MANSOOR KHAN, Shafi Baloch, Bari Baloch, Asif Chaudhry and Shahid Rao KARACHI/QUETTA/LAHORE/ISLAMABAD - Police Thursday blocked the long march mounted by hundreds of lawyers and political activists from leaving Karachi and detained more than 200 people. The police barred the lawyers and political workers from exiting Karachi by barricading the highway at Toll Plaza. The participants of the long march set off in groups for Sukkur in the first phase, but police sealed off all the roads leaving Karachi with trucks and containers. Police confiscated the buses and ordered all cars to leave the area, forcing the protesters to turn back towards Karachi. The police also baton-charged lawyers and political activists and manhandled dozens into vans at Toll Plaza Prominent leaders of PML-N, Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, National People's Party and Sindh United Party including President of Sindh High Court Bar Rasheed A Rizvi, former President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Munir A Malik, Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, Shahid Ghauri, Captain (r) Haleem Siddiqui and Parveen Rasheed were among the arrested. Police also manhandled women participants of the long march and arrested several of them. The detained persons were taken to Gadap Town Police Station. According to police sources, arrest warrants of 11 political leaders had been issued with instructions to stop the participants of long march at Toll Plaza. Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Wasim Ahmed Siddiqui said the arrests were undertaken at the outskirt of Karachi to avoid any terrorist activity or disturbance. All the arrests were made under Section 144, Siddiqui maintained. He said the participants were repeatedly warned not to violate Section 144 but they turned deaf ear to it. To a question on ill-treatment of senior citizens and women, he said no uncivilised treatment was meted out to the people. JI leaders Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, Asadullah Bhutto and Mohammad Hussain Mehenti, President Karachi Bar Muhammad Ali Abbasi, General Secretary Naeem Qureshi, Mehmoodul Hassan and many other lawyers and political workers were also arrested. There were reports that Munir Malik, Rasheed Rizvi and Prof Ghafoor were released later in the night. Meanwhile, unknown persons torched five vehicles in different areas of the metropolis and another one in Jamshoro. Five vehicles were set on fire in Sohrab Goth, Sachhal and Abul Hassan Isfphani Road. More than two people sustained injuries in violent incidents while people pelted stones on the passing vehicles. Following the violent clash, shops were closed in these areas. AFP adds: Senior lawyer Rashid Rizvi said that arrests and police torture could not stop their movement. "Our struggle will continue," Razvi said as he was being pushed into one of 10 waiting prison vans. Protesters in Karachi chanted "Go, Zardari, Go" as riot police wearing helmets and carrying batons bundled more than 35 people into waiting prison vans outside the Sindh High Court, witnesses said. Rangers and the police had placed a foolproof security net in and around Sindh High Court. The two approach roads used for general public, litigants and lawyers from Masjid-e-Khizra, and Coast Guard were blocked since early morning on Thursday by placing iron barricades. The entry was allowed only after identification. The lawyers and political workers along with leaders and activists of different labour unions, civil society and others organisations on Thursday started the long march from Mazar-e-Qauid. The lawyers procession was kicked off from city court Karachi and High Court led by Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed, Rasheed A Rizvi, Munir Malik and other senior lawyers. Heavy contingents of police and Rangers were deployed outside SHC building and city court from where the lawyers had planned to start their long march. A large number of lawyers gathered outside SHC from where long march was kicked off. A rally, headed by Rasheed Rizvi, left for Mazar-e-Quaid at 12pm from Sindh High Court Bar room while the police had sealed all the routes leading to City Court before the protesters could reach there. Well-informed sources told The Nation, on condition of anonymity, that Chief Justice SHC had called on a high-ranking official of Rangers and asked him to avoid any action against the protesters within the premises of the court. But despite this, police adopted harsh methods against the activists and manhandled dozens of them into vans when they protested against the government. Scores of lawyers as well as workers of different opposition parties were carrying flags and placards demanding reinstatement of sacked judges. Leaders and workers of