LAHORE, Dec 7: A local magistrate on Friday sent 10 people including lawyers, students and members of civil society to jail on judicial remand till Dec 10. Earlier, Magistrate Muhammad Farhan Nabi announced in the courtroom that he will grant bail to two woman lawyers, Saima Amin Khawaja and Irum Ahsan, but changed his mind later and did not write the bail order.

“He never came back from his chamber after announcing bail to the woman lawyers. Not only he, the remaining magistrates also left their chambers,” Khuram Khosa told Dawn.

Those who have been sent to jail are Irum Ahsan, Saima Amin Khwaja, Javed Amin Khwaja, Ahmad Bashir, all advocates, Akhtar Ahmad, Amanullah, Muhammad Ashfaq, Kaza Muhammad Mahmood, Umar Pervez Khawar and SN Rehman.

They were arrested from outside Justice M.A. Shahid Siddiqui’s residence on Thursday night for keeping a vigil outside his house to protest his likely eviction.

The police locked them up in Racecourse police station where students from Lahore University of Management Sciences and Punjab University, lawyers and members of civil society organisations gathered. They kept a candle-lit vigil in front of the police station throughout the night and offered their arrests.