TLY protest moves into sixth day

Locals urge religious group to enter negotiations as city life is affected by demonstration

LAHORE: As the protest of Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) continued for the sixth consecutive days on Mall road, shopkeepers, rickshaw drivers and passers-by requested leaders of the group to call off the demonstration. Many suggested that the religious party should come to the negotiating table.

“I know they are sitting here for a good cause, but are creating problems for common people,” said a shopkeeper at Panorama centre. His place of business was some 300 metres away from the protest.

“Since Saturday, we have been sitting in our shops and return home empty handed due to uncertain conditions and road blockades. No one is visiting our shops,” he said.



The TLY protesters have been sitting in front of the Punjab Assembly on Mall road since Saturday. The area is one of the busiest routes of the provincial capital. It is a main thoroughfare through which thousands of vehicles pass on a daily basis, while Lahore Zoo, Aitcheson College, Punjab Assembly, important business locations, five star hotels and restaurants also fall on the same route. The adjoining streets are the area where hundreds of taxi and rickshaw drivers as well as owners of makeshift stalls earn a living.

Abdul Razzak, a rickshaw driver vented his frustration over the situation and asked why the nation only wanted to solve its problems by taking to the streets. “I am not so educated, but I want to let them know that Islam is a religion of peace,” he said. “Who is responsible for the unrest in Lahore? I request them to call off their protest, like other parts of the country, and start negotiations on the table. Please, for God sake,” he requested.

What TLY leaders say?

Maulana Ashraf Asif Jalali, the patron in chief of Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TYL) reiterated his stance at a press conference on Thursday and likened calling off the protest to selling the blood of those lost in Faizabad.

“It is most unfortunate that the government is not handing over the bodies of martyrs,” he said. “We have cancelled our whole schedule for Jashan-e- Eid Milad un Nabi and will celebrate the occasion on the streets because it is for a good cause.”

He asked why Rana Sanaullah was not tendering his resignation and questioned the government’s failure to register FIRs against those who ordered a crackdown on the “peaceful” Faizabad protest.

“We will not bow down to the government. The blood of those lost will not be in vain,” he added.



He repeated his demands of immediately registering an FIR and said that those who hatched a conspiracy against Khtam-e-Nabuwat bill must be unmasked. He reiterated that Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah should also tender his resignation before parliament as soon as possible. “The heirs of the deceased are demanding the bodies of their loved ones,” he said.

He warned the government that the demand for the law minister’s resignation would be repeated in various processions and the regime will have to yield to avoid further unrest.

Meanwhile, the Majlis Shora of TLY has announced it will to file a petition before the high court on Monday if the government does not hand over the bodies of those killed in the Faizabad incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2017.