Cornered tigress: Female PTI activist fights off advancing mob

Stick-wielding Malik braves rowdy PML-N workers surrounding her for chanting Go Nawaz Go

ISLAMABAD: Even amidst chaotic scenes in Faisalabad, scenes of a lone woman fighting off an angry and advancing mob were the most dramatic.

Surrounded by government supporters in Faisalabad on Monday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Lubna Malik truly did fight like a cornered tiger.

Workers of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz surrounded and began advancing on Malik, the lone woman, at Ghanta Ghar chowk, after she raised PTI's 'Go Nawaz Go' slogan during an interview with a television channel.

But Malik was not intimidated. Malik recalled the ordeal while speaking to The Express Tribune.

“I was in the middle of an interview with some TV channels when I raised the Go Nawaz Go slogan in response to PML-N workers’ Ro Imran Ro slogan and they started gathering around me.

“They (PML-N workers) started using abusive language, picked up their sticks and started marching towards me,” she added.

Malik who reached the venue for the address at 11:15 am says she managed to get her hands on a stick too. “I managed to get one stick with which I tried to stop them, at first, and then started beating them up to push them back.”

Responding to a question, she said, “The police was deployed there but they did not come forward to rescue me,” adding, “The police did not cooperate because it was taking PML-N’s side.”

The PTI leader who was seen swinging at the PML-N supporters with her stick as they gathered around her, claimed, “PML-N workers were following me wherever I was going, I had almost taken a complete round of Ghanta Ghar Chowk in a bid to reach my car, but they followed me.”

The scene lasted for around four to six minutes but Malik boldly faced the rowdy PML-N workers, unflinching and determined.

The PML-N workers continued to gather her till PTI supporters and passers-by intervened and asked to let her go.

“It was then that the police came forward and joined the rescuers, including members of civil society and the PTI youth wing,” she said.

Shifting her focus to the deadly clash which erupted between her party and PML-N workers, which claimed the life of one PTI activist, Malik said, “The government has taken the collusion course.”

“This does not happen anywhere else in the world that the government starts protesting along with the opposition,” she added.

Ironically enough, not only does the gritty Malik hail from a political family historically associated with the PML-N and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid in Sargodha, she is also the first female politician from her family.

Having studied Art at the National College of Arts, with a degree in ceramics, she has been a part of PTI for the past nine years. Previously, Malik was the district president of the party but is currently officiating as the party’s Punjab Women Wing joint secretary.

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