November 07, 2007	Wednesday	Shawwal 25, 1428

PESHAWAR, Nov 6: Provincial president of PML-N Pir Sabir Shah and senior leaders of the Awami National Party were arrested on Tuesday as police intensified its crackdown on political workers and intervened to stop protest rallies.

Clashes took place between activists of the ANP and riot police during a demonstration held at the Bacha Khan Chowk in protest against the proclamation of emergency and law-enforcement personnel rounded up former Senator Syed Aqil Shah, Bashir Ahmad Bilour and other ANP leaders.

The protesters put on fire an effigy of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Hundreds of workers of the ANP and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party took out a procession under the Pakhtunkhwa National Democratic Alliance from the Bacha Khan Markaz, which turned into a public meeting at the Bacha Khan Chowk.

The participants raised slogans also against the NWFP caretaker chief minister and Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

The procession was led by ANP’s acting president Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, provincial president Afrasiab Khattak, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Bashir Bilour, Syed Aqil Shah and PMAP’s Mukhtar Khan Yousafzai, Arbab Mujeeb and Dr Said Alam Mahsud.

A number of ANP workers and party’s provincial general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain suffered minor injuries in the clashes.

Earlier, at a meeting held at the Bacha Khan Markaz, PMAP and ANP leaders condemned the imposition of emergency and the “bloodshed on the soil of Pakhtuns”.

They demanded release of detained politicians, lawyers and human rights activists and said the situation would worsen if the emergency was not lifted immediately and democracy was not restored.

They paid tribute to judges who had declined to take oath under the PCO.

They asked their workers to take part in large numbers in anti-government rallies and demonstrations and announced support to a protest call given by the provincial leadership of the All Parties Democratic Movement for Friday.

Provincial chief of Jamaat-i-Islami Sirajul Haq and former MNA Sabir Hussain Awan escaped when police raided a place where they were addressing a press conference.