LAHORE, June 12: Police during its desperate hunt for PTCL employees on Saturday kept harassing and humiliating relatives and family members of the ‘wanted’ in the wake of the takeover of the company’s installation by troops in Punjab.

Those picked up included the company’s union leaders and workers, and the relatives of those, who were found missing when the police raided their houses.

“We have been ordered to pick up any of the family members if the wanted employee is not available,” a police official said in Lahore. He also admitted of having held some women members of the ‘wanted’ people.

There were reports of intimidation and humiliation during the raids, especially with the family members of those who had gone into hiding to escape arrests.

“The police have arrested two of my brothers who have nothing to do with the PTCL. One of my uncles is an employee of the company. The police want us to produce the uncle if we want my brothers released,” a resident of Shalamar said, and requested not to be named.

He said the police raided his house late on Saturday night. “The policemen almost broke into the house and harassed women and children.”

The police began the raids shortly after the troops and men from the Pakistan Rangers and the police had taken control of the PTCL installations in the city and elsewhere in the province. All the company workers from grade 1 to 15 had been evicted from their offices before the law enforcers got into the installations.

Ghulam Sabir Butt, a member of the PTCL employees action committee, alleged the police were conducting raids as if they were looking for terrorists. He said most of the arrested men had nothing to do with the issue, and they were held just for having a link in one way or the other with any of the employees or union leaders.

However, he said the employees would continue their struggle till the last. “We will block roads. We are ready to die.” He said the employees would suspend all operations of the company from June 15 if the government did not meet their demands. He alleged the company sell-off was a conspiracy against thousands of workers, their family members and the nation.

He claimed the government was selling the company’s shares and its installations at much lower rate.

Besides arresting 60 men in Lahore, of which only 24 are workers and union leaders, the remaining were relatives of those not found by the police. Reports reaching here suggsted that 12 of the workers were picked up in Toba Tek Singh, over two dozen in Faisalabad, around 25 in Multan, seven in Sialkot and one in Mandi Bahauddin.

Meanwhile, there were complaints of network breakdowns in some parts of the city and subscribers faced lots of hardships.