Army silent as police, Islamists clash again

FAIZABAD: Islamist party activists clashed with Pakistani security forces for a second day yesterday outside Islamabad, burning vehicles before withdrawing to a protest camp they have occupied for more than two weeks, police said.

Despite orders from the civilian government to the army on Saturday night to help restore order, no troops were at the scene around the protest camp in Faizabad, witnesses said.

According to media reports at least six people were killed the previous day, when several thousand police and paramilitary forces tried to disperse the religious hardliners, who have blocked the main route into the capital demanding that the law minister be fired for committing blasphemy.

At least 150 people were wounded in Saturday’s clashes, hospitals reported, and police superintendent Amir Niazi said 80 members of the security forces were among those casualties.

Reuters could not confirm that there had been any deaths.

Yesterday morning, smoke billowed from the charred remains of a car and three motorcycles burned that morning near the protest camp, where several thousand members of the Tehreek-e-Labaik party have gathered in defiance of the government.

After the early morning clashes, the area settled into an uneasy standoff. The paramilitary Rangers force – which had held back from Saturday’s confrontation – was in charge of yesterday’s operations, officers said.

“We still don’t have orders to launch an operation. We will act as the government orders us,” said Rangers commander at the scene Colonel Bilal, who gave only one name.

“We have surrounded the protesters from all sides. We can move in when the government orders us.”

Activists from Tehreek-e-Labaik have blocked the main road into the capital for two weeks, accusing the law minister of blasphemy over a wording change in electoral law the party says weakens the Islamic tenet of Muhammad as God’s final prophet.

“We will not leave. We will fight until the end,” Tehreek-e-Labaik party spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi said.

Led by cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Labaik is one of two new ultra-religious political movements that became prominent in recent months.

Labaik, which campaigns on defending Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws, won a surprisingly strong 6% and 7.6% of the vote in two recent by-elections. – Reuters