Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Despite a surging second wave of Covid-19, the recent arrest of an Islamist leader and the government threat to ban his outfit has triggered massive protests across Pakistan, including its commercial capital Karachi, and the bankrupt nation is seen as being on the brink of a civil war after Islamist demonstrators clashed with the security forces and took some policemen hostage this week.
Violent protests broke out in Pakistan on Tuesday for the second day against the arrest of a far-right Muslim leader, Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi, and a minister threatening to ban his radical Islamist outfit, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). Demonstrators blocked roads in several major Pakistani cities, including Karachi, media reported on Thursday.
Video clips went viral on social media, showing protestors swarming the streets across all major cities, including Lahore and Rawalpindi. “War-like situation in Pakistan. The situation is out of control in Pakistan as lakhs of protestors gathered against Imran Khan Govt and Pak Army,” said one of the users.
On Wednesday, Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close confidante of Prime Minister Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, had announced that the government has decided to ban the TLP, whose supporters and workers have been carrying out violent protests across the country for three days after the arrest of their chief. The religiopolitical outfit would be banned under Rule 11(b) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997, he said.
His statement came after officials moved to clear TLP activists from roads across the country after three days of protests.
The TLP workers had, the minister said, blocked roads and stopped ambulances from reaching their destinations. They also impeded the transport of oxygen cylinders for Covid-19 patients.
He called upon TLP members to surrender, saying they were mistaken in their belief that they could create problems for the government through social media.
The TLP is protesting against Rizvi’s arrest earlier this week, as also blasphemous caricatures published in France. The outfit demanded that the French ambassador be sent home and import of goods from that European country be banned, according to the newspaper, Dawn.
Media reported that the Imran-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had signed an agreement with the TLP in November 2020, agreeing to expel the French Ambassador for the blasphemous cartoons published by a French magazine. The deal was signed after the TLP launched a massive protest in November but they dispersed after the government agreed to expel the Ambassador by February, and then sought time until April 20.
Meanwhile, the government arrested Rizvi, giving his supporters to launch an agitation.
Quoting Ahmed, media reported that the TLP demonstrators briefly held hostage some police personnel to gain leverage to press their demands.