Last night, on 20th May, I was once again called by the
superintendent of Police of Lahore. He told me not to attend the
Lahore Marathon as this violates the law. I told him that you should
not violate our right to assemble and that we and most of the Labour
Party Pakistan (LPP) activists in Lahore will be there. He threatened
me of dire consequences and that I still should not participate. I
refused.

Joint Action Committee for Peoples Right (JAC) had called for another
joint Lahore Marathon on 21st May, after an unsuccessful attempt on
13th May. Over 40 of were arrested on 13th May while trying to run
and run jointly, women and men together. JAC is an alliance of 30
social and political organizations. LPP is an active member of JAC. I
have been elected as one of the seven organizing members of Lahore
Marathon.

The Lahore police and the local administration had declared the race
as an illegal act. They have disallowed the race. We had not
asked for permission but informed the Lahore management about the
event. The Lahore Mayor gave public statements about the possible
arrests and so on if the race went ahead.

Religious fundamentalists had threatened to stop the race by force.
In all the national media they had said point blank that
a joint marathon would take place on our dead bodies. JAC refused to
budge. We were in the press with an equal language of defiance and
said that it will take place at any cost.

The Pakistan Musharaf regime and the religious fundamentalist were
united on the issue of stopping the Lahore marathon. The
race exposed the united Mullah military alliance despite all the
rhetoric against each other.

Earlier on the day on 20th, JAC meeting was attended by over 40 with
a mood of defiance. We argued that a marathon despite all the threats
of the regime and the Mullah would give a massive boost to the
progressive forces in Pakistan. However, if we failed and cancelled the
race then Lahore would also be under the political control of the
religious fundamentalists. The fanatics had already stopped - by force -
a joint marathon on 3rd April 2005 in another big city of Pakistan
Gujranwala, 60 kilometer from Lahore.

We argued that our defense is participation of our activists in large
numbers so that if police stopped us then there would be no going back.
We would resist and try to go forward. We also said that the arrest of
hundreds of activists was another defense for all of us. Asma
Jehanghir, the chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP) was in rebellious mood and agreed to the proposals.

We formed several committees including defense. We also framed our
strategy in case fundamentalists attacked us.

Today, I arrived in the morning with four LPP activists at a proposed
place to meet Asma Jehanghir - as had been agreed in the meeting. It
was decided that we would shield Asma in case of an attack. The senior
superintendent of Police in Lahore requested Asma this morning to
change the route of the Lahore Marathon and that it is still illegal
to hold the rally. However, the mood of the SSP seemed changed. Last
night, I ignored advice from several comrades to not sleep at my
home and decided to stay at home with my family, despite a real
threat of being arrested.

After consultation with the crisis committee, we agreed to change the
route but not the marathon. It was not a big deal.

We arrived at Asma house at 2.30pm, which was nearby the Liberty
Chouck. This is where the race had to start at 5pm. We were getting
reports that religious fundamentalists were coming to the place and
that police had cordoned off the place.

LPP comrades did not come to the center today, as this was too risky.
We had planned our LPP strategy after the meeting of JAC yesterday.
We agreed that every one will resist and will be ready to go to jail.
We also agreed that we would assemble on Lahore Railway Station
instead of the LPP center. We also agreed that if police attacked our
women activists, the male comrades would fight back along side with
female comrades. They assembled as planned and came to the marathon
as planned.

We left Asma’s house around 4.45pm with around 100 or so. There was a
lot of media including BBC and Reuters. We were not stopped by police
as they had announced. It meant that they had retreated. When we
reached the Liberty Chouck, several hundreds more were waiting for
us. The main slogans of the Marathon were "down with mullah military
alliance, down with Mushraf, we will snatch our civil liberties,
where are the mullahs, Mullahs have run away, No to religious
fanaticism, no to mullahism. Apart from LPP, Pakistan Peoples Party
leadership also participated in the race.

The religious fanatics came in dozens, but were stopped by the
police. They did not dare to break the barriers of police. They used
filthy language. Their case against the race was - this is against
Islamic culture that women must not jointly race with men. They had a
weak case.

On our side, there was a fighting mood and fighting spirit. We as the
leaders of this marathon had shown that we will fight and that we
will be there in any case that we are not afraid of the religious
fanatics pay back. Many young people came from different colleges.

There were over 200 women and another 500 or so men. I was
hand in hand with Asma when we started the race as a symbol of men
and women running together. At the Qazafi stadium, Asma and I climbed
on a parking police van to speak to the participants. She in her very
short speech thanked Lahorians for their participation and that
Lahore has won, the religious fanatics have lost. She asked every one
to disperse peacefully.

There was lot congratulation to each other for this successful Lahore
Marathon for civil liberties. This has motivated many. This has shown
many that we can fight against the growing onslaught of the religious
fanatics.

By: Farooq Tariq
general secretary
Labour Party Pakistan