November 17, 2007	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 06, 1428

GUJRANWALA, Nov 16: Sticking to their colours, the PPP activists carried on their next phase of long march from Gujranwala that invited police to baton-charge and arrest of over 160 party’s leaders and workers in three towns of Punjab on Friday.

In Gujranwala, an upward of 150 PPP men were arrested, including former MNAs Imtiaz Safder Warraich and Manzoor Ahmed, district president Abdullah Virk and secretary-general Azhar Hassan Dar.

Reports said police also resorted to baton-charge to disperse PPP activists who had converged outside the old railway station to launch their long march from Gujranwala to Rawalpindi.

Protestors also pelted police with stones and the skirmishes between law enforcers and PPP men continued for some two hours. The traffic remained suspended during that period on the GT Road as a result.

Former MNA Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan, who was hiding at a secret place there, continued guiding the activists.

DIG Khadim Hussain Bhatti and other senior officers were also present there and kept monitoring the situation.

PPP MPA Mehr Shabbir, who was arrested and shifted to the Mianwali jail, was released on the direction of the Punjab government.

Among those arrested were: PPP divisional coordinator Chaudhry Imtiaz Virk, secretary-general Azhar Hassan Dar, former MNA Chaudhry Manzoor Hussain, MPA Lala Shakeel Ahmed, MPA Ejaz Samman, DBA president Ilyas Hussain Rehan, Dhullay nazim Chaudhry Saeed Gujjar, Chaudhry Tariq Gujjar, nazim Chaudhry Tariq Ali, PLF divisional president Anwar Tufail Warraich, People’s Labour Bureau president Khalid Bajwa, Shaikh Akram, Malik Zafar, Asif Khan, Akram Bheer Pehalwan, Salim Butt, Fazal Abbas Cheema, Mian Aasim Khan, Mian Arqam Khan and Shaikh Iqbal. They were shifted to jails in different police stations.

DIG Khadim Hussian Bhatti told journalists that the arrested PPP men would be treated in accordance with the law.

PPP sources said that provincial secretary-general Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas managed to reach Gujrat.

Chaudhry Sohail Ahmed Khan, the PPP’s Punjab human rights wing secretary, was also arrested from his residence on Thursday night.

GUJRAT: Police thwarted the protest rallies of PPP in Gujrat and Lala Musa and arrested over two dozen activists.

Both rallies were held on the GT Road from where the participants of long march from Gujranwala had to pass through.

Carrying party flags and placards, more than 100 activists, led by ex-MNA Qamar Zaman Kaira and ex-MPA Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, gathered on the GT Road in Lala Musa and staged a protest rally there. The protesters also shouted slogans against the imposition of emergency and suspension of the constitution.

The policemen deployed there resorted to a light baton-charge when protesters turned down their orders to disperse. Later, police arrested Qamar Zaman Kaira, Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, Zia Mohiuddin, Akhtar Barnala and Mian Afzal.

The two former legislators sustained minor injuries in a scuffle with policemen when Qamar Kaira slapped on the face of constable for manhandling him.

In Gujrat, police arrested over a dozen PPP workers and leaders including, district president Tahir Zaman Kaira and secretary-general Mian Fakhar Pagganwala.

The arrests were made when around two dozen activists assembled on the GT Road in front of the main gate of small industrial estate to welcome participants of the long march from Gujranwala. They also chanted slogans `go Musharraf go’.

A heavy police contingent had already cordoned off the area to foil any bid by the PPP to stage protest or receive the long march rally. The PPP leadership changed the venue of their protest from the GTS Chowk to the main gate of the SME.

However, DPO Mahmoodul Hassan Qureshi along with his force reached there and arrested the PPP men for taking out a protest rally.

Those arrested include PPP city president Zahid Salimi, Aamir Latif Toor, Malik Imran Sharif, Zafar Bhatti, Mir Anjum and Mehar Ghaffar. They were detained at the A-Division police station.