Police arrest schoolkids for holding anti-Govt protest

The Pakistan Police arrested 48 school students, the youngest being a 12-year-old, who participated in a silent rally in Islamabad...

The Pakistan Police arrested 48 school students, the youngest being a 12-year-old, who participated in a silent rally in Islamabad, on Monday, to protest against the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf.

With mouths taped with silver and white duct tape and holding placards with slogans such as “Justice for justices” and “Free the media”, about 100 students braved police batons.

“Students of various high schools organised a silent protest. When the policemen approached us and asked us to stop, we did and tried to cooperate with them. But as we were going back, 600-700 policemen, including women officers, anti-terrorist squad commandos and officers in plainclothes descended and told us they would arrest us because a protest rally was not allowed,” said Samad Khurram, a student who participated in the protest.

He accused the police of using batons to disperse the children, pushing, dragging and even abusing them before they were pushed into police vans. A large number of girls also participated in the protest, probably the first of its kind organised by school children.

“Most of those arrested were students of class XI to XII” Khurram said.

After police pushed 48 students into vans, lawyers and human rights workers present at the spot managed to convince them not to arrest any more children.

Later, the police released the students, but obtained written assurances from them that they would not participate in future rallies.