■ Video grab from GEO TV Network.  The woman in the picture is said to be Asma Jahangir.

LAHORE, November 4, 2007  –  Gay rights advocate Asma Jahangir, former United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions and now special rapporteur on religious intolerance, is among the many who have been arrested in Pakistan this afternoon following the suspension of the country’s constitution and the imposition of emergency rule by President Pervez Musharraf.

Asma Jahangir “is an incredible activist and together with her sister, Hina Jilani, has been one of the strongest forces pushing LGBT issues in the [United Nations] system,” Scott Long of Human Rights Watch in New York said by email.

Ms. Jahangir has been detained along with other members of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.  The BBC is reporting that 400 to 500 “preventative arrests” had been made so far.

Despite severe restrictions on the media, reports of the arrest of Asma Jahangir are filtering out.

The following is a report, as received, from Pakistani journalists on the arrests at the Pakistan Human Rights Commission:

Police rangers surrounded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) office this afternoon, where a meeting to discuss the current political situation was underway organised by the Joint Action Committee.  

Police broke the hall windows and disrupted the peaceful meeting and asked the participants to come out.  All the participants were bundled into the police vans and driven to the Model Town Police Station.

Some activists who were a bit late for the meeting found the office cordoned off by 12.45 and the road towards the office blocked.

“We stayed outside the hall for half an hour to asses the situation.  We contacted some friends in present in the meeting on mobile and apprised them about the situation outside.  More contingents of police were pouring in.  It was all a threatening scenario.  Gun totting police men on red lighted vehicles and bikes were all around.  The police ordered all the people waiting outside the hall to leave the place,” said one of the activists.

They remained in contact with some participants on phone and learnt that after police entered the hall and stopped the meeting “they offered the women participants to leave the venue while all the men were told that they are arrested. The women participants refused to go so they were also arrested along with men. later they werte all taken to police station. Police has refused to tell them the nature and period of their detention.”

Over 70 people have been detained and taken to the Model Town (Block A) police station.  They include eminent journalist and director HRCP I.A. Rehman, economist Shahid Hafeez Kardar, lawyer Iqbal Haider, HRCP’s Rao Abid Hameed, Dr Mubashir Hasan (later released because of his age), artists Salima Hashmi and Lala Rukh, educationist Samina Rehman and other Women Action Forum members, SAFMA’s Imtiaz Alam.

Their families are not being allowed to meet them, although some were able to get medications etc through to them.

There are about 150 family members and friends gathered outside the police station.  Police are saying that under Sections 3 & 16 of the MPO 1960 (maintenance of public order) they have the right to detain for up to 30 days without charge.

Meanwhile, about 50 people gathered at Karachi and chalked out a plan to keep information flowing.  Another 50 or so just met at Karachi Press Club at a meeting called by the Peoples Movement for Justice.

In a press release issued today, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) rejected the promulgation of “mini-Martial Law” in the cover of emergency, strongly condemned late night police raids on private tv news channels, two FM radios following the virtual ban on news channels for the last two days and decided to resist these action with the cooperation of other media organisations including International media watchdogs has. They have called an emergency meeting on Tuesday at 4 p.m.  Other journalist unions have already held meetings in different parts of the country.