November 11, 2007	Sunday	Shawwal 29, 1428

LAHORE, Nov 10: The intensity of crackdown against opposition parties has reduced, and police are now acting against those leaders/activists who intend to gather people as a part of street agitation against the imposition of emergency.

On the other hand, the opposition parties claim the raids are still on and there is no let-up.

“As almost all active middle-level organisers and workers of opposition parties, who can mobilise protest gatherings, have been detained the police are not raiding the houses/offices and rather acting against trouble-makers and violators,” a capital city police official told Dawn on Saturday.

He claimed that no house raids were conducted on Saturday and no body was arrested.

However, a Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) release claimed the police continued raiding houses of JI leaders and workers in the city on Friday night.

It said the police raided houses of JI’s Lahore general secretary and former MPA Chaudhry Muhammad Shaukat, UC-128 naib nazim Aamir Nisar Khan, former Nishtar Town ameer Khalid Ahmed Butt, Haji Muhammad Saeed and Liaqat Jutt of Ganj Bakhsh Town and Shahzad in Samanabad Town but could not arrest them.

The release further claimed the police had detained secretary of UC-74 nazim Ziauddin Ansaari during separate raids at his office and residence.

Lahore PPP president Haji Azizur Rehman Chan, talking to Dawn by phone, put the number of arrests during the last three days up to 1,000 but he could not tell about the fresh arrests.

He claimed raids on the houses of party leaders, office-bearers and workers were going on without any break.

He said more than 200 policemen were still present at the party’s Lahore office situated in Baghbanpura.

A PML-N official, talking to Dawn, claimed the police, late Friday and early Saturday, raided the chamber of party’s Punjab vice president and former MPA Rana Mashood Ahmed and detained a lawyer, Beenish. Another office of Rana Mashood was raided at Gulshan-i-Ravi from where the police detained four workers, including Sarwar Jutt and Zahid Mughal.

He further said the police raided the dera of UC-59 nazim Hamid Serwer and detained a worker, Zafar Ahmed, adding raid was also conducted on office of Chauhdry Akram Gujjar at Ghoray Shah.

According to a PML-N press release, the police have taken 11-day judicial remand of former MNA Khawaja Saad Rafique from an ATC after his arrest on Friday and shifted him to the Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Earlier, he was shifted to the Gawalmandi police station after his arrest. Later was taken to the Sarwer Road police station at around 7pm and again shifted to some unidentified location at 11pm on Friday.

According to official figures, the police have so far detained around 1,123 people, including lawyers, leaders and activists of opposition parties and human rights activists since the crackdown launched against them on Saturday last.

Out of total 1,123 detained people, around 350 lawyers and 54 human rights activists have already been granted bail.