ISLAMABAD: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench granted bail after arrest to 17 workers of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) on Wednesday.

These workers were arrested on the charges of attacking policemen on June 23, the day Dr Tahirul Qadri arrived in Pakistan.

The police had arrested 53 PAT workers for creating law and order situation outside the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, where PAT chief Dr Qadri was due to land.

The party activists have been charged for clashing with policemen and injuring a dozen officials.

The workers had then filed an application through their counsel, who maintained that the police had registered the case against party workers based on mala fide intentions.

The counsel further maintained that the police had registered fabricated cases against the workers and had not recovered any weapon from their possession. The workers were merely outside the airport to welcome their leader, when the police used teargas on them, he added, asking the court to grant bail to the arrested workers.

On the other hand, police had claimed that the workers were arrested for damaging public property and cases were registered against them under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2014