Troops called out as protesters enter Red Zone, clash with police

Rioters pelt stones, remove barricades, torch containers, pickets outside Parliament House; ask govt to meet their demands; 66, including law-enforcers, civilians and journalists, injured

ISLAMABAD: The district administration on Sunday called in troops after the charged supporters of Mumtaz Qadri marking his first chehlum torched containers and clashed with law-enforcers in the heavily-guarded Red Zone.

 

Qadri, a Punjab Police bodyguard, was sent to the gallows last month after President Mamnoon Hussain rejected his mercy petition for assassinating the Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011 for criticising the blasphemy law.

According to the district administration, 66 people were injured in clashes including 11 from the paramilitary Rangers, 13 from the Frontier Constabulary, 17 from the police and 19 civilians and six journalists.

DG Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa confirmed that troops had been requisitioned to secure sensitive installations on the Constitution Avenue in the Red Zone.

The troops took control of the Red Zone after pushing the protestors out of Parliament House. Several major arteries leading to Islamabad were closed by the authorities to block the protesters’ march.

The stone-throwing supporters of Qadri marched towards the Parliament House and clashed with the police a month after the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri.

Earlier, around 25,000 supporters of the former police bodyguard gathered in Rawalpindi to offer afternoon prayers before heading towards the heavily-barricaded federal capital guarded and patrolled by hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers.

Riot police carrying batons and shields fired tear gas at the protesters to prevent them from pushing closer to the city centre.

The protesters removed containers and barricades and also set some containers on fire before staging a sit-in outside the Parliament House, where anti-government speeches were delivered.

The protesters set fire to a Metro station near Shaheed-e-Millat Secretariat and four police check posts on the Jinnah Avenue. The deputy commissioner called in extra police to stop the protestors from marching ahead.

There was no government representative at the protest place in front of the Parliament House which made the situation worse.  The protestors started a sit-in and declared that they will not end it until their demands were met.