Jordan Islamists urge authorities against crackdown on protestors

Apr 17, 2011, 12:21 GMT

Amman - Jordan's main opposition party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), on Sunday warned the government against resorting to 'tough security' measures in dealing with demonstrations, following Friday's clashes which injured dozens of policemen.

'We warn against the so-called tough security policy because it has proved futile in neighbouring countries and failed to ensure security and peace,' the IAF said in a statement.

Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit threatened on Saturday to return to come down harshly on demonstrators, after stick and knife-wielding protestors injured 83 policemen during a rally by Islamic extremists known as Salafists in Zarqa, 30 kilometres east of Amman, on Friday.

The security authorities have arrested about 70 Salafists over the past 24 hours, according to the group's lawyer Musa Abdullat.

Abdullat complained that he was not allowed to visit his clients and had failed to know the place of their detention, according to media reports.

The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, condemned the injury of policemen, but held the authorities responsible, saying they failed to prevent attacks on peaceful protesters by government loyalists several times over the past three months.

'The task of the security bodies is not confined to separating those who exercise their right of expression and those who practise physical and verbal attacks, but rather to arrest the assailants and send them to courts to receive their just punishment,' the statement said.

Islamists and their allied Pan-Arab and left-leaning opposition parties and trade unions have accused the government of being behind at least three attacks on pro-democracy protesters over the three months of demonstrations, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

They charged that policemen and government supporters teamed up on March 25 to attack hundreds of activists of the pro-democracy group, killing one protester and wounding more than 120.

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