Pakistani political leaders arrested

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities briefly arrested at least 120 members -- including 18 leaders -- of a fundamentalist political alliance for gathering at a train station in Lahore to kick off a cross-country political rally.

They were released several hours after taken into custody Saturday.

However, Lahore police said they had filed a court case against the group and the politicians could be re-arrested.

The Muttajida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance -- made up of six separate political parties -- had planned to board a train in Lahore and travel to Karachi, making campaign stops along the way.

Police arrested the group hours before the planned procession for violating Section 144, a broad law that prohibits groups of more than five people from gathering in public places across Pakistan.

The law is only enforced under certain circumstances, according to police officials.

One of the jailed political leaders spoke with CNN from the Lahore prison via telephone and called the arrests "unjust."

"What the Musharraf government is doing is unfair to us," Maulana Fazal ur-Rehman said. "We have right under Pakistan's constitution to hold these political marches and rallies, and nobody can stop us."

The alliance's leaders have been polarized in opposition to Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, following a sweeping constitutional amendments package that the Pakistani leader announced last month, which automatically became law without parliamentary approval.

Included in those amendments were restrictions on political campaigning and the creation of a National Security Council -- which Musharraf will chair -- with the power to overrule the democratically elected parliament.

Musharraf, who recently won a referendum to serve for the next five years as president and chief of the army, has promised that the October parliamentary elections will be open and fair.

-- CNN Islamabad Bureau Chief Ash-har Quraishi and Producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi contributed to this report