KARACHI, Feb 17: Seven teenagers were arrested on Sunday at Numaish on M.A. Jinnah Road for putting up posters of an outlawed organisation.

The posters carried the message of the proscribed outfit, Hizbul Tehrir, urging people not to cast their votes as it claimed that democracy could not bring about a change and revival of Caliphate was the only solution to all the problems afflicting Pakistan society.

Jamshed Town SP Javed Baloch told Dawn that those arrested, aged between 14 and 15 years, were not Hizb activists but were paid to perform the job.

Quoting the arrested persons, the SP said that some people came to the old Sabzi Mandi area and paid Rs500 to a pickup driver and Rs100 to others and asked them to put up the posters on the streets in Numaish area.

Police have arrested the youngsters and the pickup driver and seized around 2,500 posters from their possession.

Hizbul Tehrir was banned by the government of Pakistan under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 along with Jamiatul Ansar and Jamaatul Furqan in 2003.

Those arrested have been identified as Ghulam Ali, Rizwan Ali, Abdul Samad, Talha, Sharafat Ali, Mohammad Sajid and Mohammad Rafaqat.

According to the SP Jamshed Town, all the seven persons have been detained for the time being and kept at the Brigade police station while FIRs will be lodged shortly.

He said that the arrested youngsters were being interrogated to catch the actual culprits.