Sealed: No more protests in front of Parliament
Police seal off Parade Avenue after MWM call off protest.
ISLAMABAD:
Parade Avenue, the choice venue for every protester, has been sealed off.
After successfully negotiating with members of Majlis-e-Wahadatul Muslimeen (MWM) to end their week-long sit-in against sectarian killings outside the Parliament House, the Secretariat police on Saturday sealed the Parade Avenue and declared it a “no-go zone”.
“No protests, processions and sit-ins will be allowed at the parade lane in the future,” said an official of the Secretariat police. The police has secured the area with barbed wires on all sides and has set up standing barricades at the entry and exit points of the road, he added.
The protest camps set up by relatives of missing persons and by schoolteachers of Federally Administered Tribal Areas were earlier relocated to F-6, the official said. He added that the Ministry of Interior had decided to close the avenue due to security concerns given its proximity to the Red Zone, which houses the Parliament House and other sensitive government installations.
The decision, the official added, was expedited following the vociferous and prolonged protests by MWM against sectarian killings in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B). He said that members of Ahle-Sunnat-wal-Jamaat (ASWJ) had also threatened to stage a protest at the Parade Avenue, forewarning a possible sectarian clash.
An official of the city administration, requesting anonymity, said that while federal ministers were in talks with the MWM leaders, police contingents were put on standby to clear the area of protesters by force if talks failed by Friday night. “We could not risk a sectarian clash in the city; lives could have been lost,” he explained.
MWM calls off protest
Leaders of the MWM said that the protest was called off after both the federal government and the G-B administration agreed to implement their “mutually-accepted” charter of demands.
MWM Secretary General said a commission has been constituted to identify and probe the elements responsible for killings in Chillas and Kohistan, which will give its report to the federal government in a month.
He said that G-B Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah and heads of security agencies have been instructed to implement “every single demand” made by the MWM.
The government has also agreed to pay Rs2 million for each person killed in the recent G-B violence, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2012.
Parade Avenue, the choice venue for every protester, has been sealed off.
After successfully negotiating with members of Majlis-e-Wahadatul Muslimeen (MWM) to end their week-long sit-in against sectarian killings outside the Parliament House, the Secretariat police on Saturday sealed the Parade Avenue and declared it a “no-go zone”.
“No protests, processions and sit-ins will be allowed at the parade lane in the future,” said an official of the Secretariat police. The police has secured the area with barbed wires on all sides and has set up standing barricades at the entry and exit points of the road, he added.
The protest camps set up by relatives of missing persons and by schoolteachers of Federally Administered Tribal Areas were earlier relocated to F-6, the official said. He added that the Ministry of Interior had decided to close the avenue due to security concerns given its proximity to the Red Zone, which houses the Parliament House and other sensitive government installations.
The decision, the official added, was expedited following the vociferous and prolonged protests by MWM against sectarian killings in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B). He said that members of Ahle-Sunnat-wal-Jamaat (ASWJ) had also threatened to stage a protest at the Parade Avenue, forewarning a possible sectarian clash.
An official of the city administration, requesting anonymity, said that while federal ministers were in talks with the MWM leaders, police contingents were put on standby to clear the area of protesters by force if talks failed by Friday night. “We could not risk a sectarian clash in the city; lives could have been lost,” he explained.
MWM calls off protest
Leaders of the MWM said that the protest was called off after both the federal government and the G-B administration agreed to implement their “mutually-accepted” charter of demands.
MWM Secretary General said a commission has been constituted to identify and probe the elements responsible for killings in Chillas and Kohistan, which will give its report to the federal government in a month.
He said that G-B Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah and heads of security agencies have been instructed to implement “every single demand” made by the MWM.
The government has also agreed to pay Rs2 million for each person killed in the recent G-B violence, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2012.