D
Dr. Jai Maharaj
Guest
Pakistani police arrest hundreds
[Caption] Activists and supporters of Pakistani opposition
party Jamaat-i-Islami shout slogans during a convention
near Manga Mandi, some 35 km from Lahore.
Arif Ali / AFP/Getty Images
One newspaper calls the emergency crackdown, which includes
the detention of political foes, 'Gen. Musharraf's second
coup.'
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Monday, November 5, 2007
Islamabad, Pakistan - Hundreds of opponents of President
Pervez Musharraf, including venerable judges, human rights
activists and rival politicians, were rounded up Sunday by
police, signaling the start of what could be a long and
concerted crackdown against those who have challenged his
authority in past months.
On the first full day of a state of emergency declared by
the general late Saturday, Musharraf's aides raised the
possibility that parliamentary elections expected by early
2008, which had been seen as a crucial step toward civilian
rule, might be put off for as long as a year.
In a sign of Musharraf's displeasure at the freewheeling
media that for months had documented his every political
tribulation, broadcasts by private television channels
remained blocked in most Pakistani cities. Domestic
reception of international channels such as the BBC and CNN
was jammed as well.
The country's deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed
Chaudhry, who earlier defied Musharraf's efforts to fire
him, was confined to his home in the capital, which was
cordoned off with no one allowed to approach.
The government began replacing senior judges with Musharraf
loyalists willing to swear allegiance to his regime, and
removed from the Supreme Court docket cases that questioned
Musharraf's eligibility to run for or hold public office
while remaining chief of the army.
But despite such authoritarian measures, Pakistanis gave
free vent to their feelings -- in Internet chat rooms, in
blizzards of sardonic text messages, in sharply worded
editorials in independent newspapers, and in quiet but
impassioned talk in bazaars, aboard overcrowded buses and
in family-style restaurants.
"I would almost feel sorry for him, but he is still a
dangerous man," said student Najib Khattak, sharing a
flatbread-and- kebab lunch with friends who nodded their
agreement, though they glanced around to see who might be
listening. "The more he tries to repress people, the more
they will rise against him."
Police with batons broke up a small, peaceful demonstration
Sunday in the capital, not far from the presidential
compound. A few dozen protesters, some of them women in
flowing traditional dress, cried out "Shame, shame!" to the
police officers.
Shops and markets were open as usual in most cities, and
the troop presence in Islamabad was confined largely to
sensitive sites such as the Supreme Court building and
other government installations. Traffic flowed slowly
around police barricades.
Telephone service, cut soon after the state of emergency
was declared, resumed early Sunday in Islamabad. But many
people were wary about what they would say on the phone,
given the widespread reach of the Pakistani intelligence
services in monitoring calls. Almost no one spoke of
Musharraf by name, instead using veiled references such as
"that one."
Lawyers, who have been at the forefront of anti-Musharraf
protests in recent months, were making plans for a general
strike today, but acknowledged that mass arrests and
intimidation would make it difficult to bring large numbers
of supporters into the streets.
Most opposition leaders, even while denouncing Musharraf's
actions, deliberately refrained from urging large-scale
protests, saying privately that they did not want to
trigger bloodshed. However, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of
an Islamist political alliance, urged followers in the
eastern city of Lahore to take to the streets to oust "the
military dictator."
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said about 500 people had been
placed in what he called "preventive detention," though
activists said the number was far higher.
Ahsan Iqbal, an opposition party leader who fled his home
just before police arrived to arrest him, said he believed
the crackdown could continue for weeks.
Musharraf "has a long agenda, a long list," said Iqbal, a
senior member of the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif, who was deported when he tried to return to
Pakistan in September.
The emergency declaration was ostensibly in response to
deteriorating security caused by Islamic insurgents, who
have been staging suicide attacks in major cities and
battling government troops in the rugged region bordering
Afghanistan.
But most observers were united in the view that Musharraf,
who seized power in a coup in 1999, acted to preempt a
potential Supreme Court ruling invalidating his election
last month by pro-government lawmakers to another term as
president while retaining his military position.
The emergency declaration gives Musharraf, whose popularity
and prestige have nose-dived in recent months,
extraordinary powers to suppress dissent.
"We have a state of martial law, whatever the government
may say and however long it may last," commentator Najam
Sethi wrote in Sunday's editions of the English-language
Daily Times.
"Gen. Musharraf's second coup" was the headline in the
nationally circulated Dawn newspaper.
Some of the country's most distinguished judges and rights
activists were rounded up and roughly bundled into police
vans or confined to homes watched over by paramilitary
police.
Those detained included Munir Malik, a senior lawyer who
has led pro-democracy protests, and Javed Hashmi, the
acting head of Sharif's party, who was freed from jail on
the high court's orders this year. Under house arrest were
cricket-star-turned politician Imran Khan and Asma
Jehangir, a respected lawyer who chairs the independent
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
The rights group's offices in Lahore were raided Sunday by
as many as 200 police officers, witnesses said, and dozens
of staffers were arrested. Among those taken into custody
was the group's 77-year-old director, I.A. Rehman.
New York-based Human Rights Watch called the raid "an
appalling attack on human rights defenders" and demanded
that those rounded up in the crackdown be immediately
released.
Musharraf's aides said no decision had been reached on how
long the state of emergency might last.
"We will see what is necessary," Aziz, the prime minister,
told reporters.
Musharraf had promised to step down as head of the army
once he was inaugurated to a second presidential term, but
almost no one expects that to happen now. Also very much in
question is the power-sharing arrangement he had been
negotiating with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto, who returned to the country from a brief visit to
Dubai just as the emergency order was taking effect, stayed
largely out of sight Sunday in her residential and office
compound in the port city of Karachi, her home base.
Although Musharraf said the declaration of emergency would
allow his government to more effectively fight Islamic
militants, Sunday saw another embarrassing setback for
Pakistan's military in the tribal borderlands.
More than 200 soldiers and paramilitary troops captured in
late August by fighters loyal to a radical cleric were
freed, but officials said the government was forced to
trade 25 militants, some of whom had been jailed on
terrorism charges.
"It is unclear how the new [emergency] measures will make
the military perform better in fighting terrorists, who
seem to have become stronger while Musharraf spent most of
his energy fighting the democratic opposition," said Husain
Haqqani, director of Boston University's Center for
International Relations.
Targeted activists, meanwhile, were pessimistic that
international pressure on Musharraf would bring them any
respite.
"This is not going to end anytime soon," said Iqbal, the
opposition party official who went into hiding. "Whether in
prison or not, it is as if we are all in jail."
Special correspondents Mubashir Zaidi in Islamabad and
Zulfiqar Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.
Related Stories
- U.S. alliance with Musharraf falls under new doubt
- U.S. military aid to Pakistan misses its Al Qaeda target
- U.S. unlikely to halt Pakistan aid
- Musharraf declares state of emergency in Pakistan
More at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printed...5nov05,1,2398806.story?coll=la-news-a_section
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
[Caption] Activists and supporters of Pakistani opposition
party Jamaat-i-Islami shout slogans during a convention
near Manga Mandi, some 35 km from Lahore.
Arif Ali / AFP/Getty Images
One newspaper calls the emergency crackdown, which includes
the detention of political foes, 'Gen. Musharraf's second
coup.'
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Monday, November 5, 2007
Islamabad, Pakistan - Hundreds of opponents of President
Pervez Musharraf, including venerable judges, human rights
activists and rival politicians, were rounded up Sunday by
police, signaling the start of what could be a long and
concerted crackdown against those who have challenged his
authority in past months.
On the first full day of a state of emergency declared by
the general late Saturday, Musharraf's aides raised the
possibility that parliamentary elections expected by early
2008, which had been seen as a crucial step toward civilian
rule, might be put off for as long as a year.
In a sign of Musharraf's displeasure at the freewheeling
media that for months had documented his every political
tribulation, broadcasts by private television channels
remained blocked in most Pakistani cities. Domestic
reception of international channels such as the BBC and CNN
was jammed as well.
The country's deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed
Chaudhry, who earlier defied Musharraf's efforts to fire
him, was confined to his home in the capital, which was
cordoned off with no one allowed to approach.
The government began replacing senior judges with Musharraf
loyalists willing to swear allegiance to his regime, and
removed from the Supreme Court docket cases that questioned
Musharraf's eligibility to run for or hold public office
while remaining chief of the army.
But despite such authoritarian measures, Pakistanis gave
free vent to their feelings -- in Internet chat rooms, in
blizzards of sardonic text messages, in sharply worded
editorials in independent newspapers, and in quiet but
impassioned talk in bazaars, aboard overcrowded buses and
in family-style restaurants.
"I would almost feel sorry for him, but he is still a
dangerous man," said student Najib Khattak, sharing a
flatbread-and- kebab lunch with friends who nodded their
agreement, though they glanced around to see who might be
listening. "The more he tries to repress people, the more
they will rise against him."
Police with batons broke up a small, peaceful demonstration
Sunday in the capital, not far from the presidential
compound. A few dozen protesters, some of them women in
flowing traditional dress, cried out "Shame, shame!" to the
police officers.
