ISLAMABAD: Law-enforcement agencies have launched a crackdown on the proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) after the federal cabinet unanimously agreed to tackle the outfit firmly.
The cabinet members deliberated on the repeated calls for long marches on to Islamabad, grinding the entire country to a halt by setting up road blockades every few months and challenging the writ of the state.
A high-level meeting earlier on Tuesday chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by the Chief of Army Staff, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence, Director General of Military Operations, Chief Secretaries and Inspector Generals of Police of provinces also expressed concern over the radicalisation and militant tendencies of the TLP.
There has also been a strong reaction from the public who have borne the brunt of the lawlessness created by the TLP by blocking roads, disrupting businesses and damaging private and public property.
Addressing a post-cabinet briefing. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that the proscribed TLP will be treated as a militant group.
“A clear policy decision was taken in a meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by the Pakistan Army, Intelligence Agencies and all the concerned authorities, that the proscribed Tehreek-e-Labbaik will be treated as a militant group,” he said.
Fawad said Pakistan had defeated terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda in the past. “Therefore, make no mistake in considering Pakistan a weak state. Whosoever has committed the mistake of perceiving Pakistan as a weak state, they regretted,” he said.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed again urged the group to end their protest said that Rangers were being called in for 60 days in Punjab to maintain law and order.
His remarks came after reports of violent clashes between the protesters and the police near Sadhoke in Gujranwala district in which at least four policemen were martyred and over 250 injured. The number of police personnel killed by the violent mob has risen to five in the past week.
Earlier two police constables were killed when they were attacked in Lahore. In the last protest, six policemen were killed and over 700 injured, while public and private property was destroyed. A video clip shared on the internet showed several police vehicles smashed by the TLP protesters.
The TLP has been demanding the release of its leader Saad Rizvi, expulsion of the French ambassador from Pakistan over the publication of blasphemous caricatures in the country. However, the government has made it clear that Pakistan cannot remain in isolation.
Images on social media showed scores of badly beaten and injured police constables lying on the ground. Police said the TLP activists were armed with automatic weapons, including AK-47 rifles and opened fire on security forces who were trying to control the protest march towards Islamabad.
Briefing the media about the decisions taken at the cabinet Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said TLP would not be allowed to challenge the “writ of the state” and will be treated as a “militant” group.
According to security sources, the ongoing TLP protest has only its political agenda insight and was exploiting the religious sentiments le to provoke and use them to achieve certain objectives. The security experts believed that under the given economic and security challenges the country was facing any such lawlessness could have serious consequences and under no circumstances the state should allow such protests.
