LAHORE, April 16: Elite police stormed into the plane carrying Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardar as soon as it landed at the Allama Iqbal airport on Sunday morning and took him into custody, party sources said.

As an official vehicle took Mr Zardari and PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim away through a back exit of the airport, the police clashed with scores of party workers who were waiting outside the building to welcome their leader. Dozens of PPP workers were injured.

“I condemn the arrests and torture of party activists,” Mr Zardari told Dawn when he made a brief appearance at the main gate of Bilawal House in Cantonment area where he had been taken by the police in custody. “I am in contact with my lawyers and friends to decide future line of action.”

Media-persons who accompanied the PPP leader from Dubai told reporters outside the airport that Punjab home secretary Hasan Waseem Afzal and senior police officials stormed into the Aero Asia plane shortly after it landed at 7:16am. The officials grabbed Mr Zardari and Mr Amin Fahim and offloaded them amid resistance, they said.

The media-persons alleged that police snatched their cameras, notebooks and cell-phones. They remained inside the plane for sometime before they were offloaded and taken to a lounge where they were detained by the police, they said. “It is worst kind of mistreatment with the media,” a senior journalist among them said.

Soon after the plane landed, around 150 men and women activists of the PPP emerged from different directions outside the airport and began shouting slogans. They had managed to reach there despite a curfew-like security deployment made on all city roads leading to the airport. Waving PPP flags, the activists shouted slogans like ‘Down with Musharraf’, ‘No to dictatorship’, ‘Long live Bhutto’ and ‘Long live Benazir’.

Riot police deputed there initially tried to disperse them, but resorted to baton-charge when they did not end their protest. Male activists were beaten up and women were dragged by their hair in attempts by police to bundle them into police vans.

Before Mr Zardari’s arrival, dozens of PPP activists and leaders, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Naheed Khan, Safdar Abbasi, Manzoor Wassan, Malik Hakimeen, and Mir Baz Khetran, had managed to get to the airport. The workers were baton-charged when they tried to hold a protest.

Mr Qureshi, Safdar Abbasi and Ms Naheed Khan locked their car and refused to get off it. Police encircled their vehicle and finally managed to get them out. Their clothes were torn during a scuffle with the police. Other prominent leaders arrested from other parts of the city included Aitzaz Ehsan, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Sherry Rehman and some present and former PPP lawmakers.

The police after putting Mr Zardari in Bilawal House surrounded it and barricaded all of its link roads. Nobody was allowed to get close to the house. However, hundreds of PPP activists continued pouring in groups there to court arrests.

Shouting anti-government slogans, they would emerge from different roads before being bundled into police vans. Some of the workers suffered injuries when they clashed with police. Two of them, who were bleeding, introduced themselves as Rana Khurshid and Chaudhry Nizar Razi of Sargodha while on the run. Similar scenes were witnessed in other parts of Lahore.

Later in the evening, Mr Zardari was told by the authorities that he was free to go anywhere, Punjab PPP information-secretary Naveed Chaudhry said. Most of the police outside his house was withdrawn, but some remained there for security.

Several party leaders and media-persons began visiting Mr Zardari, who also addressed a press conference. “I have just got permission to move freely. I will, God willing, certainly go to the shrine of Hazrat Data Ganj Bukhsh, but we have to contend with the problem of arrested workers first,” he said.

He said he had been informed that some of the leaders, including Ms Naheed Khan and Sherry Rehman, had been shifted to an unknown place near Indian border. “Let me make it clear I will not forgive anybody responsible for doing any harm to my fellow leaders.” He said he would get a case registered against the Punjab government for torturing the party activists and leaders.

He said his reception had exposed the government, which was in a state of bewilderment. “The arrests and ‘this behaviour’ is a setback to their claim of enlightened moderation.”

He said he had stepped into Lahore and nobody could stop him from doing politics here. “Nobody can stop us. My next programme is to sit in Lahore, Lahore and Lahore.”

Mr Zardari asked human rights groups to look into the matter of arrests and torture of his party workers and leaders.

Meanwhile, the arrested workers and leaders had been detained at various police lock-ups in the city, whose release was being anticipated sometime late on Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

“We are negotiating with the government and I hope all of our men would be set free,” Mr Naveed Chaudhry of the PPP said. However, a senior police officer said only lawmakers would be set free, and cases would be registered against those who had tried to create a law and order situation.

Over 10,000 policemen had been deployed for the event in the city with squads patrolling key roads. Pickets had been set up on all entry and exit points of the city and barricades manned by heavy contingents had been placed on all roads leading to the airport.