Afridi leads rally amid tight security

PTI alleges Punjab govt's crackdown continues

LAHORE:

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said preparations for the PTI's September 27 long march had been completed, as he led the second day of his Lahore street movement on Tuesday amid a heavy deployment of Punjab Police.

Addressing the media and rally participants, Afridi said the party would disclose its detailed plan for the September 27 protest a week before the event.

The K-P CM called on people to come out for their rights, claiming that even a force of 100,000 police or military personnel could not stop what he described as the mobilisation of four million people.

Afridi took to the streets from Shah Jamal after visiting the family of Ghulam Mohiuddin Dewan, a former member of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly who is currently under arrest.

The rally, accompanied by a large number of party workers and supporters, travelled along Ferozepur Road, Mozang Chungi, Lytton Road and Jain Mandir before reaching Hall Road.

A heavy police deployment was witnessed along the route of the rally. According to PTI, police forcibly closed shops and markets along the route and blocked roads and streets on both sides, restricting the movement of PTI workers, supporters and members of the public.

The party also claimed that several PTI workers were arrested and that police conducted raids at the residences of party workers and leaders. The PTI also alleged that police confined shopkeepers and citizens inside plazas at various locations to prevent them from joining the rally.

It claimed that police officials in uniform and plain clothes attempted to arrest workers at several points, while members of the K-P chief minister's official squad intervened and secured their release.

Speaking to the media during the rally, Afridi alleged that Punjab Police had abducted him the previous night and accused the provincial government of creating hurdles for his political activities.

"They attempted to abduct me," Afridi said, adding that he had been taken around Lahore's roads for about 15 minutes before being left on the roadside.

He said the Punjab government should be ashamed and warned that if anything happened to him in Punjab, the provincial government and Punjab Police would be responsible.

Azma fires back at K-P CM

Criticising the K-P chief minister and the PTI, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari, in a statement, said medical staff in the K-P were protesting and observing strikes, while Sohail Afridi and his cabinet were touring Lahore.

Bukhari said incompetence, inefficiency and corruption in K-P loudly demonstrated that the province had been left at the mercy of criminals. The K-P CM, she added, was more concerned about the inmate of Adiala Jail than his own people.