In an uncivilized turn of events, the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan was manhandled at the Punjab University Campus today. He was later arrested by the police. A group of students kept him detained on the campus and later turned him over to the police. According to Dawn’s Report:
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairman Imran Khan was arrested from outside the Punjab University’s new campus on Wednesday after he had been manhandled and detained in the campus allegedly by activists of the Islami Jamiat Talaba. Imran Khan had gone to the university at the invitation of a joint action committee of students.
The visit had been approved by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, to which the IJT is affiliated. On his arrival at the campus, the PTI chief was confronted reportedly by a group of IJT activists who kicked him around and punched him. They took him to a room in the Centre for High Energy Physics and detained him there for about 45 minutes.
This is an interesting (and sad) turn of events. Imran Khan’s party and the mother party of IJT are both partners in APDM. Imran and Qazi have been seen together in many media photo shoots for the past year or so. Will today’s action by IJT guys will cause long term bad-blood between the two parties? It is left to be seen.
We strongly believe that inspite of political differences, no person deserves physical bashing and humiliation as was met out to Imran. Political differences should never be taken to such extreme where people use force to get their point across. It is wrong. Shame on those who manhandled him. I was recently reading an article on political bashing in the Wall Street Journal. It had a punch line which just kept resonating with me. It read:
Our politics suffer when passions overcome reason and vitriol becomes virtue.
Details on Imran’s manhandling can be read here, here, here and here.
According to newspaper Daily Express dated 18/11/07 police station Dara Ismail Khan where they kept Imran Khan without any facilities, Mosquitos and harsh behaviour of present dictator and officils can not stop Imran khan from his way. Because his way is way of truth, honesty, rule and regulation,justic and love to his nation and homeland. We condemn all these foolish threat. Be remember Mushraf truth is truth Nalson Mindala prove this at te cost of 27 years Jail. Be remember Imran khan is person who can do this because he accept the given challenge he also prove. You mushraff and ur companion be remember do but which u ca n face in future “Makafata Amal” very soon be started
@ It is hereby, required from the Pakistani
authorities conerned to release, immediatly,
Imran Khan and all his family members, along
with all the prisoners of opinions illigaly held, to
be released and an enquiry be established to find
out the culprits of this hideous act and punish
them accordingly. And lift the state of Emergency.
As I said on other forum, the tussle between Jamat and MQM is quite natural. MQM is actually Jamat-e-Islami( Haqiq)i.
Altaf Hussain used to be an active member of IJT in late 70s and used to do “Shola Bayan” speeches for Jamat-e-Islami at KU. Some issue happened between Altaf and Jamat and Bai Altaf was beaten like hell by Jamatis(Just like Imran today). Altaf was already pissed. He had talent to bring people out. His ideology was very helpful for Zia at that time who was worried about popularity of BiBi. Zia & Co(read agencies) found a handful tool in form of Altaf and prepared him against B.B. Just like Fatima Bhutto is being prepared these days against B.B. The hatred inside Fatima is no different than hatred inside Altaf against Jamatis. Zia cashed this feeling that time against Benazir and now Mush and Co would be cashing Fatima against same BiBi after 2 decades. Later Altaf pioneered APMSO and their main target was always anti-Jamat activities. This is why you seem them more charged up against jamaties than their “enemies” like Punjabis or Sindhis whom they consider reason of oppression of Mohajirs in Sind.
In short, Ideology of MQM is not political rather it’s a product of revenge against Jamat. Many MQM supporters don’t even know why they hate Jamatis. What a sad and ignorant class I must say and I was also part of it till 90s.
as far as Jamatis are concerned. They beat up an invidiual in past which produced a person as “Altaf Hussain” who made MQM. They beat today an individual named Imran who might come up with a party which would remove traces of Jamat completely from Punjab. So jamat just hit the hammer on its toes by repeating same mistake.
Pakistani High Commissioner in the *UK* “Maliha Lodhi”
Pakistani High Commissioner in the US “Maliha Lodhi” told BBC that Imran is under house arrest.
He is not, he is actually in jail, along with his 3 sisters, his female cousins and an aunt. We also don’t know the charges that they are booked under. If anyone has information on the contrary, please post.
Latest from Punjab University is that 14 of its faculty members are charged by Punjab police for “sedition”.
http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/18/nat11.htm
What is the difference between this government and the British of 1857 trying to crush an uprising by the Muslims of India? The only difference is that the British were the invaders, and these are our own people. The commonality is in the tactics.
Just read Ayaz Amir’s article that AUK briefly quoted above. God bless him for expressing my sentiments. As many on this blog know I have no meat for MQM or Altaf Hussain but I applaud MQM for “giving jamaat islami a taste of its own medicine in Karachi and Hyderabad.” When history is written this is one good thing that can not be taken away from MQM. I quote a more detailed portion from Ayaz’ article below. Worth reading.
“”This brings me to Imran Khan’s manhandling at the Punjab University, Lahore, by activists of the Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba, the student wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami. Not only was he prevented from holding a demonstration and courting arrest, as he had intended, but he was seized and confined in one of the departments before being handed over to the police. Words fail me to describe this shameful incident.
But Imran has not been diminished by it. He continues to stand tall. He is a brave man who has showed great courage during the post-martial law period. It is the Jamiat and its parent body, the Jamaat, which look small. Manhandling one of the few national heroes we have and then handing him over to the police: can anything be more despicable?
But even in evil there can be some good. If May 12 exposed the true face of the MQM, Nov 14 has revealed the ugly face of the Jamiat and the Jamaat. Qazi Hussein Ahmed’s populist posturing had led many simpleminded souls to believe that the Jamaat had changed its spots. The incident with Imran dispels such illusions.
The Jamaat remains wedded to an ideology suspiciously close to fascism, (which makes one wonder about the uses to which Islam has been put in this country). From Gen Yahya onwards it has worked as a handmaiden of our spook agencies, the dark forces who have always undermined democracy. As a matter of policy its student wing has practiced unabashed violence to promote its political ends. Indeed, when the definitive history of the collapse of Pakistani education is written, the Jamiat’s ‘danda-bardar’ (baton-wielding) tactics will figure prominently in it.
Therefore any chastising of the Jamaat and its works is welcome. No one has educated the Jamaat and Jamiat more than the MQM. Indeed, about the only good thing the MQM has ever done, since its baptism at Zia’s hands in the mid-1980s, is to give the Jamaat a taste of its own medicine in Karachi. For this one service, if no other, the MQM is to be applauded.
This incident underscores an important lesson: that the religious parties, at least the two biggest — Qazi Hussein’s Jamaat and Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI — can never be reliable partners in the struggle for democracy. They will always have an angle of their own and they will always be wired to the establishment.”"
I have heard Imran Khan is sending text messages from jail.Please post them here would be nice to hear what he has to say.