KARACHI, Dec 21: Pakistan Peoples' Party leader Asif Ali Zardari was arrested after his bail in the Justice Nizam murder case was cancelled on Tuesday. He was lodged at the Bilawal House which has been declared sub-jail

The arrest, however, did not come before an action-packed drama in which first his Islamabad-bound flight was delayed by an hour and a half at Karachi and then he was flown back under police custody to Karachi from the federal capital where PPP workers were baton-charged, tear-gassed and detained.

Mr Zardari was arrested at Islamabad Airport on his arrival about a month after his release on bail from more than eight years of detention. He was served arrest warrant by the district police officer at the airport where he had reached by a PIA flight. Later in the evening, he was flown back to Karachi.

The drama started when Mr Zardari had boarded the aircraft for Islamabad along with some of his friends to meet his party leadership and cadre in the federal capital and later in the NWFP.

While he was on board, his bail was cancelled by the judge in the Justice Nizam case and even before his lawyers could get a certified copy of the court order police came in action at the Quaid-i-Azam international airport. For some time it appeared that he would be offloaded and taken to jail. But his plane took off after a delay of more than an hour and a half.

Amid the tense moments, Mr Zardari told Dawn by cell phone that he was not afraid of such 'coercive measures' and said that he had not collected his belongings from the prison authorities.

He said he was being persecuted and harassed because he had vowed to fight for the democratic rights of the downtrodden against the dictatorial rule. He added that he was prepared to face the courts to get his name cleared.

Prior to his arrival in Islamabad, police personnel, who were present in a large number at the airport, baton-charged and tear-gassed hundreds of PPP workers and supporters outside the executive lounge and the roads leading to the airport in a bid to disperse them.

Even parliamentarians belonging to the PPP were not spared. Several workers, including MNA Zamurad Khan, were injured. Police arrested about 70 people from the airport premises.

Besides, hundreds of PPP workers had been rounded up in the twin cities since Monday night to foil plans by the party to welcome Mr Zardari. Banners and hoardings put up to welcome him were removed by the administration, which had imposed Section 144 to stop a public reception.

All major roads in the twin cities had been blocked and people coming from other districts of the Rawalpindi division also reported similar blockades preventing them from reaching Islamabad airport.

A source present at the time of Mr Zardari's arrest quoted him as saying that he would continue his struggle against dictators till restoration of democracy. He reportedly told the district police officer that his arrest was an act of political victimization and he would challenge it in the court of law.

In Karachi, law-enforcement authorities had set up barricades around the airport and did not allow PPP leaders and activists to reach the airport. There were incidents of acrimonious exchanges between law-enforcement personnel and the activists.

At one point, Sindh PPP president Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who was accompanied by Rashid Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi and Masroor Ahsan, were treated harshly by the police personnel. PPP's central information secretary Taj Haider was detained at one point for some time and was put in a police vehicle. He was freed when other activists offered arrest.

Talking to newsmen who somehow reached the airport upon his arrival, Mr Zardari said he would again go to Punjab soon after freedom, as the government wanted to become a wall between him and the people of Punjab.