked out all details of the crackdown. “The IGP finalized a list of some 600 men to be arrested in the province and handed it over to the participants of the meeting,” a source in the Punjab police said.