distributing pamphlets called Jamhoori Pakistan, Gajar and Chanan. Before being tried for sedition against the state of Pakistan in a military court and kept in Camp Jail, Lahore, he was first taken to Lal Qila, Waris Road, and then Shahi Qila torture cells. He was kept awake for sixteen days and sixteen nights. When they couldn't break his will, he was hung from the fan hook in the ceiling of the cell with bar fetters and chains squeezing his arms and legs and an iron yoke bolted around his neck. Besides inflicting terrible physical pain, this brutality caused a permanent damage to his spine and the nervous system. He started deteriorating and in a few years became completely immobile. He was unable to move his hands and lower parts of his legs for years before falling terminally ill a few months ago.
Being found innocent, the court released him after two and a half years. But a few years after his own release, paying no heed to his falling health, he organised the grand reception for Jam Saqi, another famous political prisoner, who visited Lahore in 1987. About the same time Manzoor opened a small shop selling pan, cigarettes, and candies to run his household and to provide for not only his own but his brother's family. He never asked any of his friends for support, ran his shop with dignity. Manzoor Ahmed was one of the many political workers who irrespective of their affiliations give meaning to the struggle for a just and prosperous homeland.
The great man's funeral was attended by a few of his old pals including trade unionists and political activists Chaudhry Shaukat Ali, Tauqeer Riaz, Haneef Ramay and Rana Shafiq-ur-Rehman. I am told there were about 20 people in the graveyard to pay their last respects. Shaukat Ali said that with an undying smile on his face, the man neither complained nor felt any remorse ever for what he got in return against the sacrifices he made for his people, his cause and his country. Cry Pakistan.
The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harrisspopk.org