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Police in Lahore on Friday night arrested Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the most notorious extremist mullah and leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), at his home in Lahore. The detention of the TLP leader and his close colleagues took place just two days before the TLP public rally in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, on November 25.
This is another big challenge for the government of Imran Khan and everyone fears hate protests and even some victims in reaction to these arrests. According to sources, the police carried out an operation on Multan Road in Lahore and arrested at least 100 members of the TLP political-religious party.
Earlier this month, TLP organized a multi-day protest with several other political parties. The sit-ins were against the Supreme Court's decision to release Asiya Bibi, a Christian sentenced to death since 2010, on charges of blasphemy. The demonstrations ended when the government and religious parties reached a four-point agreement.
The Minister of Information, Fawad Chaudhry, confirmed that Khadim Hussain Rizvi was placed in preventive detention by the police and transferred to a guest house. Fawad told Twitter that the measure had been taken after TLP refused to cancel the protest rally held on November 25 in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi.
He went on to state: "The government's top priority is to protect public life, property and public order and has nothing to do with the Asia Bibi case." The minister added that they (the TLP) were insisting on coming to Rawalpindi by refusing the governments' proposal for alternative arrangements. "The government did its best to convince them, but they refused all the offers and began to provoke the violence.
"The TLP has become a permanent threat to the lives and property of citizens and makes politics under the guise of religion (…), the situation is completely under control, the population must remain peaceful and fully cooperate with the authorities, "he said. tweet in Urdu.
The minister said that the government "did[s] better "to convince the party not to meet for protest", but they refused any offer and began to provoke violence. "Rizvi, who has the support of big supporters, was arrested in his hujra (private room ) in Lahore, Rizvi's son, Saad with his father, all TLP district chiefs were arrested.
The crackdown comes before Rizvi's call to party members to watch Martyr Day on November 25th. He had asked the workers and their supporters to gather in Faizabad, Islamabad. According to police sources, a large-scale operation was launched against TLP leaders in several major cities. In a video message, TLP leader Pir Afzal Qadri corroborated the fact that the police raided their mosques in order to arrest the leaders.
(This story has not been changed by Business Standard staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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