LAHORE Dec 6: Police detained 10 people, including lawyers and students outside the residence of Justice Shahid Siddiqi on Thursday night, hours after a High Court full bench issued a contempt notice to police for its failure in removing `miscreants’ from the GOR-1.

Those picked up include Salman, the Justice’s son, lawyers Ahmed Bashir, Saima Khwaja and Irum, as well as three students, according to M Azhar advocate, media adviser to the Supreme Court Bar Association. According to student leader Ali Jan, a student from FAST called Hasan was among the arrested.

When the streets leading to justice’s house were cordoned off, a group of protesters, including Justice Nasira Iqbal (retd) and students went to hold a candle-light vigil outside the Race Course police station where the detained were being held. The station was also fortified with barricades, and as the number of students on the scene swelled, they began chanting ‘Hum nahi mante zulm ke zabte’ and the people being held inside the jail cells could be heard joining in. Later, they sat down to sing Faiz verses.

The station house officer later emerged to confirm the arrests and said that the detained had been remanded under Section 144 and MPO 16, both relating to disrupting public order, for their part in chanting slogans outside the Justice’s house.

One protester said he had tried to meet the people who were taken away, but the police refused to allow anyone inside the station or have any form of communication with the detained.

Justice Nasira said: “I am outraged. Law and order in this country has broken down. According to the procedure, we should have been allowed to see those detained.”

She said that police should have registered their arrest in the daily register instead of keeping everyone in the dark.

Despite repeated attempts, Ehsan Younus, the Civil Lines SP, as well as SPO Faisal Gulzar could not be reached.