LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: A mob of banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) supporters barged into the Nawankot police station on Sunday and held Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Umar Farooq, five constables, and two Rangers officials hostage for hours, where they reportedly tortured them as well.
According to the police statement, the miscreants were armed and attacked Rangers/police with petrol bombs, adding that “at least one oil tanker with 50,000 litres of petrol has been taken by the miscreants to the markaz.”
“Police and Rangers pushed them back and took back the possession of the police station,” it said, adding that police did not plan or conduct any operation against the mosque or the madressah.
— Punjab Police Official (@OfficialDPRPP) April 18, 2021
Similarly, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan in a tweet said that the attackers had kidnapped 12 police officials, including the DSP, and taken them to their markaz.
An official report showed 15 injured police personnel were under treatment at different hospitals in the city. Arif said the security personnel were subjected to “brutal torture” by TLP workers.
Meanwhile, the operation to stop the Lahore sit-in of the now-proscribed TLP was halted late on Sunday, but at least five people were killed and several others, including police officers, were injured.
The police launched an operation to clear the Yateem Khana Chowk neighbourhood in Lahore where activists and supporters of the TLP have been staging a sit-in since Monday.
According to reports, at least two supporters of the banned TLP were killed and 50 injured in a clash with the Lahore police Sunday afternoon.
The protesters had gathered outside the party’s Saddar office and were chanting slogans against the arrest of TLP chief Saad Hussain Rizvi. A police team was sent to the area at 8 am to clear the protests.
During the operation, a clash broke out between the two groups near Multan road. Bullets were fired and stones were pelted. 11 police officers were injured.
The injured officers have been rushed to a hospital.
Protests by TLP supporters erupted in major cities across the country Monday afternoon. The demonstrations lasted for three days in which hundreds of police officers were injured.
Thousands of supporters were arrested and booked for attacking police officers and blocking roads.
Clashes erupted in Lahore between police and workers of TLP late on Monday when police arrested its chief, Rizvi, after he threatened the government with protests if it did not expel the French ambassador over blasphemous caricatures of Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him).
Security forces swinging batons and firing teargas moved before dawn to clear sit-ins in Lahore.
In a video message, a spokesperson for the group, Shafiq Ameeni, claimed that “forces suddenly attacked [us] at Lahore Markaz at 8:00 am today morning in which a large number of our workers have been martyred while many are injured”.
“[We] will bury [those killed] when the French ambassador exits the country and our agreement [with the government] is implemented,” he added.
The group wants the government to boycott French products and expel the French ambassador under an “agreement” signed with it by the government in February.
The TLP also shared a video of a Punjab police official, who was purportedly abducted by its workers on Sunday. The injured official, seemingly under duress, said that an operation was being carried out to clear the area outside a police station when he was “captured” by the “enraged” crowd.
پولیس رکاوٹیں ہٹانے اور ایریا کلیرنس کا آپریشن کر رہی تھی. مظاہرین نے ڈی ایس پی سمیت چھ پولیس اہلکاروں کو یرغمال بنا لیا.
جواباً پولیس کو اپنے ساتھیوں کی رہائی کے لئے آپریشن کرنا پڑا. pic.twitter.com/c00AOpakix— نیک ریــنچ (@NaikRooh) April 18, 2021
He said that three people were killed and several others sustained bullet wounds, appealing for a way forward through dialogue.
The government has arrested 1,400 workers. Paramilitary troops were deployed overnight to clear the protests, which has blocked rail tracks, highways and entry and exit routes to major cities, including Islamabad.
The videos of the incident on Twitter.
87 policemen joined TLP protest with their Arms and ammunition against the Govt. Tense situation in GHQ also as 73 more soldiers resigned & heading towards Lahore to avenge death of 198 TLP workers today.
