Crackdown against opposition parties activists continues

Crackdown of law enforcement agencies continued against the activists of political parities, who are supporting and participating long march and in this connection at least 142 activists of PML-N, JI, Jamiat Ahle-Hadith and Shabab-i-Milli have been arrested so far in Southern Punjab, said MNA, PML-N, Rana Mehmood-ul-Hassan.
He alleged, "Police is violating the sanctity of "Chadar aur Chardeevari" by trespassing into the homes and arresting the party workers in a bid to foil long march." Jamaat Islami spokesman, Kanwar Siddique said, "our a dozen activists were held."
While press secretary, Jamiat Ahle-Hadith said, "Our District president and other office bearers were held in Multan, Jalalpur pirwala, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan." Police on Thursday arrested over 500 political workers, including PML-N activists in a countrywide massive crackdown kicked off on Tuesday night.
However, District Nazim Sahiwal refused to impose Section 144 in the district and the nazim said that police should always discharge their duties in line with the law. Additionally, He said, I have taken oath to accept the orders which are in accordance with the law and illegal orders could not be accepted at any cost.
The arrests came after the Punjab police had been given lists of the workers of PML-N and other parties besides active lawyers to ensure law and order situation and to bar them from participating in the long march. Many political activists were dragged and thrashed in the presence of their relatives and neighbours. Police officials also faced strong resistance from different parts of the city.
A senior police officer said, on the condition of anonymity, that many police officers were reluctant in launching crackdown against the PML-N workers and leaders due to fear of strict departmental action by the said party senior leaders in future.
It is evident from the fact that, he said, a very small number of PML-N workers were taken into custody. The sources claimed that high-ups of police had received detention orders of at least one hundred active workers, central leaders of the political parties, including PML-N and senior lawyers respectively. Though the numbers of arrested political workers were not much high as it was being expected but the frequent raids at the residences and offices of the party workers and lawyers caused huge panic among the citizens.
Police sources said that due to rumours of massive crackdown, a large number of political workers, active lawyers and office bearers had already gone underground to avoid arrests. Police teams conducted raids at the residences and offices of the political party workers and office-bearers, bundled them in the vans and sent them to the local jails.