Pakistan

Model Town tragedy : ‘At Sharifs behest, foreign emissaries approached me’

PAT chief says heirs of victims want retribution, not blood money

Ali Usman August 15, 2016

PAT chief says heirs of victims want retribution, not blood money. PHOTO: ONLINE

LAHORE: “Emissaries from some foreign countries approached me with a request to not press charges against the Sharif brothers for the Model Town tragedy,” said populist cleric Dr Tahirul Qadri, who has launched a Tehreek-e-Qisas-o-Ehtesab (Movement for Retribution and Accountability).

At least 14 workers of Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) were killed and over 100 injured in clashes with police at the party’s headquarters in Lahore’s Model Town on June 17, 2014.

“I told the emissaries that I am the leader of PAT, but the right to forgive rests with the heirs of the victims,” Qadri told The Express Tribune in an exclusive interview at his Model Town residence. He refused to name the ‘foreign countries’ but said that “if the Sharif brothers deny this, then I will hold a news conference and share details”.

“When I told [the emissaries] to ask the Sharif brothers why they [had ordered the police to] open fire on unarmed innocent people, I was told that they wanted to stop me from returning to Pakistan,” Qadri claimed.

“The government has offered everything to the heirs of the Model Town martyrs, but they refused to accept Diyat (financial compensation). They want Qisas (retribution), and being their leader I cannot let the cruel go scot-free,” Qadri said. “As part of the Qisas and Accountability Movement, PAT will hold protests in 100 cities, and the rulers will have to face justice.”

The PAT chief claimed that close relatives of the Sharif brothers had approached him several times. “They only want the names of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif dropped from the list of accused. Otherwise, they are willing to nominate even the entire cabinet in the FIR,” he claimed.

Qadri said he would stay in Pakistan and a decision whether he himself should lead the movement would be taken in a PAT council meeting.

“I have been saying since long that nurseries of terrorism are in Punjab. The Sharif brothers; however, don’t allow operations to go on in Punjab because they fear their close aides would be caught. And if they are caught, they will name the Sharifs,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2016.