26 June 2004	Saturday	07 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, June 25: More than 100 PPP workers were detained and later set free after a clash with police in a bid to protest the killing of Munawwar Suharwardi on The Mall on Friday.

The workers pelted stones at police and, in return, were baton charged, resulting in injuries to at least six of them, including two women.

Most of the arrested workers were women, who kept on pouring in at Faisal Chowk, raising anti-government slogans for its failure to arrest the killers of Mr Suharwardi.

"We arrested the workers when they attempted to violate the law. They were detained for some hours and released," SP Usman Anwar told Dawn. He denied the baton charge on the workers by the police.

Heavy police contingent was deployed outside the Punjab Assembly in anticipation to the protest, which had already been announced by the PPP. However, the workers in groups of eight to 10 would continue emerging from different directions on The Mall, forcing the police team to chase and get them. The riot police kept on bundling them into wagons and taking them to lock-ups.

In the chase, a woman fell on the road and sustained head injuries. The other five suffered wounds during scuffles with police. However, none of them was taken to hospital.

The workers in their slogans demanded setting up a judicial commission to probe the killing as announced by their leader Benazir Bhutto.

Later, a small number of the workers were addressed by Punjab PPP president Qasim Zia who condemned the police action. He said the protest against the government would continue until sincere efforts were made to arrest the killers.