To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.
Mikhail Bakunin

19 December 2007

Human Rights Watch Asks to End Persecution of Lawyers and Judges

Here Human Rights Watch reports the following incidents and urges the Government of Pakistan to End Persecution of Lawyers and Judges:

“At the police station, the station house officer started beating me and telling me to shout slogans in support of Musharraf. I refused. So he punched me and kicked me and beat me with a stick and something else. Other police officers present also joined in… They kept taunting me and telling me to call [Chief Justice] Iftikhar Chaudhry for help and ordering me to shout slogans in support of Musharraf. They kept beating me like this until I passed out.”

—Hassan Tariq, District Bar Association executive committee member in Nawabshah, Sindh province, describing his arrest on November 8.



“From the Bar Rooms [lawyers’ lounges], the library, the study and the news room – lawyers were arrested from everywhere. And no one was arrested without being beaten up and humiliated. The senior lawyers – elderly individuals – were the worst affected. They were having breathing problems because the air was filled with teargas. Some of them were lying on the ground and were gasping for air. Even they were hauled up.”
—Abid Saqi, a lawyer describing the police raid on the Lahore High Court on November 5.

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