Qadri’s chehlum: Protesters storm Red Zone, stage sit-in near Parliament

Over 70 injured in clashes between protesters, law enforcers; metro station torched

ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI:

More than 70 persons were injured as thousands of supporters of Mumtaz Qadri clashed with law enforcement personnel and stormed into the Red Zone on Sunday.

Earlier activists of religious parties had  gathered in Rawalpindi’s Liaqat Bagh to observe chehlum of Mumtaz Qadri, who was hanged on February 29 for killing Punjab Governor Salman Taseer.

They marched towards the Parliament House demanding imposition of what they called Sharia law in the country as well as the execution of all blasphemy convicts.

A police official, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune on Sunday evening that 42 personnel of the Islamabad Police, Frontier Constabulary and Punjab Rangers had been hospitalised along with 19 civilians after clashes in the capital.

Another 10 people including City Police Officer suffered injuries in Rawalpindi.

The official said that the protesters also set a fire truck, four motorcycles and a metro bus station on fire.

They also snatched wireless phones from the police and damaged cameras of various media teams, he said.

Till last reports came in, the protesters were staging a sit-in at D-Chowk demanding the government to declare Qadri a shaheed (martyr). Law enforcers used heavy shelling to disperse the protesters from the high-security zone but they outnumbered them.

Earlier, the police in Rawalpindi tear gassed and baton charged the crowd in a bid to stop them from marching towards Islamabad but failed. The protesters marched and clashed with the police on several points on the Benazir Bhutto Road (Murree Road).



They started the march at around 2pm and clashed with the police at Chandni Chowk. As the police fired tear-gas shells, the protesters responded by pelting the police with stones and forced their way through.

An eye witness said Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer Wisal Fakhar Sultan Raja and City Police Officer (CPO) Israr Ahmed Abbasi were seen firing tear gas shells on the protesters.

The clash left 10 men including six policemen wounded. The CPO and a deputy superintendent of police were also among those injured.

There was no deployment of law enforcement agencies at Faizabad interchange from where the marchers entered the capital.

Clerics’ demands

Earlier, addressing the crowd at Liaqat Bagh, Maulana Ashraf Asif Jalali, one of the half a dozen clerics who were leading the protesters, said they would march towards the Parliament House if the government did not accept their demands.

Sarwat Qadri, a Sunni Tehreek leader, also urged the activists to march towards the parliament.

The demands included the imposition of Sharia law in Pakistan, execution of Asia Bibi, who was convicted in a blasphemy case, the release of all those arrested in connection with “Namoos-e-Risalat movement, immediate execution of all persons convicted in blasphemy cases, declare Mumtaz Qadri as a martyr. They also said that no amendment should be made in the blasphemy laws.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th,  2016.