Azadi marchers brave rain, cold

PM Imran directs CDA to provide relief to people protesting against him

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: The Azadi march participants braved heavy downpour which started on Tuesday and continued intermittently until Wednesday.

As it started raining on Tuesday night, the unprepared participants ran towards different nearby buildings and structures where they could find a shelter from the rain. A number of protesters took shelter inside the containers which were placed for blocking roads due to security reasons.

When the rain stopped, the volunteers of Ansarul Islam started a drill to keep themselves active. One part of the drill was doing sit-ups while chanting ‘Go Niazi, Go’. Party songs and the march anthem Maulana is Coming charged the marchers despite shivering cold.

The protest venue, however, had become muddy due to rain. JUI-F activists started cleaning small patches where they could lay their mattresses for sleeping.

As the protesters witnessed the seventh dawn of Azadi march, they went to nearby markets and stalls for having breakfast and buying warm clothes and accessories for the chilly weather.

The protesters remained undaunted by the intermittent rain spells on Wednesday and kept chanting anti-government slogans creating rhymes with the sound from the speaker on the central container.

At midday, the organisers made announcements from the container, directing the protesters to return to the venue at earliest.

Moved by the commitment of party workers and Azadi march participants, Maulana Asad Mehmood, son of JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, surprisingly showed up at the protest venue and merged with the participants to boost their enthusiasm. Seeing him on the site, the participants, who were staying inside the tents for alleviating chilly weather in the federal capital, also emerged out and joined others.

In a bid to cash the opportunity that has come along the rain, a number of vendors showed up at the site with second hand and new warm clothes for selling, laid their items on the cloth at the roadside and started chanting for attracting the customers. However, most of the protesters returned unhappily and empty-handed due to exorbitant prices.



Another two elderly people die

The protest for dismantling incumbent government brought bad news for another two families. Unable to tolerate the cold nights of federal capital,  two elderly participants including 70-year-old Saifullah and 62-year-old Maulana Akhtar Hussain, hailing from Khuzdar and Noushki districts respectively, lost their lives due to a heart attack, taking the death toll during the Azadi march to three.

The first fatality recorded was of a 65-year-old Abdul Kareem who also suffered a heart attack. The victim had joined the Azadi march from Larkana while his body was sent to his native town in a helicopter on orders of Deputy Commissioner (DC) Islamabad.

The witnesses told that both participants woke up in the middle of the night to offer Tahajjud prayers and suffered heart attacks.

Subsequently, as the news circulated on the media, Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered the Commissioner Islamabad and Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) Amir Ali Ahmed to visit the protest venue to assess the facilities needed at the venue after a sharp drop in temperature was recorded.

The commissioner along with DC Islamabad Hamza Shafqat accompanied by district and CDA officials reached the site and immediately arranged ambulances for both fatalities whose bodies were sent to their native towns.

Shafqat issued directions to related officials for resolution of problems being faced by the participants after a downpour.  Following his orders, the district administration established free medical camps which would remain operative round the clock while the patients will also get free medicines.

It was not long after these orders from the commissioner that the sanitation staff of Islamabad Municipal Corporation (IMC) arrived with heavy machinery and drained the water out from the venue as well as cleaned it of mud. The teams also cleaned the drains along with the venue in order to ensure that rainwater drained smoothly into them if it rained again.

The commissioner also directed DC and district officials to ascertain that the protests faced no difficulties and instructed to ensure adequate water supply for ablution and other purposes.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2019.