Press Release
The government arrests five activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir from Lahore and Karachi on opposing the ongoing American war against the people of Swat

The democratic government of Pakistan has arrested five activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir and booked them with terrorism and treason charges.  The only "sin" these activists committed was that they were building public opinion to stop the showering of bullets and bombs over the innocent civilians of Swat.

On Thursday, in broad daylight, the police abducted activists for Hizb ut-Tahrir, Shahzad Karim and Abdullah Arafat from Ghalib Market, Lahore and took them to the police station.  The lawyer personally met them in the police station but the police instead of lodging an FIR (First Information Report) and following the legal procedure, unlawfully handed them to the secret agencies.  The next day instead of producing them in the court police kept on harassing them even threatened to kill them.  The bailiff raided various police stations but the police kept on transferring them from one place to another and denied ever arresting them.  Finally on Saturday the police presented them in an Anti-Terrorism Court and got physical remand for 7 days for further interrogations. We ask from this "Free Judiciary" what was the purpose of granting police custody of these highly educated carriers of Da'wa? Were they guilty of any theft, robbery or murder?! We warn the government that if they were subjected to any physical abuse the government will solely be responsible.  Similarly on Saturday night Hizb's three activists, Arsalan Qamar, Shafat Ali Khan and Omar Khan were arrested from Liaqat market, Maleer, Karachi.  These well educated and non-violent citizens were charged with treason who were raising the word of truth against the killing in Swat.  So, what is the difference between the dictatorship of Musharraf and the democratic government of PPP and PML-N?  Is this the tolerance, patience and freedom of expression which these democratic governments claim to uphold?  All attacks against Islam and Muslims are justified under the guise of "freedom of expression" and that too with brute force whilst baseless cases of terrorism and treason are registered against a non-violent political party like Hizb ut-Tahrir.  People have realized that in both dictatorial and democratic ruling systems, the imperialist forces gain the ability to implement the capitalist system as well as use the system to ban all those political parties who are sincerely working for the implementation of Islam. Even today Hizb ut-Tahrir's legal petition challenging the ban is still pending before the Lahore High Court (Rawalpindi bench) whereas the judiciary has claimed to have gotten "independence".  The government has been stalling this case for the last three years since she knows that she cannot prove Hizb ut-Tahrir to be a terrorist organization in any court of law.  We would like to inform the government that all tactics of stopping the Hizb have already failed; the Arab and Central Asian governments are a good example of this failure.  Despite all these steps of aggression and subjugation, Hizb ut-Tahrir has evolved to be the largest Islamic political party of the world, working in more than 40 countries for the establishment of the Khilafah "Caliphate".  Hizb reiterates that she cannot be deterred through arrests or imposition of ban. And the glad tidings of the Messenger of Allah (saaw) of the return of the Khilafah "Caliphate" will indeed be fulfilled (inshAllah) and as if the members of Hizb ut-Tahrir can actually see it happening before their eyes.

Naveed Butt
The official spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan