As the protests against martial law continue across Pakistan, ten people were arrested outside Justice Shahid Siddiqui's house in Lahore on Thursday. These people, among many others, have been staging a peaceful sit-in outside Justice Siddiqui's house because he, along with the other judges who refused to sign the PCO, have been forcibly "retired" and asked to vacate their official residences. Many other people have been arrested, baton-charged, threatened, harassed, and released over the last few weeks, of course, but this group is of particular interest to me since, among the people arrested, are Amanullah Kariapper, a good friend and a classmate from LUMS, and Saima Khwaja, a LUMS faculty member.
You can follow the full story on the FASTRising and other blogs but, basically, they were charged -- without their lawyers being present with them in court, of course -- with disturbing the peace and have been remanded to two weeks in jail. They have since been removed from the jail and detained at a different location but they have been allowed to phone home and talk to their families. Their bail application hearing, meanwhile, is scheduled for this morning in the Lahore Cantonment civil courts before Magistrate Farhan Nabi. Protests for their release also continued over the weekend.
I've been out of touch recently -- I'd logged off from the wired world as I took a couple of days off after my exams -- but I'll keep updating this blog with, er, updates as I get them.
You can follow the full story on the FASTRising and other blogs but, basically, they were charged -- without their lawyers being present with them in court, of course -- with disturbing the peace and have been remanded to two weeks in jail. They have since been removed from the jail and detained at a different location but they have been allowed to phone home and talk to their families. Their bail application hearing, meanwhile, is scheduled for this morning in the Lahore Cantonment civil courts before Magistrate Farhan Nabi. Protests for their release also continued over the weekend.
I've been out of touch recently -- I'd logged off from the wired world as I took a couple of days off after my exams -- but I'll keep updating this blog with, er, updates as I get them.