Troops Attack Protesters in Pakistan

A massive protest had been
planned outside the Karachi Press Club today. A *lot* of people showed
up. The problem was, however, that a majority of them probably thought
that the protest would be a dinner party.



A pre-protest meeting was held inside the KPC premises, where some
people starting chanting slogans. The KPC management objected to this,
and asked people to go outside if they wanted to chant slogans. People
decided to step outside the KPC. At this point, some people tried to
hijack the demonstration, and starting chanting slogans on their own
the moment they realised they were surrounded by TV cameras.

[In
the meantime, please remember that the entire area around the press
club had been cordoned off, and heavy police contingents had been
placed all around, including female police personnel.]



So yeah, the media cameramen got out of the KPC, followed by everyone
else. This was a mistake -- the cameramen should have let everyone ELSE
come out first.

Now, Instead of waiting for the entire crowd to come out and protest
together, some people decided to be lone rangers. During this time,
they realised that an "agencies ka banda" was in the group. Everyone
started beating him up -- and when I say "everyone," I mean the
cameramen AND the protesters. The guy ran towards the nearest police
mobile, where the policemen just gaped at him. [This was a funny bit --
a guy runs towards the police mobile, he's being followed by people
who's trying to beat him up. "Maaro saaley ko!" k naarey all around,
and the policemen stand and gape. ROTFLOL!!!]



So they guy realised that these policemen were useless and he ran
towards a bunch of mobiles at the other end of the road. WahaaN sey a
whole BUNCH of policemen came running back with laathiaN and all. They
saw cameramen on the frontline and starting baton-charging them.
Cameras were broken, people were chased. Some guys fell down, and at
least five to six policemen each hit EACH of those guys brutally with
sticks before dragging them off. :-S



Khair, so everyone rushed back to the press club, where a "meeting" was
held. Anis Haroon and all were of the opinion that people will get
arrested if they went outside to protest (no really, ya think?), and
decided that the conditions were "too harsh" -- the protestors were
outnumbered by the police personnel, they said. Now at this point, I
was wondering WHY they came there in the first place. Did they not
realise that all of this would happen when they first announced a
protest? Yaani k KIA?!



They then decided that a meeting would be held at the Aurat Foundation
offices at 03:00 p.m. tomorrow (jeez!). I will not attend it, neither
will a lot of other people who were there today.



In the meantime, policemen cordoned off the Press Club, and said that
they were waiting outside for political leaders holed up within the KPC
premises. Yousuf Masti Khan (secretary-general of Minto's National
Workers Party) was arrested the moment he stepped outside. The police
believe Bizenjo and Tehrik-e-Insaf's (TI) Alvi saheb are still in
there. Bizenjo has refused to step outside. The standoff continues...



I know bits and portions of this post are very rude, but I'm angry at
the people (they know who they are) who tried to first hijack the
protest, and then kill it. This was a demonstration to register
Karachi's protest against the Martial Law, people, not a friggin' photo
op. Give us a BREAK, okay?

As we move into the second day of 'Martial Law', the city streets
might seem calm and peaceful but the minds and hearts of the general
public are far from anything as such. As the news of the arrests of
opposition leaders, notable lawyers, human rights activists and even academicians
on a massive scale pour in - our eyes desperately wander around,
looking for someone to fill the vacuum left by their absence. Some of
us have taken the initiative to mobilize people but while the strategy
for a future action is chalked out, we also need to expose and be wary
of the enemies within, the 'aasteen kai saamp', the Mir
Jaafers and Mir Saadiqs of our time - who cry foul yet are in cahoots
with those who've brought this nation to its current state.

Via Blackberry from Dr. Awab who is at the protest in Karachi:

“I’m at the protest taking pictures but not going through on email, one journalist severely beaten and about 5 arrested”

President Musharraf has declared a state of emergency in Pakistan. According to news sources, among other things this means “The Fundamental Rights of the citizens are now suspended. All the news channels have been taken off air and mobile phone signals and Internet connections jammed.”.

WASHINGTON - Riot troops swept through Pakistan Sunday, throwing
hundreds of government opponents into jail as people took to the
streets to protest the martial law clampdown and the suspension of the
constitution.

Government forces shut down television stations,
arrested hundreds of lawyers and human rights activists, and attacked
opposition rallies with tear gas and clubs as the crisis deepened in
the teetering nation - one of the world's nuclear powers and a
precarious ally of the U.S. in the war on terror.

In Lahore,
riot police stormed a meeting and arrested 50. "They dragged us out,
including women," one man said at a police station. "It's inhuman,
undemocratic and a violation of human rights."

The crackdown has put the U.S. in a tough position.

"The
emergency is an embarrassment for the Bush administration," said
Teresita Schaffer of the Center for Strategic and International
Studies. But she said the White House has few options. "They will have
to keep working with the government on terrorism and Afghan-related
issues," Schaffer said.

Streets around government buildings
were sealed, and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto charged that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had carried out a
"second coup," referring to his initial power grab in 1999.

"This is a coup conducted by Gen. Musharraf against his own regime," she said on CBS News.

Musharraf
suspended the constitution and dismissed most of the Supreme Court on
Saturday, just days before it was to decide the legality of his most
recent election.

The Pakistani strongman cited Abraham Lincoln,
saying he was clamping down to prevent extremists from taking over, the
way Lincoln suspended some rights during the Civil War.

"Poor President Lincoln, he must be turning in his grave," Bhutto scoffed on "ABC News."

"Unless
we can stop it, the radicals will gain in strength, and there will be
horrific consequences for the people of Pakistan as well as for the
people in this region, if not even beyond," she said.

The
United States has been pushing for improved democracy while sending
billions in aid to prop up Musharraf and crack down on Islamic
terrorists.

Neither effort has gone well, as Musharraf seems
certain to ignore U.S. calls to hold promised elections on Jan. 15, and
Taliban and Al Qaeda forces have only gotten stronger along Pakistan's
lawless border with Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Rice
complained yesterday that Musharraf was moving in the wrong direction.
"I think the decision sets Pakistan back in terms of the considerable
progress that it had made along the road to democratic change," she
said, warning she would "review" Pakistan's aid package.