Shahbaz Bhatti, the Christian chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), one of the country’s main advocacy groups, told BosNewsLife that he was detained "and [about] 100 APMA workers arrested" in Lahore when they "started protesting against the state of emergency, the suspension of human rights" as well as against the crackdown on media and "the detention of lawyers and political and human rights activists."
He said, "Police brandished truncheons on a very peaceful procession leaving several APMA workers severely injured." Speaking with BosNewsLife by telephone from an undisclosed location, Bhatti added that one of his leading party workers, Naveed Amir Jeeva, "received [serious] injuries to his left eye and head," which required at least seven stitches by doctors.
Bhatti claimed he was interrogated for at least five hours since Tuesday, November 13, when he and other APMA activists were arrested while attempting to participate in a 270 kilometers (168 miles) protest march from Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, to the capital, Islamabad. While Bhatti and most others were released, dozens remained detained Wednesday, November 14, including APMA leaders Naveed Amir Jeeva and Sadiq Masih Gill, who were sent to Lahore’s Central ‘Kot Lakhpat’ Prison under a controversial ‘Anti-Terrorism Act,’ officials told BosNewsLife.
DOZENS CHARGED
Police also pressed charges against at least 24 other APMA workers for
apparently violating the state of emergency regulations, but there whereabouts were not immediately known Wednesday, November 14, APMA said. APMA’s Chief Organizer of Punjab province, Khalid Gill, said women were among those detained on what he said were false charges.
Very few Christian activists detained earlier have been released in recent days, including Ayra Indreas from the ‘Women Desk of the Chruch of Pakistan’s diocese of Lahore’ and her sister Mona Indreas, who were reportedly among dozens of human rights activists detained last week in Lahore. Indreas was released on November 6, after 52 hours, along with two other Christian leading activists, identified as Nadeem Anthony and Irfan Barkat.
"It was a real agony and misery I suffered during three days detention. I have a breathing problem and it just triggered in those days, thanks to God I am ok now," Indreas said in a statement released by Minorities Concern of Pakistan (MCP), a human rights group.
Several Christians, including APMA leaders, have urged the international community to press General Pervez Musharraf, the president, to end the state of emergency and restore basic human and democratic rights, including freeing those detained for participating in protests against his rule.
Musharraf said Wednesday, November 14, he expects to step down as army chief by the end of November and begin a new presidential term as a civilian, but made clear he would not yet end the state of emergency. He told The Associated Press (AP) news agency that Pakistan risked chaos if he gave into opposition demands to resign.
POLITICAL SITUATION
The chairman of the rights group Rays of Development Organization (ROD), Ferhan Mazher, told BosNewsLife however that the state of emergency is deteriorating the political situation in the country and "damaging Pakistan’s image abroad." Imran Khan was among the latest opposition politicians detained Wednesday, November 14, at a university rally in Lahore, shortly after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was put again under house arrest for seven days.
A BosNewsLife reporter witnessed how approximately over 1,000 heavily armed security forces took positions around the house in Lahore where she has been staying. Barbed wire and wooden barricades surrounded the residence with heavy containers blocking off the main entrance of the residence. Over 100 activists of her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were detained and dragged to a security van after they attempted to meet Bhutto.
As night fell over Lahore Wednesday, November 14, pro-democracy activists were weighing their options. Bhutto has said that campaigning and holding scheduled elections in January under the emergency laws, which suspend basic rights, would be difficult.
But President Musharraf has defended the country’s emergency laws, saying they are popular among Pakistanis and will help ensure a fair ballot. "Emergency is not meant to get a hold of opposition, prevent them from coming," he said. "We are going to allow any observers coming from abroad and seeing the elections – the fairness and transparency," he told state-run television, one of the few Pakistani broadcasters still allowed to operate.
The United States and other countries have urged him to end the state of emergency. (Read more from Jawad Mazhar on www.raysofdevelopment.org. Stay with BosNewsLife for the latest on the Crisis in Pakistan).
