Pakistani police attack lawyers

I'll suspend my usual jokes about lawyers to appreciate thousands of these people standing up for the rule of law:

Pakistani police have used batons and tear gas against thousands of lawyers and political activists protesting against the emergency rule imposed by Pervez Musharraf, the president.

The clashes on Monday came ahead of an announcement by Shaukat Aziz, the prime minister, that elections planned for January would go ahead "on schedule".

The United States, and Musharraf's other western allies, have sought reassurances that the national and local assembly elections would take place despite the constitution being suspended on Saturday.

About 1,500 people have been detained in a crackdown on opposition to the president's decision.

Around 2,000 lawyers gathered in the eastern city of Lahore despite police warning them not to violate a ban on rallies across the country.

Hundreds of police entered the city's high court and fired tear gas as they attacked lawyers inside the building.

Several lawyers were wounded when police launched a baton charge, witnesses said.

"Police lobbed more than a dozen tear gas shells at lawyers who had gathered in the high court and then beat them with batons," Sheikh Faisal, a lawyer at the court, told the reporters by telephone.

And from the BBC:

Lawyers' associations across the country said they were calling three days of protests and boycotts of courts.

Media reports, citing police and interior ministry sources, said some 1,500 people had been arrested in the past 48 hours, while many top judges were effectively under house arrest.

The Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami was among the groups targeted.

Its leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was under arrest, as were hundreds of members, the party said.

Information Minister Tariq Azim called those figures an exaggeration.

He told the BBC that it was up to protesters to remain calm, or deal with the consequences.

"If people take the law into their [own] hands, obviously, they have to be dealt with," he told the World Today.

Pakistani TV news channels, which have huge audiences, are being prevented from broadcasting within the country, and at least one newspaper press was raided by police.

We've seen this coming for months. One more country in the region experiencing a meltdown. I'm sure the neocons are just delighted....

Update: Picture from Reuters:


Civil rights activists (R) scuffle with police during a protest against emergency rule in Islamabad, Pakistan, November 4, 2007. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood

Update: Video of lawyers in Lahore.