Pakistan:School students arrested

Pakistani police has arrested atleast 48 school students, the youngest being a 12-year-old, who participated in a silent rally in Islamabad to protest against the Emergency imposed by President Musharraf. Having silver and black tape stuck on their mouths and holding placards with slogans like "Justice for justices" and "Free the media", about 100 students braved police batons near the upmarket Jinnah Super market on Monday.The children were later released on bail.  Samad Khurram, who took part in the protest, told the News, "students of various high schools organised a silent protest. When the policemen approached us and asked us to stop, we did and tried to cooperate with them. "But as we were going back, 600-700 policemen, including women officers, anti-terrorist squad commandos and officers in plainclothes descended and told us they would arrest us because a protest rally was not allowed," Khurram said. He accused the police of using batons to disperse the children and pushing, dragging and even abusing them before they were shoved into police vans. A large number of girls also participated in the protest. Upon requested by lawyers and human rights activists, the Police refrained from arresting more students.