Pak policemen arrest 200 Sunni Muslim activists

Pak policemen arrest 200 Sunni Muslim activists
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Lahore, Feb 24: Police detained the head of a radical Islamic group, Sipah-I-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), and arrested its 200 activists ahead of next week’s execution of one of its supporters over an Iranian diplomat’s murder, officials said today.

Police detained SSP head Azam Tariq from the group’s headquarters in the Punjab provincial town of Jhang. “The crackdown was launched last night to preempt any unrest” over SSP activist Haq Nawaz’s hanging, a senior police officer said. He confirmed police conducted raids in key cities of Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faislabad, Multan and Bahawalpur.

“So far about 200 people have been detained” in central Punjab, he said.SSP spokesman Mujibur Rehman Inquilabi said police swoops had netted more than 300 party workers and supporters across the province.

He said raids were conducted to prevent possible protest on the execution. Nawaz was condemned to death over the December 19, 1990, murder of Iranian Cultural Centre director Sadiq Ganji in Lahore.

President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar has rejected his clemency petition and the convict is to be sent to the gallows in Punjab’s Mianwali jail on Wednesday morning, press reports said.