Qari Zawwar, sons arrested at rally demanding end to blasphemy

LAHORE: Police arrested JUP Vice President Qari Zawwar Bahadur and four others including his two sons and a party worker from The Mall Friday evening when they were returning after the culmination of a rally taken out by various Sunni organisations demanding release of the leader of his own faction of Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR), Dr Ashraf Asif Jalali and prevention of blasphemy.

JUP leader Rasheed Rizvi alleged that Qari Zawwar’s sons Mehmood and Hammaad, in their early twenties, and Qari Rizwan, were taken to the Garhi Shahu Police Station after arrests, but the FIR was registered at the Qila Gujjar Singh Police Station. He added that the detainees were shifted from Garhi Shahu Police Station to some unknown place.

Earlier, the protesters marched from the Lahore Press Club to the Punjab Assembly shouting slogans against what they called government’s bias against the majority in the country by allowing a small group to continue systematic blasphemy against sacred Islamic figures and Ahle Bait (RA).

The rally was led by TLYR’s acting ameer Maulana Farman Ali Haidari, Qari Zawwar Bahadur, Qari Mian Tanvir, Mian Sagheer Naqshbandi, Murtaza Ali Hashmi, Rasheed Rizvi and others. Addressing the participants at the end of the rally, the speakers said the government had kept arrested Dr Ashraf Asif Jalali for the last four months to please a small group despite he had even tendered an unconditional apology to all those who raised objections against his stance.