In a bid to stop the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) from marching on Islamabad with thousands of supporters, the government has erected barricades on bridges over the Chenab and Jhelum rivers along the GT road. The proscribed outfit plans to reach the federal capital and stage a sit-in for the expulsion of the French envoy. Thousands of TLP workers and supporters will resume their march after Friday prayers and are currently near Rahwali in the Gujranwala district. The government also placed containers on the bridges to stop the protesters from crossing the rivers as it wanted to contain the TLP supporters at Jhelum. A contingent of Punjab Rangers has been deployed on the Chenab and Jhelum crossings and RPO Rawalpindi Imran Ahmar is monitoring the situation in Jhelum along with a heavy contingent of police. Moreover, the National Highway, GT Road, Chenab Toll Plaza to Mor Bhai Khan, Sohawa are closed for traffic at multiple points. Aujla Canal, Wazirabad, Chenab Toll Plaza, Gujrat, Canal Bridge and Jhelum Toll Plaza, Jhelum Cantt, Pakistan Tobacco Company, Chakwal Mor, Bhai Khan Bridge, Sohawa, are also closed for traffic. Read TLP ‘agrees’ to call off march on Islamabad The thousands-strong march of the banned TLP has shown no signs of relenting. The marchers also have heavy machinery, including three to four heavy cranes and excavators, to remove the obstructions on the road to Islamabad. 'Counter TLP at all costs' A day earlier, Punjab CM Usman Buzdar had given the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) a free hand to counter the TLP as the procession neared Gujranwala. Since the start of the march on Oct 27, at least six police officials have been martyred as a result of clashes with TLP. According to TLP, it has also lost several of its supporters to the “police firing and shelling”. The authorities, in order to stop the rally, have blocked major thoroughfares such as the Murree Road and adjacent highways with containers and dug trenches across GT Road. On Wednesday, the federal government announced the deployment of Rangers in Punjab for 60 days after at least four policemen were martyred and over 250 sustained injuries in clashes between participants of the march and law enforcers near Sadhoki. The Sadhoki clashes led the government to declare the TLP a “militant outfit”. “The TLP would now be treated as a “militant” organisation in view of its persistent tendency to challenge the writ of the state by creating chaos with the support of anti-state elements,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had said. “On Tuesday, a clear policy decision was taken in a meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by the top leadership of Pakistan Army, intelligence agencies heads and all the authorities concerned, that the proscribed Tehreek-e-Labbaik will be treated as a militant group,” the minister had told a post-cabinet meeting presser.
from Pakistan News, Latest News Pakistan, Pakistan Headline | eTribune https://ift.tt/2ZwZeD4
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