Police hold fire while Islamists call for strike
ISLAMABAD — Pakistani security forces refrained Sunday from cracking down again on an Islamist sit-in, now in its third week, after violence the previous day killed six people and wounded scores.
The protesters rallied near Islamabad in support of a religious party demanding the resignation of the country’s law minister over an omitted reference to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in a parliamentary bill, as solidarity protests spread across the country.
Encouraged by the countrywide protests in their support, a Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah party leader called for a countrywide general strike on Monday against what he called “atrocities” committed by police on Saturday.
Over 3,000 protesters gathered Sunday at the Faizabad intersection, the sit-in’s epicenter, which links the capital Islamabad with the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Some, angry over the police’s show of force the previous day, torched a car, three motorcycles and a guard post erected near the rally site Sunday. No casualties were reported.
Pakistani riot police and paramilitary troops were deployed nearby — apparently in preparation for another crackdown after security forces failed to disperse the demonstrators on Saturday. As the day wore on, however, it became apparent they would refrain from any further action to clear the sit-in.
The law minister targeted by the group, Zahid Hamid, has apologized for the omission in the parliamentary bill — a phrase saying that Muhammad is the last prophet in Islam — and said it was a clerical error that was later corrected. But Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah — a coalition of groups that follow the Sunni Hanafi tradition — is adamant that Hamid resign.
“This sit-in and protests all over the country are not going to end unless our talks proved successful and our demands are met,” said Pir Mohammad Afzal Qadri, the leader of Aalmi Tanzeem Ahl el-Sunnat, one of the groups of the religious party. Qadri appealed to traders to close their business on Monday to protest against police tactics. Fearing trouble, several state and private educational institutions across the country announced that they would close and postpone exams on Monday.
On Saturday, security forces failed to disperse the protesters when riot police moved in with tear gas and batons. Hospital officials said nearly 200 people were hurt, most of them police. They confirmed six people were killed in clashes with police at the Islamabad rally.
Sunday also saw supporters of the Islamist party block roads and stage sit-ins for a second day in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Multan and others, in a show of solidarity with the protesters in Islamabad.