April 05, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 16, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, April 4: Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday condemned arrests of party activists on the eve of a protest demonstration in support of suspended Chief Justice of Pakistan, and demanded their immediate release from jails.

The PPP activists arrested and sent to jails in different parts of the country are Atif Kiani, Arshad Bagi, Malik Shuhda Muhammad Haidry, Majeed Mir, Rashid Bagi, Haji Parvez, Muhammad Najeeb Bhatti, Raja Asif, Manzoor Bhatti, Taj Bukhari, Tariq Khattak, Imran Mani, Malik Mazhar Hussain Babar, Haji Shafique, Rana Shaukat, Khalid Nawaz Bobi, Sardar Shaukat Hayat, Sultan Mahmood Qazi, Iqbal Razzaq Butt, Maqbool Ahmed Khan, Agha Taimur and Tariq Bin.

“The midnight swoop and arrests of peaceful activists have reinforced the image that the country is a police state in which political dissent is stifled with brute force and brutality,” Ms Bhutto said in a statement issued from Dubai and released by her Media Office here on Wednesday.

The arrested PPP and ARD activists have been shifted to jails in far-off places in Punjab to keep them away from their families.

Ms Bhutto said the detention of these activists was unlawful and demanded their immediate release.

She praised the party workers for staging peaceful demonstrations and for not getting provoked in the face of “state repression.”

Ms Bhutto also directed the party leadership and PPP’s lawyers’ wing to provide legal aid to all detained workers.