KARACHI, June 10: The police on Friday foiled Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s plan of a sit-in outside Sindh Assembly building by arresting their leaders and activists from Regal Chowk. However, later on they were released, police sources said.

The MMA had planned to take out a procession from Regal Chowk and stage a sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly building to protest against government’s failure to arrest killers of ex-MPA Aslam Mujahid and refusing to register FIR against his killers even after lapse of 10 days.

Police, Rangers and other law enforcement agencies personnel who were deployed in large numbers in Saddar after Friday prayers, according to MMA, hauled up dozens of workers and participants including Muhammad Hussain Mehanti, Nasrullah Shaji and Syed Rashid Ahmad.

Following the arrests, the MMA changed the venue of protest to Karachi Press Club where they staged demonstration and raised slogans against the government.

Addressing the participants, Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui said that attempts were being made to hijack public opinion in order to get desired results in the coming local government elections. He warned that if the arrested colleagues and workers were not released they would stage sit-in at the Governor’s House.

Accusing the government of patronizing the terrorists and killers, he demanded immediate dismissal of the provincial government and the governor. He urged the federal government to take notice of the situation and said that Landhi and Korangi had been turned into ‘no go’ areas for MMA workers where armed groups were roaming around.

Allama Hasan Turabi said that killers of Aslam Mujahid and Jamal Tahir as well as those involved in bomb blast in Madinatul Ilm Imambargah and burning of KFC were terrorists of the same network.

Shabbir Abu Talib, Qazi Ahmad Noorani, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, Syed Kausar Zaidi, Aminullah and Zafar Taqvi Rizvi also spoke.

WALKOUT: After staging walkout from the budget session of the Sindh Assembly MMA MPAs led by their parliamentary leader Maulana Omar Sadiq came to Karachi Press Club and joined the protest sit-in.