PML-N, JI, Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, PTI and other political parties participated in the long march. Meanwhile, despite large-scale arrests of several senior lawyers and political leaders, the protesters continued their march towards Mazar-e-Quaid from where they were scheduled to go to Hyderabad via Sohrab Goth. Police sealed the high court and beefed up snap checking at entry and exit routes of the City. In Quetta, lawyers Long March for the reinstatement of deposed judges kicked off from provincial capital Thursday. Hundreds of people including lawyers, political activists and members of civil society left Quetta for Sukkur. The activists of PML-N, JUI (Nazriati), National Party, JI, Pakhtun Khuwa Milli Awami Party, lawyers and members of civil society gathered at District Court to see off the members of the march. The participants of different political parties and lawyers were carrying posters of deposed CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry, political leaders and chanted slogans demanding reinstatement of deposed judges. The activists of Pakhtun Khuwa Milli Awami Party took out a large rally in favour of deposed judges. The law-enforcement agencies did not conduct any raid against lawyers and other workers due to which participants left Quetta for Sukkur peacefully. The long march was led by President Supreme Court Bar Association Ali Ahmad Kurd, President Balochistan Bar Association Amanullah Baloch, leaders of political parties including provincial President PML-N Sardar Yaqoob Khan, Abdul Hayee Baloch, Maulana Abdul Qadir Loni of JUI-Ideology and others. Talking to newsmen on this occasion, Kurd assured that lawyers community would not create disturbance, however, he said that govt was deliberately spreading panic amongst the people so that they could not take part in long march. He said that he was hopeful that lawyers rally would succeed and deposed judges including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry would be reinstated on pre-November 2 position. Lawyers caravan was welcomed at Machh, Dadar, Sibi and other towns of Balochistan by activists of political parties. In Punjab, police crackdown against political workers and lawyers continued Thursday as over 500 more activists and lawyers were arrested. This time, a senior police officer revealed that police appeared with a different strategy to make maximum arrests of the workers. About the new strategy, he said, most of the arrests came on the information of the PPP workers who helped police in tracing the opposition parties' workers as several had gone underground to avoid arrests. The police officials gleaned information from the local PPP workers about the targeted people especially PML-N activists as they were also residing in the same areas and knew well about the movement of the activists, their relatives and friends. According police sources, around 100 PML-N and other political activists were arrested from the provincial capital only while rests were detained from other districts of the province. No arrest of any senior leader of the PML-N or other opposition party who fall in category A was reported in the city till the filing of this report. A senior police officer seeking anonymity confirmed 71 more arrests of PML-N activists in Lahore on Thursday, saying that one worker of PTI was arrested while no JI activist was detained in the provincial capital during the crackdown. In Islamabad and Rawalpindi, law-enforcement agencies Thursday continued their crackdown against lawyers, political workers and arrested dozens of them. However, the law-enforcement agencies again failed to arrest any of the major political leaders of the parties as they already had gone underground to avoid arrests and ensure their participation in the Long March. According to details, heavy contingents of police arrested a local PML-N activist, Shehzad Abbasi. They also raided the houses of PML-N Union Council Nazim, 46, Shakeel Awan and Divisional President, Muslim Students Federation (MSF), Maqbool Ahmed Khan and Imran Khan's media advisor Zahid Hussain Kazmi but could not arrest them as they already had left their houses. However, the police party arrested Kazmi's two house servants. A police party also stormed into the houses and offices of Malik Shehzad, President of Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) Rawalpindi, Secretary General Malik Siddique Awan, former president Sardar Asmatullah, former president Muhammad Ikram Chaudhary, District Bar Association (DBA) President Toufiq Asif and former president DBA Syed Zulfiqar Naqvi but they all managed to escape the arrests somehow. Meanwhile, Syed Ateequr Rehman Shah, Amir Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, Rawalpindi District, said that his party would fully participate in the Long March.