LAHORE – Police on Saturday evening arrested around hundred leaders and workers of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) in Lahore as the district government did not give permission to hold a gathering a the Minar-e-Pakistan today (Sunday).
The arrested people, including SIC Vice-Chairman Pir Afzal Qadri, were busy in finalising the arrangements for the event but SP City Division Shahzad Asif called the police who tried to disperse them. Instead, the SIC workers resisted the move and staged a sit-in.
On this, police bundled them up in vehicles and drove them away to the police station besides confiscating some material from the spot. In a strong reaction, SIC Chairman Haji M Fazal Karim and Secretary-General Haji Hanif Tayyab claimed that hundreds of their workers including Afzal Qadri, Pir Syed M Iqbal Shah and others had detained to foil their programme.
Condemning the police action, they vowed to organise the conference at any cost and said the people, using the legacy of Quaid-e-Azam for their own politics, were creating hurdles for a peaceful event.