Shops and markets were open as usual in most cities, and
the troop presence in Islamabad was confined largely to
sensitive sites such as the Supreme Court building and
other government installations. Traffic flowed slowly
around police barricades.
Telephone service, cut soon after the state of emergency
was declared, resumed early Sunday in Islamabad. But many
people were wary about what they would say on the phone,
given the widespread reach of the Pakistani intelligence
services in monitoring calls. Almost no one spoke of
Musharraf by name, instead using veiled references such as
"that one."
Lawyers, who have been at the forefront of anti-Musharraf
protests in recent months, were making plans for a general
strike today, but acknowledged that mass arrests and
intimidation would make it difficult to bring large numbers
of supporters into the streets.
Most opposition leaders, even while denouncing Musharraf's
actions, deliberately refrained from urging large-scale
protests, saying privately that they did not want to
trigger bloodshed. However, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of
an Islamist political alliance, urged followers in the
eastern city of Lahore to take to the streets to oust "the
military dictator."
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said about 500 people had been
placed in what he called "preventive detention," though
activists said the number was far higher.
Ahsan Iqbal, an opposition party leader who fled his home
just before police arrived to arrest him, said he believed
the crackdown could continue for weeks.
Musharraf "has a long agenda, a long list," said Iqbal, a
senior member of the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif, who was deported when he tried to return to
Pakistan in September.
The emergency declaration was ostensibly in response to
deteriorating security caused by Islamic insurgents, who
have been staging suicide attacks in major cities and
battling government troops in the rugged region bordering
Afghanistan.
But most observers were united in the view that Musharraf,
who seized power in a coup in 1999, acted to preempt a
potential Supreme Court ruling invalidating his election
last month by pro-government lawmakers to another term as
president while retaining his military position.
The emergency declaration gives Musharraf, whose popularity
and prestige have nose-dived in recent months,
extraordinary powers to suppress dissent.
"We have a state of martial law, whatever the government
may say and however long it may last," commentator Najam
Sethi wrote in Sunday's editions of the English-language
Daily Times.
"Gen. Musharraf's second coup" was the headline in the
nationally circulated Dawn newspaper.
Some of the country's most distinguished judges and rights
activists were rounded up and roughly bundled into police
vans or confined to homes watched over by paramilitary
police.
Those detained included Munir Malik, a senior lawyer who
has led pro-democracy protests, and Javed Hashmi, the
acting head of Sharif's party, who was freed from jail on
the high court's orders this year. Under house arrest were
cricket-star-turned politician Imran Khan and Asma
Jehangir, a respected lawyer who chairs the independent
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
The rights group's offices in Lahore were raided Sunday by
as many as 200 police officers, witnesses said, and dozens
of staffers were arrested. Among those taken into custody
was the group's 77-year-old director, I.A. Rehman.
New York-based Human Rights Watch called the raid "an
appalling attack on human rights defenders" and demanded
that those rounded up in the crackdown be immediately
released.
Musharraf's aides said no decision had been reached on how
long the state of emergency might last.
"We will see what is necessary," Aziz, the prime minister,
told reporters.
Musharraf had promised to step down as head of the army
once he was inaugurated to a second presidential term, but
almost no one expects that to happen now. Also very much in
question is the power-sharing arrangement he had been
negotiating with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto, who returned to the country from a brief visit to
Dubai just as the emergency order was taking effect, stayed
largely out of sight Sunday in her residential and office
compound in the port city of Karachi, her home base.
Although Musharraf said the declaration of emergency would
allow his government to more effectively fight Islamic
militants, Sunday saw another embarrassing setback for
Pakistan's military in the tribal borderlands.
More than 200 soldiers and paramilitary troops captured in
late August by fighters loyal to a radical cleric were
freed, but officials said the government was forced to
trade 25 militants, some of whom had been jailed on
terrorism charges.
"It is unclear how the new [emergency] measures will make
the military perform better in fighting terrorists, who
seem to have become stronger while Musharraf spent most of
his energy fighting the democratic opposition," said Husain
Haqqani, director of Boston University's Center for
International Relations.
Targeted activists, meanwhile, were pessimistic that
international pressure on Musharraf would bring them any
respite.
"This is not going to end anytime soon," said Iqbal, the
opposition party official who went into hiding. "Whether in
prison or not, it is as if we are all in jail."
Special correspondents Mubashir Zaidi in Islamabad and
Zulfiqar Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.
Related Stories
- U.S. alliance with Musharraf falls under new doubt
- U.S. military aid to Pakistan misses its Al Qaeda target
- U.S. unlikely to halt Pakistan aid
- Musharraf declares state of emergency in Pakistan
More at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printed...5nov05,1,2398806.story?coll=la-news-a_section
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.