Islamabad Police raided a hotel in G-5 area where a dance party was under way in the wee hours of Sunday and arrested at least 50 people.
The orders for the raid were issued by Assistant Commissioner Capt. (Retd) Shoaib Ali.
Police officials said many men and women were dancing and playing music on loudspeakers and were also smoking tobacco and sheesha at the hotel.
In the raid, police rounded up 34 men and 16 women and booked them for “obscene acts and songs” and for violating the amplifier and the tobacco control laws.
The hotel’s owner and manger were also been booked for abetting.
However, all of them were released a few hours later on bail by a magistrate.
Campaigns against “social vices” are not new in Islamabad where Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid and its affiliated madrasa for women Jamia Hafsa had created groups of stick-wielding vigilantes for moral policing in the neighbourhood in 2007. They harassed citizens until a military operation had to be launched to stop them.
