LAHORE: As the PTI launched a mass mobilisation campaign to galvanise its supporters in Punjab, police raided residences and offices of party leaders to stop party supporters from campaigning across the province.

PTI Punjab chief organiser Aliya Hamza Malik, who had given a call for the opening of offices and mass mobilisation, shared several videos of party leaders, legislators, and workers that allegedly showed police high-handedness.

PTI Mandi Bahauddin district president Tariq Mahmood Sahi, who had submitted an application with the deputy commissioner concerned for holding a workers` convention at his residence on Feb 26, held a meeting of party leaders at his residence. Shortly thereafter, police raided his house, smashed the windows of his car and ransacked his house.

The police also raided the residences of Chaudhry Muhammad Nawaz Panjotha from PP-43 Mandi Bahauddin and ISF divisional president Hamayun Aslam Warraich in the district and ransacked their homes. The police also arrested Mr Warraich`s elder brother.

The outhouses of MPA Zarnab Sher Sahi and other leaders were also raided.

The residence of retired Major Zafar Gondal, where a PTI meeting was held on Saturday night, was also raided by police. PTI Central Region President Ahmad Chatha also opened a party office in Wazirabad. It may be men-tioned that the police had earlier raided his residences in Wazirabad and Lahore.

In Bahawalpur, PTI South Punjab President Senator Aon Abbas Bappi, General Secretary Malik Asghar Joiya, Samiullah Chaudhry, as well as ticketholders and workers, organised a walk against inflation and distributed pamphlets in Bahawalpur.

Moreover, Sialkot`s PTI Youth Wing President Mehr Khurram Shahzad also submitted an application with the deputy commissioner seel(ing permission for a worl(ers convention at Anwaar Club, Katchery Sialkot, on Feb 28. The PTI workers in Rawalpindi were also preparing for a convention despite the crackdown on the party.

Ms Malil( also shared several videos showing the general public lamenting about inflation. She said the Punjab government was only busy in running a massive advertising campaign to propagate its fake and fudged figures of growth in the economy.

She lambasted the Punjab government for picking up a young college girl through male policemen from PP-44 Sialkot, village Mehdipur, for sharing a post on social media that presumably was a criticism against Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar told Dawn that he strongly condemned the police high-handedness, raids, and ransacl(ing of their residences allegedly on instructions of the Punjab chief minister.

In a separate statement, PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqqas Akram alleged that the federal government `systematically trampled the rule of law, eradicated constitutional supremacy, paralysed the judiciary, ruined the economy, and unleashed a reign of terror to ensure its authoritarian grip on power`.

Ikram Junaidi in Islamabad also contributed to this report