Levies personnel resort to aerial firing to disperse JUI-F activists in Balochistan

Azadi March leaves for Multan after Maulana Fazl addresses protesters in Sukkur

ISLAMABAD: Personnel of Balochistan’s Levies Force resorted to aerial firing to thwart a possible attack on their check-post by activists of Ansarul Islam – a subordinate organisation of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) – in Duki district on Monday.

Sources privy to the development told The Express Tribune that the stick-wielding mob attempted to march on the check-post and the paramilitary force had no other option but to professionally handle the situation. “They used aerial firing in self-defence to disperse the angry mob,” they added.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had banned Ansarul Islam ahead of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led Azadi March, being carried out the opposition parties to topple the ‘illegitimate’ government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Ban on JUI-F's Ansarul Islam infructuous: IHC

The federal government had said in a notification that it had “reasons to believe that Ansarul Islam is capable of functioning as a military organisation, in violation of the prohibition contained in Article 256 of the Constitution”.

However, the Islamabad High Court (IHC), while hearing a petition challenging the move earlier in the day, has termed the government’s decision infructuous.

Meanwhile, the Azadi March, which kicked off from Karachi on Sunday and set to arrive in Islamabad on October 31, has left for Multan after a brief stay in Sukkur.

Addressing the marchers in the Sindh city, Maulana Fazl said, “This sea of protesters would wash away all the garbage from the parliament”. He said he would not back away from his demands and the main purpose behind the march was to strengthen democracy in the country.