Crying foul: PTI to protest ‘illegal’ arrests of workers

Party meeting to be held on Monday (today) to decide future strategy.

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Peshawar chapter has warned of protests if party workers arrested by the Islamabad police are not released by Sunday.

“This is complete injustice on part of the police,” PTI district president Yaseen Khan Khalil told The Express Tribune. “Our workers remained peaceful during the Azadi march but the police arrested them and put them behind bars.”

He added the party has decided to hold a meeting to devise a strategy for protests and demonstrations against the “illegal” arrests.



According to Khalil, more than 50 PTI workers from the district have been arrested by the police and sent to Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. A majority of the workers have not been in contact with their families as their cell phones have been confiscated by the police.

“They are being tortured and their families are worried about their health,” said Khalil. The Peshawar president said party workers who intend to participate in the march are being stopped on the motorway and arrested.

PTI Malik Sardar Khan said the district leadership will hold a meeting on Monday (today) where future strategy will be discussed. Meanwhile, party workers await the PTI leadership’s directives and as soon as the leaders announce action, workers have said they will take to streets against the arrests.

The police arrested a number of PTI workers including PTI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa President Azam Swati. Swati was later released by a duty magistrate on Sunday, but many workers are still behind bars with the majority incarcerated in Adiala Jail.

Three more passenger vehicles left Peshawar for the federal capital on Sunday, carrying dozens who will participate in the ongoing protest there.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2014.