Over 140 PTI workers arrested

Rawalpindi courts grant bails to over a dozen PTI leaders, including an MPA

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: Following clashes with police in the twin cities, authorities have arrested over 140 workers and supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over the past three days, officials confirmed.

Meanwhile, courts in Rawalpindi granted bail to 28 PTI workers, including a member of provincial assembly.

Since the Islamabad administration imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC) on Thursday afternoon, as many as 145 PTI workers had been arrested in the capital, a police official confirmed to The Express Tribune.



Police had started a cracked down against PTI workers on October 27, starting with a convention of young party workers in Sector E-11, just hours after the district magistrate had banned all kinds of assemblies and gatherings of five or more persons in the capital.

Police said Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Asad Umar led a gathering of around 200-250 PTI workers. Police warned and requested them to disperse and launched a crackdown when their warnings were not heeded. A total of 37 were rounded up and booked in E-11.

At around the same time, six PTI supporters were arrested by the Kohsar police for taking out a rally in F-7 Markaz.

On Friday, when dozens of PTI workers tried to make their way to the residence of party chief Imran Khan in Bani Gala, at least 72 PTI workers were arrested after they clashed with the heavy contingent of police camped outside.

Police claimed they had also recovered two electric tasers from a group of PTI workers who had come from Hassanabdal.

Another 24 PTI workers coming from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were arrested on Friday as they tried to enter Islamabad. Most of these have been sent to Adiala Jail on judicial remand.



Meanwhile, Chaudhry Rizwan, a senior PTI official for Islamabad claimed that police had on Saturday arrested 30 party workers from outside Bani Gala.

Bails in Rawalpindi

Judicial magistrates in Rawalpindi on Saturday accorded bail to 28 PTI workers, including a sitting MPA, for clashing with law enforcers on Friday.

PTI workers had clashed with police near Committee Chowk after Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed gave a speech.

Magistrate Gulfam Latif Butt granted bail to PTI MPA Ijaz Khan along with 25 other party workers. The PTI workers, produced before the court by Waris Khan police, were asked to submit surety bonds worth Rs30,000 each.

Police requested the court to send the men to Adiala jail for 14 days on judicial remand since they had been charged under section 353, 186, 188, 147, 149, and 341.



However, after hearing arguments of lawyers representing the PTI workers, the magistrate deemed the charges bailable. The court also ruled that bails could be granted against personal sureties as well.

Similarly, Magistrate Waqar Mansoor Baryar granted bail to Safeer and Iqbal against surety bonds of Rs30,000 each. The two PTI workers had been booked by Airport police on Friday after they clashed with law enforcers.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2016.