LAHORE: Police rounded up 40 suspects on Monday in connection with an attack on a vigil held by civil society to mark the death anniversary of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer on Sunday.The arrests followed registration of an FIR under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Sections 365, 427, 183, 148 and 149 of the Pakistain Penal Code.
More than 35 activists of civil society had gathered with banners, portraits and candles at Liberty Chowk when a group of people attacked the gathering. Over a dozen baton-wielding men tore the banners, portraits and posters and thrashed the activists.
A senior police investigator told Dawn that 40 suspects had been nabbed
Please don't kill me!
for interrogation, all of them belonging to a banned
...the word
bannedseems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization.
Police have identified one attacker as Mumtaz Sindhi and are raiding different places to arrest him. He said the suspects taken into custody were not primary targets.
The investigator said police would send pictures to the National Database and Registration Authority for identification because the real attackers were yet to be detained.
An organiser of the vigil, Diep Saeeda, told Dawn that she had been hit by something heavy and it was hurting. According to her, the SHO contacted her at about 3pm to discuss matters related to security. A police van was there when the attack took place but coppers acted as silent spectators, standing on the other side of the road.
Journalist Rai Shahnawaz said he was attacked although he had introduced himself as a media person, adding that the suspects also tried to kidnap him and bundled him into a car in which two gunnies were sitting.
He said his right ear was maimed after he had been hit in the head with sticks.
Complainant Abdullah stated in the FIR that four gunnies who were in a white car tried to kidnap a media person. They also attacked DSNG vans of TV channels.
He told Dawn that the activists had been holding the vigil for four years and no-one ever attacked them.
He said the activists were lighting candles when a young man appeared there, pulled out a knife and tore the portrait of Salman Taseer. He also shouted slogans in favour of Mumtaz Qadri (the killer of Mr Taseer).
Abdullah said there were about 15 attackers who came on two bikes and two cars. They attacked the participants with sticks.
Humyun Faiz, a witness, said the attackers thrashed the activists and raised slogans of 'Long live Khatm-e-Nabuwwat and Sunni Tehrik
...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and assassinations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities...
'.
The attack sparked protests which were joined by members of Salman Taseer's family, including his son Shaheryar Taseer, daughter Shehrbano and daughter-in-law Maheen Taseer.