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| India-Pakistan |
| Pak police arrest school kids for holding anti-Mush protest |
| 2007-11-13 |
| ISLAMABAD: Pakistan police arrested scores of school students, the youngest being a 12-year-old, who participated in a silent rally in Islamabad to protest against the Emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf. With silver and black tape stuck on their mouths and holding placards with slogans like "Justice for justices" and "Free the media", about 100 students braved police batons near the upmarket Jinnah Super market on Monday. Police arrested 48 of them, who were later released on bail. Samad Khurram, who took part in the protest, told the News, "students of various high schools organised a silent protest. When the policemen approached us and asked us to stop, we did and tried to cooperate with them. "But as we were going back, 600-700 policemen, including women officers, anti-terrorist squad commandos and officers in plainclothes descended and told us they would arrest us because a protest rally was not allowed," Khurram said. He accused the police of using batons to disperse the children and pushing, dragging and even abusing them before they were shoved into police vans. A large number of girls also participated in the protest, probably the first organised by school children though demonstrations have been organised in several universities and colleges over the past week. "Most of those arrested are studying in classes 9 to 12, the youngest was just 12 years old!," Khurram said. After police shoved 48 students into vans, some lawyers and human rights workers managed to convince them not to arrest more children. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #2 Sounds reasonable. |
| Posted by: Vlad Putin 2007-11-13 12:09 |
| #1 Please read the following segment from Mushy's emergency declaration. He claimed that he needed powers to fight terrorism, yet he has committed hundreds of troops and police to keep the democratic opposition in custody. Musaraf: Today, I am speaking to you as Pakistan stands at a dangerous crossroads. It is in inner turmoil, everything that is happening, it is due to internal reasons. This moment ... in the history of many nations there are moments of painful decisions ... this is such a moment for Pakistan when important and difficult decisions have to be made. And, I fear, that if we don't act immediately, then God forbid, the very union of Pakistan is in danger. Before I say anything else, I just want to make one promise to this nation. That whatever I do, whatever decision I have made, it is, before all, on the basis of Pakistan ... and that is my guiding principle. Before all, Pakistan. Beyond personal benefit, beyond personal consideration, Pakistan first. And I hope that the nation will also feel the same way. My brothers and sisters, in the past months, the circumstances have changed rapidly in Pakistan. I want to speak with you about that - frankly. One thing I have been saying all along - terrorism and extremism has reached extreme levels. Right now, suicide attacks are happening across Pakistan. That which happened in Karachi, and then in Rawalpindi, and then in Sargogha, in all of Pakistan, it is intensifying. Extremists are roaming across the country without fear and without hindrance. In fact, they are not even scared of the law enforcement agencies. They are confident. Things were happening in the frontier provinces and we were dealing with that. Some of it spread to the settled areas. You know what is happening in Swat and in southern districts as well. We have faced that challenge. But, the tragedy is that in Islamabad, the heart of Pakistan, the capital of Pakistan ... even here, extremism has spread and people are uncertain. These extremists are taking the writ of government in their own hands. They want to establish a state within our state. And the worst bit is that their corrupt ideas about Islam, they want to forcibly enforce them upon the peace and justice seeking people of Pakistan. And in my view this is a direct challenge to the union of Pakistan. Let us move forward. How is the government functioning? In my view, it is in semi-paralysis, stricken. All of the senior representatives of the government are constantly going to the courts - especially to the Supreme Court. They are being giving sentences. They are being shamed publicly in the courts. Hence, they don't want to take any more decisions. At least 100 suo moto cases are currently running in the Supreme Court. And I am being told that thousands of applications are pending. And all of these suo moto cases are concerning the executive branch of the government. Functioning of the government is paralyzed at the moment. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2007-11-13 06:36 |