MULTAN, June 5: Eight women activists of the PPP, jailed for protesting against LFO and torture of opposition members in the Punjab Assembly, were released on Thursday from the local women jail.

Those released are Sajida Mir, Shamim Niazi, Fahmida Rizvi, Naseem Fidaus, Zobaida Saif, Surraya Bhatti, Bushra Sarfraz and Amma Sughran.

A court of Lahore had accepted their bail applications on Tuesday, but the release orders took two days to reach Multan.

Scores of local PPP workers and leaders, including MNA Begum Naseem Chaudhry, divisional coordinator Ahmad Hasan Deharr, district president Habibullah Shakir, Khwaja Rizwan Alam and ex-MPA Khursheed Khan, welcomed them at the main gate of the jail.

Speaking on the occasion, the released PPP women alleged that the authorities took them to Wagah border after their arrest and harassed them saying that they would be shot dead for ‘being agents of the enemy’. Later, they were taken to the Cantonment police station before shifting to Multan.

They alleged that the home secretary was behind the harassment drama.

ROTI PLANTS: The district government will install Roti plants in all three prisons of Multan in collaboration with the Prisoners Aid Society.

According to an official handout, this was decided at a meeting presided over by acting district Nazim and DCO Azam Suleman here on Thursday.

Four plants would be installed in the Central Jail, two in the District Jail and one at the Women Jail. Each plant will cost Rs60,000.