Source: thenews.jang.com.pk
ISLAMABAD: A peaceful, silent protest rally of students that started from near Markaz F-10 and proceeded to Jinnah Avenue, was baton-charged by police, who also arrested 48 students of them. Talking to ‘The News’, Samad Khurram, one of the participants of the protest said, “A silent protest was organised by students of different high schools of Islamabad. The students had pasted tapes on their mouths, but the police approached and asked students to stop. They complied and sat down.”
Samad continued: “Later students were asked to go back and they complied. It was while they were returning that 600-700 policemen, female police officers, anti-terrorist squad commandoes and plain clothed officers came saying they would arrest them as protest rally was not allowed. The police then started charging the students with batons and manhandled them. They pushed and dragged, abused and shoved students into police vans. Most of those arrested were class 9-12 students, while one of them was only a 12-year- old.”
After they had arrested 48 students, some lawyers and human rights workers convinced the police not to arrest the rest. The students later went to the police station and negotiated for the release of their comrades. The police agreed to release them and made some of them give written assurance not to participate in future rallies or protests.
The arrests on Monday were the largest arrests of students so far. It was the first incidence of mass arrests of juveniles. They were arrested even after they agreed to disperse. “Police was brutal towards minors as well. Forget the suspended Constitution, what happened to humanity”, said Samad. Only male students were arrested and later released on bail, another participant of the protest Samar Abbas Kazmi said.
E-mail this article to a friend
Tags: Arrested, baton-charged, Islamabad, Students
3 responses so far ↓
1 Laila // Nov 14, 2007 at 12:22 pm
How and why I think that the people of Pakistan are backward as hell? Even the affluent and the students are backward. There is lack of realism here, and absence of understanding of Pakistan’s situation.
It was shocking to see the other day that the LUMS students although were protesting, but their spokeswoman, one Zahra Sabri could not tell, when asked by a CNN interrogator, that why are they protesting and what do they want?
I say that all the people are beating about the bush without having any clear future policy, a defined agenda or a specific goal in front of them.
They say they don’t want Benazir woman as she looted the nation; they don’t want an ex-womanizer Imran Khan, who they advice should do Pakistan a favor by serving in the cricket field as that’s alone where he is needed being a misfit everywhere else. Then they do not want MMA because they think they are extreme fundamentalists who are distorting Islam, and neither do they want Nawaz and Shahbaz brothers back in power, as they will only do revengeful politics besides again expanding their own Empire where their industries can flourish.
Then my question is, that if they don’t have a clear and defined goal in front of them, then why have they decided to agitate at all? Why can’t they think a little more clearly, set a definite goal for themselves, or plain and simple, just stop this nonsence of getting carried away and coming under the influence of stupid people like Imran Khan, or Miss American Benazir, who herself says that she will do everything that the Americans want her to do. In other words, although she is a Pakistani, but has got ready to serve the Americans and is sent by them to colonize this area again, very cleverly, subtly making full use of the stupidity of the people here.
That’s why I call the people of Pakistan stupid, dopey, lost and backward. It is because of them that this country is so backward. Can they deny this backwardness? Am I wrong? Can they tell me they are living in a progressive society? If they say yes, they are lying. If they say no, then aren’t they responsible?
I have just said what I have been observing for a long time.
2 Laila // Nov 14, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Today’s Opposition Leaders are real fraud. It’s a farce as far as they are concerned.
It is because of these rich leaders that poor person finds himself in problems and bad condition. The government and the ruling party leaders have learned a lot under the influence of President Musharraf, and these governing leaders have truly been behaving as common man’s servants.
It is the opposition leaders who have been eating, sleeping and drinking well, driving in big cars, living in big houses, and has found politics as their hobby to give vent to their zeal. They have found political platform to show off, talk, do their fashions, and wield influence by working on the innocent who will fall for them and their fashionable talk. They visit beauty parlours and come to impress and get self-satisfaction.
A man like Imran Khan who has a big appetite for pleasures has indulged in every sin under the sun. If he thinks he has not been stealing, I would say that he is wrong, because he, in his own status has indulged even in that. What else is tax evation?
His marriage broke because of having children out of wedlock, and having relationships with women. Drugs is his another indulgence. After doing all that, he as an old man has now stepped into politics.
He had no success when he first took part in politics. He was good in only cricket and teaching his boys ball tampering and all other crooked things. It worked and because of his influence in those days in cricket, his other activities outside the cricket also worked.
Later on, no matter what he tries, he just beats about the bush and nobody takes him seriously. He gets carried away and as a habit keeps predicting, but thank God nothing he says comes true.
Benazir is another one of the same type, cunning clever, but seeking attention. This fashionable lot who indulge in plastic surgeries from chin-tuck-ins to liposuction to some major ones, and like Sheikh Rashid says they regularly are visiting beauty parlors and appearing on the stage of politics, coming on the electronic media to get the attention from the public at large.
3 Zahra Sabri // Nov 29, 2007 at 2:24 am
People are missing the point of the LUMS movement. Its really about civil liberties and their blatant blatant abuse. After a long time, we were actually happy that someone powerful finally brought up the missing persons issue. Its something we should have made a greater fuss about earlier. Really - its so embarassing to face one’s Baluchi aquaintances and know that we didn’t come out on the streets when people they know were being treated so brutally left right and centre. Leila - would you say that because there is no grand alternative for a leader, we shouldn’t bother protesting against the messing up of an institution which was finally doing more good than harm? Of course, we don’t know who to rally around. At the moment, no one seems overwhelmingly worth it. At election time, each of us will no doubt choose settle on who we think is the lesser devil, the best compromise. But can the student movement of any campus actually collectively rally around a particular individual… Not in the present structure… people have very different opinions about which leader will be the better option - some think BB’s won’t be that bad, some thing Nawaz would be the most benign, some have great loyalty for Imran, some even think Altaf is the most efficient and least elitist and guess what some still have a lot respect for Musharraf hows that? But this does not stop all of us from coming out in protest against the abuse of civil rights. we consider that a duty - when such increasingly blatant brutality is taking place, we have to try to stop the regime - using both domestic and international moral or merely expedient pressure. its not about overthrowing a regime by the way - if an overthrow results as a byproduct of our agitations, then that is due to the regime’s stupidity in being too rigid to give in to the people. we haven’t really set out with that EXACT purpose in mind…
Being unsure about who should be leader is only natural given the sad options available. New faces are the ideal option - one hopes they may emerge to some extent even through this movement, but given that elections are around the corner, that does not seem likely to happen any time soon. So doubt is only natural, to pretend a confidence one doesn’t really feel is what would be unrealistic. Realism at this point more about knowing who one definitely wouldn’t like to vote for than knowing who one would want to vote for… However, whatever regime we find ourselves living under, whatever leader we find ourselves faced with, we surely surely have to voice our concerns about the right or wrong policy. when most of the self-serving opposition leaders don’t seem to be very good at trying to check governmental heavy-handedness, it’s the students who have to fill the vacuum… and the journalists… and everyone else in civil society.
Leave a Comment