MUZAFFARABAD, April 15: People’s Party Azad Kashmir President Sahibzada Mohammad Ishaq Zaffar and seven other leaders of the party, including two former AJK ministers, were arrested by Punjab police on Friday for violation of Section 144.

The leaders were heading to Lahore in a caravan of more than 100 vehicles when they were stopped by Punjab police as they entered the province near Upper Deol.

The stoppage of the caravan resulted in formation of long queues of vehicles on the narrow road, causing inconvenience to passengers travelling between Muzaffarabad and Rawalpindi. More than 250 vehicles were stranded for nearly two hours.

The traffic opened when angry travellers lifted the barrier erected by police.

However, police did not allow the PPAJK leaders to move ahead and arrested eight of them under Section 188 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Those arrested included former forests minister Chaudhry Latif Akbar, former education minister Sardar Qamaruzzaman Khan, Mian Abdul Waheed, Chaudhry Mohammad Rasheed, Sardar Rafique Baig, Arif Mughal and Hanif Awan.

Sahibzada Zaffar told Dawn over phone that they were being kept at the Murree police station.