Police baton charge PTI workers in Islamabad

A scuffle ensued as PTI protesters tried to reach the ECP building.

ISLAMABAD:

Islamabad police on Friday baton charged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) workers, who were trying to reach Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) building to stage a protest against alleged rigging in the May 11, 2013 general elections.

The protest rally, led by the PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, was heading towards the heavily guarded headquarters of the ECP, when the police stopped them in front of the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) office.

A scuffle ensued between the police and the PTI workers as the protesters tried to push on. The police resorted to minor baton charge, as a result of which some of the PTI workers received injuries.

Later the PTI workers were allowed to hold a protest in front of NADRA headquarters after Shah Mahmood Qureshi gave a five-minute ultimatum to the local authorities.

Speaking at the occasion, Qureshi condemned the Islamabad administration’s act and said that peaceful protest against election rigging was their democratic and constitutional right.

Later the PTI workers dispersed peacefully after they were not allowed to proceed towards the ECP.

The city administration had deployed more than 900 security officials  along the route of the protest rally as well as placed barricades and barbed wire to prevent the protesters from moving ahead.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2014.