Stay Safe Lahore.#CivilWarinPakistan pic.twitter.com/92q5n75nLz
— 🇵🇰Zaidu🇵🇰 (@TheZaiduLeaks) April 18, 2021
Current situation at Lahore markaz#Stop_Gov_terrorism #iStandWithTheTLP #Terrorist_PTI_Gov #Lahore pic.twitter.com/99SDiBbvBW
— TLP Dubai (@DubaiTlp) April 18, 2021
TLP goons Attack on Police Station pic.twitter.com/EpHKMVHA30
— MNA (@Engr_Naveed111) April 18, 2021
RIZVI’S CNIC BLOCKED:
In a related development, the Punjab government blocked Rizvi’s computerised national identity card (CNIC) and placed his name in the fourth schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).
Saad Rizvi’s assets have been frozen, and his NIC has been blocked.
The banned party’s chief will have to submit his passport to the police.#SaadRizvi #TLPBanned
— Malik Ali Raza (@MalikAliiRaza) April 18, 2021
The Fourth Schedule is a list of proscribed individuals who are suspected of terrorism and/or sectarianism under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. Any individual placed on the watch list is bound to inform the respective police before leaving their hometowns and after return and about their activities.
A notification issued by the provincial Home Department on Sunday confirmed the same. According to the rules, Rizvi will now have to surrender his passport to the authorities.
The group has also been ordered to submit its income and expenditure for all social and political activities and disclose its income sources.
In a meeting of the Punjab Home Department on Saturday, it was suggested that the TLP chief’s and five other party supporter’s names should be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL). A request regarding the matter has been sent to the Interior Ministry.
Earlier this week, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) had recommended the government to take over seminaries run by the party and crackdown on its sources of funding.
NO NEGOTIATIONS WITH TLP:
Earlier, Federal Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed said the government was not negotiating with the outlawed TLP.
“No negotiation process is underway with the TLP,” said the minister.
Giving details of the proscribed organisation’s blockage of roads and highways across the country, Rasheed said 192 locations across the country had been sealed by the banned outfit.
“The situation is a bit tense at Yateem Khana Chowk in Lahore where the Jamia Masjid Rahmatul Lil Alameen is located,” he said. “Currently, all roads including the GT Road and the Murree Expressway are open [for traffic],” he said.
The minister said that the GT Road and all main arteries of the country will remain open on April 20. The minister was referencing the date as the banned outfit had planned a protest on April 20 over the alleged non-fulfilment of their demands.
Speaking about the proscribed organisation, Rasheed said that when an outfit is banned, the bank accounts and passports of its members are frozen by the government.
On the other hand, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said that the government believed in negotiations but would not be blackmailed.
In a statement, he said that police and Rangers personnel were abducted in Lahore and an operation was carried out after their abduction.
Fawad said the state did not budge to the blackmailing tactics of the banned armed group.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan, as a devotee of Holy Prophet (PBUH) has raised the issue of Islamophobia on every forum.
TLP OFFICES SEALED:
Meanwhile, the district administration and police in Attock sealed the offices of TLP as part of a crackdown underway against the militant group.
The drive was launched after the government banned the TLP and designated it as a terrorist organisation.
In Attock alone, the police arrested 73 workers of the party while its offices were sealed in Pindigheb and Jand towns of the city.
Police said the crackdown was launched in line with the directions of the Ministry of Interior.
Mobile internet services remained suspended in several neighbourhoods of Lahore for the fourth straight day on Sunday.
The facility was blocked in areas including Allama Iqbal Town, Muslim Town, Moon Market, Wahdat Road, Gulberg, Shah Jamal, Shadman and Samanabad.
Writ of the state should be established and those blackmailing should be punished it’s thd state which determines international relations not individuals:
This message should be loud and clear
Either Pakistan is democratic and the people have the right to protest or Pakistan is not democratic and people don’t have the right to protest, please make your mind up.
Need more accuracy in reporting this, this is obviously the government sponsored narrative, the TLP for all their faults is not an armed group and they are not well organised. The govt response is extremely heavy handed, I wish they had the same jazba when the Indians took Kashmir.