22 December 2004	Wednesday	09 Ziqa'ad 1425

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GUJRANWALA, Dec 21: Over 100 PPP activists, including MNAs and MPAs, who were proceeding to Islamabad to welcome Asif Ali Zardari, were taken into custody by police from Rawalpindi by-pass intersection and detained at Model Town police station here on Tuesday.

Later, they were released when the police arrested Mr Zardari in Islamabad. Reports said senior police officers held a meeting on Monday night to adopt a strategy to foil the PPP public meeting at Rawalpindi and arrested Kamoki president Bashir Ahmad and Malik Riaz the same night.

The police set up a picket at Rawalpindi by-pass intersection on Tuesday morning and arrested MNA Chaudhry Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, MPAs Mehr Muhammad Shabbir, Lala Shakeelur Rehman, Chaudhry Zahid Pervaiz, Abdullah Virk, Lala Muhammad Idris, Muhammad Tariq Gujjar, Muhammad Younas Mehr, Noman Aziz, Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal and others. Later, they were detained at the Model Town police station where the party workers gathered and chanted slogans against the government.

FAISALABAD: Local police arrested four PPP leaders, including an MPA, and stopped hundreds of others when they were on their way to Islamabad on Tuesday.

Reports said that the police teams headed by senior officials intercepted the caravans led by Punjab PPP Secretary General MPA Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan, MPAs Raja Riaz Ahmed, Faizaullah Kamoka, Dr Asam Moazam and Asghar Ali Qaisar and other PPP leaders near the Motorway Intersection at Sargodha Road.

MANDI BAHAUDDIN: Police forced the PPP activists to return to the district at Rasool check post on Tuesday morning when they were proceeding to welcome Mr Zardari.

A delegation, led by district president Tariq Tarar, District and Nazim Nazar Muhammad Gondal, started their journery for Islamabad. At Rasool check post, heavy police force baton-charged them and arrested two relatives of a former Punjab minister.