Pak Rangers take control of site
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Rangers took control of the area occupied by anti-blasphemy protestors in Islamabad on Sunday while security forces were deployed in other parts of the city as peace gradually returned to the capital and other cities after a day of violence left at least six people dead.
The paramilitary forces moved in as the law and order situation worsened when police clashed with the radical Islamist protestors who had been blocking key highways in Islamabad for over two weeks, demanding the resignation of the law minister.
Though personnel deployed around the sit-in vastly outnumbered the protestors, weak planning by the authorities and guerrilla tactics from the demonstrators helped turn the tables. Protesters remained at the sit-in site on the outskirts of Islamabad defying the government action a day earlier.
The country’s top military and civilian leadership held a meeting on Sunday as the army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa cut short a trip to UAE and returned home. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired a consultative meeting on the Faizabad operation, which was attended by Bajwa, ISI director general Naveed Mukhtar, Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and interior minister Ahsan Iqbal.
The role of the army came under discussion but so far the military has stayed away from the issue. Top civil and military The Tehreek-e-labbaik group believes the government altered the declaration of lawmakers with regard to Finality of the Prophethood — an amendment which the government said was a "clerical error" and has already reversed The protestors want law minister Zahid Hamid to resign and have called for terrorism charges to be levelled against top officials including PM Abbasi and former PM Nawaz Sharif officials had earlier decided against the use of force to disperse protesters, opting instead to engage in political negotiations, Dawnnews reported.
Bajwa told Abbasi that the government should not use force against its own people. He also said that the army would not participate in the crackdown on the protestors as “the masses of Paki- For several weeks, the group had blocked major roads and highways in and around Islamabad. The Islamabad high court, the Supreme Court and various religious parties repeatedly called for the protesters to disband. When the group refused to budge, security forces were sent it, leading to the clashes stan love and trust the army”, The Express Tribune reported.
Meanwhile, the electronic media watchdog Pemra restored transmission of news channels across the country, with local media reporting that Bajwa had asked Abbasi for transmission to immediately be restored.
However, social media sites were still blocked.
Later on Sunday, Tehreek-eLabbaik leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi, in a press conference, called for terrorism charges to be levelled against top officials including Abbasi and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. He also declared that his group will “fully participate” in next year’s general elections.