Faizabad sit-in protesters seized

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The administration of the federal capital has decided to shut off street lights around the area  and blocked the supply of food and water to protesters along with blockade of roads leading toward sit-in area.

The decision was taken during a meeting presided over by Commissioner Islamabad Zulfiqar Haider.

The high-level huddle also discussed the problems being faced by the people due to the sit-in. The meeting also agreed to resume the services of the metro bus service, which has been suspended for 14 days. The hardships of shopkeepers also came under discussion.

Major roads of the federal capital have also been blocked by containers in order to mitigate the risk of the protests spilling over.

Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal said, the activities of Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah protestors were damaging the image and supporting the stance of country’s enemies, who portray Pakistan as an unstable state.

The sit –in of TLYRA has been staged to pursue a particular political agenda which is to pitch the government against a particular sect, he added.

Answering a question, he said the government has two options and one of them is to disperse the protestors by using force as our security forces had the ability to deal with such situation. The second option is to address the issue through dialogues which are still continuing on different levels. The minister said there were reports about presence of some miscreants among the protestors.

The basic objective behind this long episode is to gain voters’ confidence as TLYRA has already announced to contest the forthcoming elections, he said and added that the government was avoiding Model Town (Lahore) like incident.