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Students' protest march against amendments
LAHORE, Dec 18, 2007: Students and members of civil society under the banner of the
Students Action Committee (SAC) held a protest march from Nasser Bagh to
Anarkali Chowk on Monday to condemn amendments to the Constitution recently made
by President Musharraf despite they were threatened by the police a day before
that the demonstrators would be arrested and beaten up.
A representative
of the SAC said high-ranking police officials had telephoned several of their
members and warned them of mass-arrests as well as violence against them if they
went ahead and held their protest.
In addition, police attempted to ward
off protesters on the day by telling those arriving at Nasser Bagh that the
protest had been shifted to the Lahore Press Club.
"The threats by the
police were just one reflection of how the state of emergency was lifted, but
nothing restored, nothing changed," the representative said.
Members of
the SAC, civil society activists and representatives of the Committee for
Democracy and Restoration of Law and Order to Pakistan (CDRLP) began to gather
outside Nasser Bagh at 1pm, held aloft banners such as "Emergency lifted,
nothing changed", "Azadi" "Restore the judiciary" and chanted slogans such as
"Torr raha hai Pakistan, aaj ke daur ka Yahya Khan", "Zinda hain tulba zinda
hain", "Pakistan ke bais-i- tabhai...Pervez Musharraf aur Pervaiz Elahi" while
they proceeded to Anarkali Chowk.
The police started haranguing the
crowd, especially the students, to disperse. They claimed they would press
charges against students if they did not wrap up immediately.
The
protesters, however, did not pay heed to the warnings and instead continued to
raise slogans at Anarkali Chowk, before finally returning to Nasser
Bagh.
The SAC later released a statement condemning police action against
students in Islamabad.
"The SAC's Lahore chapter will stand up in
solidarity with their Islamabad fellows and will not step down in fear of any
threats," the statement said. Dawn
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