SAHIWAL: Up to 50 workers of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) were arrested here on Monday and sent to the Central Jail, according to police and PAT lawyer Chaudhry Ashfaq.

He said the workers were held without any FIR.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Rai Hasan Nawaz alleged the administration planned to arrest 200 workers of the party. He told reporters at his residence most of their workers had already gone to Islamabad and Lahore to participate in Azadi March on Aug 14. The remaining would leave Sahiwal for Lahore late on Aug 13.

PTI District President Shakeel Khan Niazi informed Dawn from some undisclosed location that their workers would resist arrests. He said 1,500 workers from Sahiwal would participate in the march.

GUJRANWALA: More than 300 activists of both the PAT and the PTI have been arrested in the week-long crackdown.

Some of them are languishing in the central jail while others have been detained at undisclosed places, sources said.

A majority of the arrested belongs to the PAT who were arrested after clashes near Khori on GT Road on Aug 8.

PAT activist Hasan told Dawn police had arrested his relatives Haji Muhammad Aslam and Muhammad Burhan and shifted them to jail.

He alleged when he went to meet them in jail, officials asked him to seek permission from the district coordination officer. He said though he managed a permission letter from the DCO, the jail authorities did not allow him to see them.

Several people are in search of their relatives detained by police but their whereabouts are not known.

Similarly, PTI District President Rana Naeemur Rehman said police were raiding the houses and businesses of their workers.

A spokesman for the district police said those arrested were being treated as per law. He refuted the allegation that some workers were in illegal custody.

Published in Dawn, Aug 12th, 2014