Govt sets up team to negotiate with radical party protesters
Two cops and seven supporters of banned Tehreek-e-labbaik Pakistan killed in clashes in Lahore
The government has constituted a three-member team to hold talks with a banned radical outfit which had launched a protest in Lahore to pressure the government to release their party chief.
The Tehreek-e-labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party had threatened to march on capital Islamabad if their party leader Saad Rizvi had not been released.
Rizvi was arrested last year amid demonstrations against France over the publication of blasphemous caricatures.
Rizvi’s party has a history of staging violent protests to pressure the government to accept its demands.
The government comprised Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid and Punjab law Minister Raja Basharat.
The TLP has expressed its willingness to hold talks, saying negotiations were possible if the Punjab government was serious about resolving the issue.
“The government believes in resolving issues through dialogue,” Geo News quoted Qadri as saying in a report. Protecting the lives and property of the people is the government’s top priority, Qadri added.
Thousands of supporters of the TLP on Saturday departed Lahore, clashing for a second straight day with police who lobbed tear gas into the crowd, a party spokesman and witnesses said.
“Death toll of Tehreek-e-labbaik Pakistan supporters rose to seven after two more people succumbed to their injuries caused by police firing,” the party tweeted on Saturday.
It had earlier said two of the seven supporters died on Friday.
The group began their journey on Friday with the goal of reaching the capital Islamabad to pressure the government to release Saad Rizvi.
Rana Arif, a Lahore police spokesman, said earlier on Saturday that officials were carrying out “a defensive operation against the mob... We are only doing shelling to control the crowd.”
Violent clashes erupted between security forces and party workers in Lahore on Friday.
Sajid Saifi, spokesman for Rizvi’s party, said supporters spent the night near the Ravi River bridge and in the early morning started their journey again toward Islamabad amid heavy tear gas.
Saifi said the crowd removed barricades and exited the city limits but again faced security forces near the town of Kala Shah Kako.
Saifi said “many” party supporters were injured by tear gas canisters as they attempted to leave Lahore. Witnesses said the rallygoers were on foot but some vehicles moving alongside them to took the injured to hospitals and to bring food and water.
The government on Saturday deployed as many as 500 personnel of paramilitary forces and a contingent of 1,000 Frontier Constabulary personnel to stop the TLP march to Islamabad, reports Dawn newspaper.
The publication stated that the capital administration approached the interior ministry to seek personnel of Rangers and the Frontier Constabulary (FC).
The report stated that security personnel were being deployed in and around the Red Zone in Islamabad and the Faizabad Interchange. Moreover, a contingent of 200 police personnel each was deployed at the entry points in the city. Furthermore, 1,400 police personnel were deployed at different locations, including Faizabad and Red Zone.
This decision was taken by the government after the first round of negotiations held in Lahore concluded without any result.
Hundreds of TLP workers have been participating in a sit-in in Lahore to exert pressure on the Punjab government for the release of its chief, Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi who has been kept in detention by the Punjab government since April 12 for “maintenance of public order”.
In a statement issued prior to the announcement of the long march, the TLP’S executive council had decried that the group’s members had been staging a “peaceful protest” in the streets for the past 15 days, yet their demand for the implementation of an agreement reached between them and the government earlier this year remained unmet.
Rizvi has been detained by the Punjab government since April 12 for “maintenance of public order (MPO)”. He was initially detained for three months and then again under the Anti-terrorist Act on July 10. —