GUJRAT, Sept 20: A search operation to arrest the activists of Wajahat force is still under way in Gujrat as a PML-Q spokesman has claimed more arrests during the last 24 hours.

Reports said Gujrat Saddar SI Amjad Husain got three-day remand from a special anti-terrorism court for the 20 activists who were arrested on Thursday during a major crackdown. Since then a number of workers had gone underground to prevent their arrests.

PML-Q spokesman and private secretary to MNA Wajahat Husain, Hameedullah Bhatti, told Dawn that former Barilla Sharif union council nazim Chaudhry Asghar, Ghewranwali UC ex-nazim Chaudhry Zulfiqar and MSF district president Zahid Bhatti were arrested on Saturday in some already registered robbery and theft cases in various areas of the district.

Police is still unable to arrest main office-bearers of the force, including its district president Shehzad Gull, a UC nazim, and tehsil president Adeel Arshad who is wanted in many other cases of heinous crimes.

Sources said Adeel Arshad had fled to Europe to avoid his arrest and many others were still at large.

They said raiding teams from Mandi Bahauddin and Gujranwala had been called as it was feared that local police had leaked information to influential activists. Sources said former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi and Wajahat Husain talked to the detained activists on cell phones of the visitors. Wajahat Husain has also constituted a free legal aid committee for the arrested workers.

Meanwhile, PML-N district president Malik Hanif Awan and secretary-general MPA Haji Nasir Mehmood in a joint statement appreciated the police operation against the Wajahat force and denied that the action was political victimisation.

They also denied PML N role in the police crackdown on the force.