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QUEBEC CITY, APRIL 20 - A group of police officers dressed as demonstrators grabbed and arrested high profile critic of globalization Jaggi Singh in the afternoon.

The incident left fellow activists uncertain about his whereabouts, which were unknown for more than eight hours. He was arrested for "breach of conditions" from a previous prosecution and is due to appear in court in the morning, his lawyer, Pascal Lescarb, just announced.

"At About five o'clock we were standing talking on rue Saint-Jean, a 'green [minimum risk] zone'," Hne Nazon reported, "when three or four 'demonstrators' suddenly attacked Jaggi from behind. They grabbed his arms, pushed him down onto the pavement and began beating him. Jaggi shouted out and nearby protesters rushed to his rescue," she continued.

One young woman was shoved to the ground and a man was kicked by the assailants. When would-be rescuers appeared to have the upper hand, the assailants drew truncheons from under their coats, announced they were police and warned people away.

"Then they picked Jaggi up, dragged him into an unmarked panel van parked on Sainte-Claire," Nazon said, "and sped away."

Ms. Nazon is a member of CASA [Welcoming Committee for the Summit of the Americas].

Numerous telephone inquiries to local police revealed no information about Mr. Singh's arrest or location or of any charges being laid, until well after midnight.

The assailants are described by witnesses as "big men, bouncers, dressed up like protesters," and the attacks as "completely unprovoked" in an area designated "green".

Mr. Singh is a well-known organizer and journalist who gained public attention with his participation in the anti-APEC demonstrations at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. "Jaggi has never committed civil disobedience himself," Ms. Nazon said.

Group Claims Responsibility for Summit Weaponry, Applauds Police Satire

Following yet another nabbing of Jaggi Singh (this time, at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City), and his court appearance today on charges for possession of a weapon (a humongous catapult), the group DIST issued the following statement:

Our group, the Deconstructionist Institute for Surreal Topology (DIST) was responsible for the enormous catapult which helped lay siege to the Summit, and launched stuffed animals (infected with the plague) from inside the security zone.

Prominent perma-protester Jaggi Singh has been nabbed and charged with possession of our catapult.

Jaggi is not a member of our group, and has never been a member of our group. Nor will we ever let him become a member of our group, as his sense of humour does not meet the rigorous standards required by DIST. Jaggi was not involved in any way with any aspect of the project's planning, nor with catapult construction and deployment. Nor does Jaggi have the chutzpah necessary to smuggle a 25x10 foot catapult into the most heavily fortified city in Canadian history.

Furthermore, we admonish him for managing to steal credit for our catapult. While it may not be his fault that the police were stupid enough to charge him for its possession, he should have known better than to take a look at it during the protest. It is no wonder fellow activists call him Braggi Singh.

DIST would also like to applaud the brilliant satirical techniques employed by security forces. We thought we had reached the pinnacle of irony with our teddy-bear launching siege equipment, yet the security forces manage to upstage us with these absurd charges against Singh. We are humbled - this is even better theatre than when they charged him with assault for speaking too loud into a megaphone.

The kidnapping of Singh is also a brilliant strategic move, since with each nabbing, the size of his ego doubles. Soon, he will be so intolerable, that none of his fellow activists will be able to stomach working with him.

The catapult was deployed by members of the medieval bloc (they wore pots on their heads, and shields made of pot lids). Another group built the catapult, and rabble.ca publisher Judy Rebick arranged the funding. For more info, visit the DIST webpage at http://tao.ca/~wrench/dist or email wrench@tao.ca