About 500 Jamat-e-Islami (JI) workers and leaders have been arrested so far across Punjab in police raids, stated a press release issued by the Jamaat-e-Islami head office in Mansoora on Tuesday.JI Punjab Naib Amir and MNA Mian Muhammad Aslam, JI Islamabad Amir Syed Muhammad Bilal, Shabab-e-Mili Punjab President Huma Ayub and Shabab-e-Mili Murree President Attaur Rehman Abassi and 40 party workers have been arrested, while 150 workers were arrested during a protest rally in NWFP, it said. According to the release, police arrested JI leader Dr Kamal, Dr Anwarul Haq, Major (r) Azam, Sufi Abdul Ghafoors son in his absence and 100 workers from Rawalpindi; JI leader Malik Abdur Raufs brother from Kahuta city; five JI workers from Attock; two workers from Bhakkar; JI District Amir Waris and party workers from Khushab; JI leader Amir Zubair Gondal from Bhalwal; Ahmad Yar Kalyar from Sahiwal; Umar Farooq from Kot Momin; three workers from Rahim Yar Khan; 10 workers from Layyah; 10 workers from Faisalabad; and dozens from Okara.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Secretary General Maulana Fazalur Rehman were put under house arrest in a crackdown in which 900 MMA activists were also put under protective custody on Saturday. The Islamabad district administration had earlier reiterated that rallies in the city were banned in the interest of public peace, but the MMA had vowed to defy it and stage a demonstration today (Sunday).
Geo television said that Qazi (detained at his residence in Mansoora, Lahore) and Fazl (detained at his official residence in Islamabad) were due to lead a rally in the capital against the blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Government officials told the MMA leaders that they had been detained to control the law and order situation, said the channel. The government has declared Qazis residence a sub-jail and restrained his movement from Mansoora till further orders, it added.