The Qadri brigade

As I left my house in F-6/1 along with my driver to go to the Centaurus in the evening of March 25, we confronted the procession taken out against Mumtaz Qadri’s hanging at Kulsum Plaza. Most protesters were wielding batons and sticks of various sizes. We were lucky that the Qadri brigade only asked us to turn back, and did not manhandle us though we were completely at their mercy because the state had totally abdicated its most important responsibility of protecting the life and property of its citizens.

As we progressed ahead on an alternate route, we noticed that the police had deserted all their ubiquitous pickets. The important question is: why had the police and district managing authorities of Islamabad so cravenly melted away? How could Islamabad be left on the mercy of an unruly crowd, which eventually ransacked the China Chowk metro station and put on fire a few containers, causing a loss of billions of rupees to the exchequer? The junior and out-of-turn appointed caretaker IG of Islamabad and our tantrum-throwing interior minister have a lot to answer for.

Akbar Jan Marwat

Islamabad