First of all let me thank all those who turned up at the thana and showed concern. Since we were inside not sure exactly who was outside. Did meet Abira, Moneeza, Urooj and Riaz inside.
just for your information we have been released after registration of FIR’s against us under section 147 & 148. The release took place after people posted bail for us. Not sure who “negotiated” and what the negotiations entailed but from whatever i have heard no favours got done. Cutting of an FIR for such a small demo is not the norm, apart from being totally bogus, and in fact is being considered as excessive. Where the heavy hitting lawyers helped was in intervening and helping us not sign the “confession of guilt and promise of good
behaviour” document that we were being asked to sign. The ex advocate general Anwar Mansoor and Rashid Rizvi , sind high court bar association president were particularly helpful. Ofcourse the mere presence Justice Fakhruddin Ebrahim was a privilidge.
As far as the experience of being locked up is concerned it was not too bad at all. I guess being with a group (there were 8 of us) makes a big difference. In any case we were actually in the lock up for just over an hour (total time at the thana was about four and half hours).The police guys were perfectly polite. Couple of them apologized to us as well. talked to them about conditions they live in, salaries they get as well as benefits like health care and
accommodation. Suffice it to say that by any objective standard we are the oppressors and they are the oppressed rather then the other way around.
Aside from that i do agree with the point made by ali assad about being clear on what the objective of the event is so that people can decide if they want to be a part of it or not
Asad