 LAHORE: The Punjab Home Department has established a cell where detainees arrested during the government’s crackdown on militants and banned religious outfits will be subjected to scrutiny and imprisoned for three months thereafter, Home Department sources told Daily Times. Around 150 detainees, arrested from across the province, have already been scrutinised and 45 of them were sent to jail on Thursday.
Sources said that militants wanted in criminal cases would be imprisoned for three months under the Pakistan Penal Code and Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) if found guilty of trying to create hatred among various segments of society. However, those found not guilty will be released. The cell will monitor activities, speeches and writings of clerics and orators, serving in mosques and seminaries throughout the province and will compile regular reports which will be sent to the president and prime minister, sources said. They said the intelligence wing of the police would assist the Home Department in scrutiny, adding that similar cells would be set up in NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh on President Pervez Musharraf’s orders. |