LAHORE/PESHAWAR, March 13: The countrywide crackdown on lawyers and leaders and activists of opposition parties continued on Friday, with over 200 people detained across Punjab and 160 in the NWFP.

Section 144 earlier imposed on virtually all cities and towns of Punjab and Sindh was clamped also on large parts of the NWFP.

Police sealed the Sindh-Punjab border near Sadiqabad and closed Sutlej bridge near Bahawalpur, Chenab bridge linking Multan with Muzaffargarh and Ghazi Ghat bridge over the Indus near Dera Ghazi Khan to prevent lawyers and political and rights activists from coming to Lahore or Islamabad.

The closure of bridges on busy highways affected transport and a large number of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the Sindh-Punjab border at Kot Sabzal.

Most of the detained political activists belonged to the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf.

About 100 people were arrested in Lahore, sixty in Sargodha, 22 in Sialkot, 15 in Multan, 36 in Faisalabad, 50 in Vehari, 20 in Sheikhupura, eight in Toba Tek Singh and six in Bahawalpur.

Punjab Bar Council vice-chairman Asif Ali Malik condemned the crackdown and said that lawyers would reach Islamabad on March 16 at any cost.

Arrests in the Frontier province were made despite assurances given by Chief Minster Ameer Haider Khan Hoti that his government had no plans to launch a crackdown.

Peshawar High Court Bar Association president Abdul Latif Afridi and vice-president Advocate Fida Gul, PML-N’s central general secretary Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Jamaat-i-Islami leaders Shabir Ahmed Khan, Sabir Hussain Awan, Haji Dost Mohammad, Ghulam Mohammad and Hafiz Hashmat have been placed under house arrest.

Dawn correspondents reported that over 160 senior lawyers and politicians had been arrested in Peshawar, Nowshera, Haripur, Swabi, Karak, Charsadda, Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, Shangla, Kohat, Chitral, Abbottabad, Lakki Marwat, Battagram and Mansehra.

NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said in a statement that the decision to impose Section 144 and arrest lawyers and political workers had been taken because of reports that terrorists might take advantage of the situation.

Prominent woman lawyer and vice-chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Musarrat Hilali was allegedly manhandled by police during a raid on her Gulbahar residence. She is reported to have suffered fracture in a leg.

The Peshawar DCO imposed Section 144 and banned display of weapons in public for 30 days.

Prominent among those detained in the NWFP are: PHCBA general secretary Advocate Essa Khan, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf leaders Arshad Khan and Khalid Khan, PML-N’s NWFP vice-president Abdul Sattar, its Peshawar president Razaullah, Ali Khan and Malgari Walkeelan, JI leaders Hakeem Abdul Waheed, Haji Niaz Ali, Yousuf Ali Mohammad Ishtiaq Elahi and Arbab Sher Yar, Hayatabad Union Council Nazim Mohammad Usman, Bakhshi Pul Nazim Masal Khan, Sardar Alam Khan and Naeem Akbar Chitrali.

Police also raided homes of JI’s NWFP Amir Serajul Haq and Naib Amir Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, Abdul Akbar Chitrali and PML-N MPA Shazia Aurangzeb, but did not find them.

Meanwhile, PTI workers burnt tyres on the main Shershah Suri Road in protest against the crackdown.
Tags: