70 arrested as police raid HRCP meeting
LAHORE, Nov 4: Lahore police intensified the crackdown against prominent lawyers, leaders and activists of human rights organisations and opposition parties, claiming to have detained around 211 of them and the raids were on till the filing of the report.
Garden Town police reportedly arrested around 70 civil society activists in a raid on the meeting of Joint Action Committee being held at Human Rights Commission of Pakistan office. They were detained in Model Town police station where around 15 people, including lawyers and activists of political parties were already kept.
Some prominent rights activists like I A Rehman, Asma Jehangir and Iqbal Haider were later placed under house arrest. They were detained at Asma Jahangir’s Gulberg residence. Dr Mubashir Hassan, Robina saigol, Azra Shad, Khalid Mehmood, Mehboob Khan and Raja Salman were also among those arrested during the raid.
The participants of the meeting were discussing the situation after the imposition of emergency in the country when the raid was conducted in a harsh manner, Asma Jehangir said.
According to the HRCP officials, police broke the windows of the hall to enter there, disrupted the meeting and asked the participants to come out.
All participants were bundled into police vans and driven to the police station, they said.
The police had cordoned off the whole building and blocked the road leading to HRCP office at the time of raid.
A capital city police source confided to Dawn that the police were helpless and following orders of a leading intelligence agency.
According to separate claims made by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Isnaaf, their 1,200 and 50 activists, respectively, have been detained during the last 24 hours.
According to sources, the government ordered intelligence agencies and police on Saturday evening to conduct the crackdown to prevent political and rights activists from participating in lawyers’ Monday (today’s) protest against the enforcement of emergency and proclamation of provisional constitutional order (PCO).
Capital city police sources told Dawn the police detained 22 people from Model Town division, 21 from Saddar, 23 from Cantonment, 24 from Mughalpura, 21 from Ravi, 25 from City, 22 from Civil Lines, 19 from Kot Lakhpat and 24 from Iqbal Town division till 9pm on Sunday.
“Crackdown is in progress and more than 200 people are with the police,” a senior police officer told Dawn.
Families of many detenus had to suffer harassment in the wee hours of Sunday when police raided their houses and picked the targeted people. In many cases police were not ready to disclose the places where the detenus were kept, adding to the plight of their families.
“We have no information about them as the local police are not telling us about their whereabouts,” Javed Majeed, a relative of one of the arrested men said.
“We were asleep when police officials in large numbers started beating the door and windowpanes of our house. They told my father, an advocate, to accompany them as Gulberg ASP wanted to see him, without informing us about the matter,” a relative of the detenu, having affiliation with the PTI, told Dawn seeking anonymity.
“I am totally helpless and obeying orders of high-ups,” he quoted the ASP concerned as having said.
Police warned the families and relatives of the arrested activists to avoid newsmen and not to reveal any information to them otherwise they could face problems, a family member of an arrested lawyer told this reporter on telephone.
Meanwhile, prominent lawyers, including Lahore District Bar Association president Muhammad Shah, Lahore High Court Bar Association president Ahsan Bhoon, advocates Ashtar Ausaaf, Khalid Hussain, Lahore Bar Association senior vice-president Iftikhar Bhatti and others were arrested and detained in different lock ups.
The Wahdat Colony police raided the house of a former LHCBA president, advocate Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari, who is also president of Islamic Lawyers Movement, Jamaat-e-Islami, in Clifton Colony at around 4am and detained him.
The Green Town police arrested Punjab Bar Council member Naveed Anayat Malik from his house at around 2:30am while his elder brother advocate Pervez Anayat Malik escaped before police raided his Township residence.
“Police officials in large numbers are still outside my house but I will participate in protest and court arrest there,” Pervez told Dawn telephonically.
According to PML-N Lahore information secretary, police detained more than 200 activists of the party by 9pm.
MPA Mehr Ishtiaq Ahmed, party’s Punjab lawyer wing president Advocate Naseer Bhutta and additional secretary information, Lahore, Tauseef Shah were also held.
Raids were on to arrest other prominent leaders who had gone under-ground to avoid arrests.
Strangely, the leaders and workers of JUI-F and PPP were not targeted by the police.
PTI Punjab women wing secretary general Shaista Khan was also arrested.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/5/2007
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