Pakistani minister claims Islamabad protesters ’contacted India’

Mangalore Today News Network

Islamabad , Nov 25, 2017: The main group of protestors linked to the country-wide turmoil and unrest being seen in Pakistan right now were in "contact" with India, the nation’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has sensationally claimed.

 

Speaking to Pakistani news channel DawnNews Iqbal said his government has already begun investigating "why" the protestors "contacted India". "Why they did it, we are looking into it. They have inside information and resources that are being used against the state."

"They (the protestors) are not simple people," the DawnNews’s online publication quoted Iqbal, who is the Pakistani equivalent of a home minister, as further saying. "We can see that they have various resources at their disposal."

The protesters, Iqbal added, had themselves fired tear gas, usually the weapon of choice of most riot-control forces, at Pakistani police trying to quell violence that has spread to cities including Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

There were reports that TV channels had been ordered to go off air and that social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook had been blocked in certain parts of Pakistan.

The violence and clashes first began in Islamabad today morning after police moved in to clear a protestors from the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, an Islamist political party, who had been camping at the capital city’s Faizabad interchange for weeks, demanding that Pakistan’s law minister Zahid Hamid resign.

Hamid was directly targetted by the protesters today with The Express Tribune reporting that men affiliated to the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan attacked the law minister’s residence in Pasrur, Sialkot.

The protesters "broke into and ransacked the minister’s haveli", the daily, citing its news serve Express News, said, adding, "They shattered windows and damaged furniture. The minister, however, is in Islamabad."

The demand for Hamid’s resignation was based on an unproved allegation that he was responsible for deliberately modifying the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat (or finality of prophethood) oath when a recent legislation, Elections Act 2017 was passed, according to a report in Dawn.

The daily added the modification was termed a ’clerical error’ by the Pakistani government and had already been rectified, a development that did not stop the protestors from insisting on the resignation Hamid.


So, nearly 2,000 activists of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan camped at the Faizabad interchange in Islamabad and even blocked the Islamabad Expressway and Murree Road, both of which connect the capital city with its only airport and the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

According to Dawn, early today morning, around 8,500 elite police and paramilitary troops in riot gear moved in to begin a clearance operation at the sit-in protest site after a number of deadlines, handed down by both the Pakistani judiciary and government, to end the protest lapsed. 

As police moved in to clear the protestors, TV channels were asked not to cover operation live, following which mysterious reports came in of media channels being completely blacked out.


The crackdown in the Pakistani capital soon spilled over into other cities, with The Express Tribune reporting that countrywide protests were seen following the police operation in Islamabad. Other media outlets reported largescale stone-pelting by the protestors while the security forces were said to have resorted to firing tear gas and rubber bullets.


Soon after reports of nation-wide protests came in, the Pakistani military spokesperson tweeted that army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had spoken to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and urged that "both sides" avoid violence and ensure peace.

There were no immediate reports of how many people had been injured or detained, through The Express Tribune carried a story headlined, "Clashes erupt after law enforcers crackdown on Islamabad sit-in; Dozens injured; scores detained". A policeman was confirmed to be the one fatal causality of the protests in Pakistan.




courtesy:Indai Today