RAWALPINDI: The police have rounded up over 177 PAT activists in the last two days under the 16 Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.
Seven Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers were also arrested from Taxila and Wah Cantonment.
In Taxila, those arrested were identified as Hameed Gul and Wahid Khan. Four activists were arrested from Wah Saddar and their names are Habib Khan, Mengal Khan, Ismail Khan and Niaz Mohammad. One activist, Sadaqat Khan, was picked up from Wah Cantt. However, the police failed to trace the main local leader of PAT.
Police sources said more arrests were expected within the next 24 hours.
Despite strict checking of vehicles and passengers at exit points of Rawalpindi city, a large number of PAT workers managed to leave the city and reach Lahore to attend a gathering of the party there. The police rounded up 95 PAT workers in Rawalpindi, 23 in Jhelum, 39 in Attock and 20 in Chakwal.
Since the police started impounding containers, transporters have kept their wagons and pickup vans off the roads.
Without disclosing his location, Ghulam Ali Khan, the media coordinator of PAT, told Dawn on phone that the police had stepped up its crackdown against his party workers.
He said police raids were carried out at his Bangash Colony residence but he escaped.
The police have also started surveillance of over 30 seminaries of Minhajul Quran.
