Dozens detained after violent clashes

Sheikh Rashid dodges security check, makes dramatic appearance at Committee Chowk .


Qadeer Tanoli October 29, 2016
Police in uniform and civvies drag a Awami Muslim League worker in Rawalpindi on Friday. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: The Committee Chowk and Murree Road remained a battleground throughout the day on Friday as riot police clashed with supporters of Sheikh Rashid in an attempt to smash a scheduled public rally of the Awami Muslim League where the PTI chief was also supposed to show up.

Though most main arteries and bylanes were barricaded, AML and PTI activists managed to reach the venue. The police — in uniform and civvies — used batons and tear gas canisters to disperse them, but protesters threw rocks and bricks in retaliation.

Bani Gala ‘under siege’ after crackdown on PTI

The police caned and dragged dozens of workers of the two parties before bundling them away in vans. The two parties claimed hundreds of their workers have been arrested. The nasty scenes in Rawalpindi forced Khan to change his mind and stay in Bani Gala instead of travelling to Lal Haveli.

Lal Haveli, an old but iconic building in downtown Rawalpindi serves as AML President Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s political office. The areas around red-brick building resembled a battleground with political workers and policemen squaring off every now and then.

Dodging roadblocks at countless places on Murree Road and slipping past heavy police contingents along the way, Rashid made a dramatic appearance at Committee Chowk, taking everyone, including the administration, by surprise.

Policemen, according to reports, were vigorously tracing his whereabouts. Yet somehow the AML chief managed to reach Committee Chowk and also made a brief speech from atop a DSNG van of a private TV channel.

In a defiant response to the administration’s order against public gatherings, Rashid had earlier said he would “tear Section 144 into 144 pieces”.

Earlier this week, Rashid had said he along with the PTI chairman would hold a mammoth public gathering on Friday, dubbing the public gathering as a warm-up match against the ruling PML-N party.

Referring to that announcement, Rashid in his Friday’s address said he had fulfilled his promise.

“Nawaz Sharif, I have come here, although all [entry] points leading to Lal Haveli are closed. Come and arrest me if someone has [the] courage to do so,” said the AML president while throwing a challenge to the government.

Rashid had laboured his way to Committee Chowk through narrow lanes of the garrison city and rode on a motorcycle without being detected despite the heavy presence of law-enforcement agencies that were on hot pursuit to arrest him.

I will tear Section 144 into 144 pieces: Sheikh Rashid

Seated on the passenger’s seat and with his face covered, he travelled his way to Committee Chowk via narrow streets of Dhok Kashmirian to Chityan Hatyan. He narrowly escaped arrest when the motorbike he was travelling on was stopped by police at a checkpoint. However, the person riding the bike told them that he [Sheikh Rashid] was a ‘patient’ and rode away.

Committee Chowk witnessed a lot of clashes between workers of PTI, the AML and the police earlier in the day. The police used teargas shells and baton-charged the workers to disperse them while the latter pelted the law enforcers with stones.

Earlier, Rashid used the social media to challenge he government that he would hold a public gathering at all costs, besides taunting the PML-N-led government to “catch him if you can”.

He also claimed that due to police shelling of teargas, a child also expired. He also alleged that 36 workers of his party were arrested by the police. He was of the view that how he could hold a public gathering when 150 containers were placed on the roads to restrain him from doing so.

Police launched a crackdown on AML workers Thursday night in a bid to stop the party from holding a public gathering at the Lal Haveli. In addition, there were reports that the police have arrested PTI MPA Ijaz Khan Jazi along with his three party’s workers.

Moreover, the hurdles on the roads created a traffic mess and paralysed the routine life of the city.

The City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi could not be reached to comment on these claims despite several attempts to contact him.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2016.

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