Update on Hunger Strike

Press Release:

The Student Action Committee held a hunger strike outside the Lahore Press Club Today to demand the immediate release of the students and other protestors who were arrested on Friday and put in Camp Jail for holding a vigil outside Justice Siddiqui's house. Around 30-40 students, holding cards and banners, took part in the hunger strike, which started at 11am in the morning and will continue till the protestors are released.

The ASP of the area requested the students to disperse, and promised the protestors' release on Monday. Weary of unfullfilled promises by officials in the past, the students demanded a written promise of the their release by the Governor, which was denied. The ASP admitted that procedural errors had been committed by the police in putting the protestors in jail without letting them appear before the Magistrate, but said that the error could only be rectified on Monday. The SAC dismissed this explanation, and said that the students will continue their hunger strike through the night if the protestors are not released immediately.

The SAC will be joining civil society groups, lawyers, and journalists in observing a black day for human rights on Monday, and if the protestors are not released by then, in show of their solidarity with the students, the Campaign for Democracyand Rule of Law also join the hunger strike.