Details of HRCP arrests in Lahore

A meeting of activists at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's head office in Lahore was raided and mass arrests were made on Sunday. Details courtesy of Beena Sarwar:

Rangers in Lahore arrested some 70 human rights activists, including lawyers, artists,
women's rights activists, and educaters. As of Monday afternoon, most of them are still in detention.

The police surrounded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) office at around 1 pm on Sunday and broke into the hall an hour later, disrupting a peaceful meeting of civil rights activists gathered to discuss the emergency in Pakistan.

The arrests were apparently made under Sections 3 & 16 of the MPO 1960 (maintenance of public order) although the meeting was being held indoors at a private venue and posed no threat to public order. Police had no written orders and are claiming the right to detain
those arrested for up to 30 (or 90) days without charge.

The families of the detainees haven't been allowed to meet them, although they were able to send in essential items like medicine and water. They are holding a candlelight vigil outside the police lock up in Model Town (Block A).

Bail cannot be posted for any of them and according to some reports they may be transferred to Mianwali jail today (Monday).

However, prominent journalist & Director HRCP I.A. Rehman and HRCP Secretary General, lawyer Iqbal Haider have been transferred to HRCP Chairperson Asma Jahangir's house (which has been declared a sub jail where Asma herself is under house arrest; see her arrest order here). Former finance minister and HRCP Council member Dr Mubashir Hasan, who is over 80, was allowed to go to his own house on the basis of his health (I guess you have to be 80 to be shown some mercy by this government).

Those arrested include: eminent journalist & editor of HRCP's Jehd-e-Haq newsletter Hussain Naqi, economist Shahid Hafeez Kardar, director of HRCP's vulnerable prisoners' project Brig (rted) Rao Abid Hameed, artists Salima Hashmi & Lala Rukh, educationist Samina Rehman,
prominent columnist Imtiaz Alam, secretary general South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), lawyer Bilal Minto, economist Ali Cheema, sociologist Rubina Saigol, Azra Shad, Khalid Mehmood, HRCP lawyer Mehboob Khan, and barrister Salman Raja.