Tehreek-e-Labaik faction refuses to end Lahore sit-in

LAHORE: A faction of Tehreek Labaik Ya Rasoolallah (TLYR) – Jalali group –refused to call off its sit-in on Mall Road even after all the sit-ins in various cities of country, including the main one in Islamabad staged for the last three weeks by the TLYR-Rizvi group, were wound up Monday afternoon after an agreement reached with the government.

Led by Dr Ashraf Asif Jalali, chief of Tehrik Sirat Mustaqeem (TSM), hundreds of charged protesters sitting under tents continued to block Mall Road outside Punjab Assembly till the filing of this report Monday night and refused to return unless their six demands were met.

The demands conveyed by Jalali, who addressed media three to four times during the day, included lodging cases against all those officials responsible for the killings during the three-week sit-in in Islamabad and specify the exact number and names of those killed.

The other demands are: dismissal of Punjab Home Minister Rana Sanaullah and lodging a treason case against him for violating the Constitution, making Raja Zafar-ul-Haq committee report public and taking action against those nominated in it, withdrawing the ban on mosques’ loudspeakers imposed for past many years and withdrawing cases against prayer leaders and prayer-callers booked for its violations which also promised by the government on November 3 last when Jalali called off his earlier sit-in in Islamabad.

Jalali, whose group had also staged the nine-day Islamabad sit-in which ended on Nov 3 after an agreement, complained

that government had shown no action or sincerity for implementing that agreement so far which forced him to resume the sit-in, adding that he would not leave unless government showed some concrete action on its part of the agreement. Referring to the recent agreement between government and the rival group of TLYR, Dr Jalali expressed sorrow that the friends in the other group were taken in by the government and he feared none of the clauses of their agreement would be implemented by the government.

He said Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique assured him a few days back that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had promised that the issue of restoring mosque loudspeakers would be solved within a couple of days since he (Nawaz) had convinced Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on the issue. He stressed that Rana Sana must be removed from cabinet and booked for treason against the Constitution of Pakistan for his offensive statement that hurt the feelings of millions of Muslims besides blatantly violating the constitutional provisions.

Jalali took assurances time-to-time from the participants of the sit-in that they would not leave unless government took some action regarding its promises made in the Nov 3 agreement.