Hundreds detained after Pak strike

About 500 workers at Pakistan8217;s largest, state-owned telephone company have been detained after they went on strike to thwart a privatisation bid, a Union leader said on Monday.

Shahid Ayub said the industrial action, launched at the weekend to head off a plan to sell a 26 per cent stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. PTCL, had disrupted over 200,000 phone lines. But a top company executive rejected that claim, saying only 500 lines were disrupted by a fire late on Sunday and that most workers turned up for work on Monday. Ayub said thousands of workers were currently striking and services were disrupted mainly in the southwestern Baluchistan and the eastern Punjab provinces. The government warned that striking workers could be charged under anti-terrorism laws. 8212;PTI