| Interior minister Sh Rashid says doors for talks not closed;
govt believes in defusing situation peacefully | 32 arrested
for spreading hatred on social media, says Fawad
Shehbaz Sharif says now is the time for
a collective rethink
ISLAMABAD – Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Friday said that police have been given under the administrative control of Rangers in Punjab under Article 147 of the Constitution to maintain law and order in the province and to deal with the protestors of banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).
TLP protesters resumed their march from Gujranwala on Friday with thousands of activists travelling in cars, buses and on foot continuing their journey towards Islamabad.
After spending the Thursday night near the General Bus Stand on the Grand Trunk Road, participants of the protest march resumed their rally in the morning, despite Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s warning’s of “consequences”.
More Than 5,000 participants of the rally reached the Gujrat-Chenab toll plaza after stopping at Rahwali to offer Friday prayers. A heavy police contingent was deployed at the toll plaza.
Rangers have also been given powers of section 5 of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997 and the Punjab government can deploy and use the paramilitary troops anywhere in the province, he said while addressing a press conference here at the Ministry of Interior.
The Section 5 of ATA says that armed forces, or civil armed forces deployed in any area may “use the necessary force to prevent the commission of terrorist acts or scheduled offences” and can exercise all powers of police. On October 27, the Ministry of Interior had deployed Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) in the province on the request of Punjab government.
The next TLP-police encounter is expected at two major security points that had been established at Chenab and Jhelum rivers, the only route for the march to reach Islamabad.
The Rangers is likely to lead the command, while the Punjab Police will assist them as per the standard guidelines issued since the government.
About 500 metres from the Chenab toll plaza, the Punjab Rangers marked a ‘red line’, and put up a notice nearby warning the protesters not to breach the line or face consequences. “Attention: Beyond this line, the responsibility for law and order lies with Pakistan Rangers (Punjab), who have been given the authority to open fire at the miscreants. All the people are strictly warned to return to their homes,” the banner installed by the paramilitary force reads.
Meanwhile, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif — alluding to the protest by the banned group — said: “When you undermine a legitimately and genuinely elected prime minister representing the will of the nation and attack parliament for petty political gains, you open the floodgates for chaos and anarchy.”
“The country is the ultimate sufferer. Time for a collective rethink is NOW!” he urged.
Earlier in the day, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry said at least 36 activists of the militant outfit, who were involved in using fake social media accounts to propagate hate, have been detained. He warned of more arrests.
The federal government on Friday evening opened another round of crucial negotiations with the banned organization to pursue the latter to end its protest long march to Islamabad that has crippled life in major cities of Punjab since more than a week, according to the official sources.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Minister for Religious Affairs Noor-ul-Haq Qadri are leading the negotiations with the detained TLP chief Saad Hussain Rizvi in the capital.
“The writ of the government and law and order would be ensured at any cost in the light of the decision of National Security Committee meeting,” the interior minister said in his presser.
The government has not shut doors of talks with banned group and talks would likely to resume today evening led by Qadri and me, Sheikh Rashid also said. He added that the deadlock exists and there was no breakthrough in the talks.
“We want to resolve the matter amicably,” he said adding that life in the cities on both sides of Grand Trunk (GT) Road were affected due to the protest long march of the banned group. He said that four police officials have martyred and 80 police officials have bullet injuries including eight were in a critical condition as a result of clashed of the protestors with the police during the last couple of days.
“We stand by our commitment made with the TLP as a result of earlier talks and we are waiting for them (TLP) to abide by their promise to open the GT Road and go back to their center (based in Lahore),” he said. He also said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to address the nation in a day or two and would present its narrative on the situation before the countrymen. “The speech of PM would be the narrative of the whole government,” he said.
The interior minister said that some fake social media messages and campaigns about the protest were being disseminated from India, Hong Kong, South Korea, South Africa, US and UK and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would talk to these countries to stop this practice. He said that Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been directed to take action against those spreading fake social media messages locally.
Replying to a question, Sheikh Rashid said that he earlier had signed an agreement with TLP after taking the PM into confidence and such claims were wrong that the premier was unaware of the agreement. “I expect that there should not be any national loss…The lives are precious from both sides,” he said adding that the world was making a mockery of them and TLP was running fake social media campaign from abroad.
Responding to another question whether Saad Rizvi was in Islamabad and directly talking with the government, the interior minister admitted that the government was directly holding negotiations with him but did not inform about his whereabouts.
The minister urged the TLP protestors to stop the march and wait for the results of the negotiations. He said that businesses and school education were badly affected due the protest and creating more problems for the citizens.
He again reiterated that top agenda of TLP was expulsion of French ambassador to Islamabad.
He added that the government had already taken the matter of the French ambassador’s expulsion to the parliament and would not do this again fearing opposition would separate itself from this issue.