Pakistani Blogger Arrested, Released
By Curt on Nov 20, 2007 in Awab Alvi, Pakistan
Update: From a photo-rich post on the student-run Emergency Times:
Police, on Tuesday, baton-charged journalists protesting against the closure of Geo News, outside the Karachi Press Club. Several journalists were wounded in the police charge. Subsequently, the arrested journalists were released at night, following relevant orders from Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad. The media representatives were scheduled to approach the Governor House to speak with the authorities but they were accosted by the police. Thereupon, the journalists staged a sit-in protest, but the police began to arrest them. When the journalists began fleeing, the police chased them into the Press Club and began the baton-charge, wounding several of the media men.
Update: Ange, who is handling the “editing” duties on Teeth Maestro, for the duration of the crisis wrote:
(T)he journalists, bloggers and activists have all been released after a tensed standoff earlier this evening, 3 senior journalists weren’t on the list of those to be released and all 186 journalists at both cop stations refused to leave until the chief minister re-issued the order including those 4 senior journalists - that happened. I think this is the first positive stand off with productive results, and i’ve been monitoring this real close.
Ange wrote to tell us that Urooj Zia, a the journalist from the Daily Times in Pakistan and one of the folks behind the protests against martial law, and who blogs under the name Uzi, was arrested about five hours ago, along with a number of other journalists, and held for abut four hours before being released.
They were arrested by police during a protest and booked at the Docks Police Station in the town of Kemari in Karachi.
According to a statement by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, on Dr. Awab’s blog Teeth Maestro:
(T)he police under the instructions of the provincial administration attacked on a peaceful demonstration of journalists with tear gas and batons and arrested hundreds of journalists and members of civil society while more than a dozen were badly injured.
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