Interior minister rules out talks with TLP amid clashes

Ag Agencies

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Sunday ruled out talks between the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) as the group took a number of law enforcement personnel hostage in Lahore amid clashes.

Speaking to reporters, Rashid ruled out negotiations with the TLP and said most of Lahore’s motorways, the main thoroughfare Grand Trunk road, and linking highways were open for traffic, but revealed there were 192 areas where he said the group had gathered.

Rashid also said the “situation is a bit tense” in the vicinity of the TLP’s madrassa, where their headquarters is located in Lahore.

Punjab government spokeswoman Firdous Awan in a series of tweets confirmed a press release issued earlier by the Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mehmood Dogar, which described harrowing scenes of “miscreants” attacking Lahore’s Nawankot police station early Sunday morning, and abducting the Deputy Superintendent of Police and “took him to their Markaz (headquarters)”. At least 11 police officials were injured due to the “brutal torture” by the banned TLP activists. Awan said 12 policemen had been abducted at gunpoint and taken to a TLP mosque in Lahore, where hundreds of supporters were gathered. “Violent groups armed with petrol bombs and acid bottles stormed the Nawankot police station this morning,” she tweeted, adding that six police officers had now died in clashes this week.

Rioting has rocked the country since Monday when the leader of the now-banned TLP was detained in Lahore after calling for the expulsion of the French ambassador. The protests have paralysed cities and led to the deaths of six policemen, prompting the French embassy to recommend all its nationals temporarily leave the country.

“The TLP members are holding five police officers and two Rangers hostage,” said Rana Arif, a police spokesman in Lahore told AFP, referring to the country´s paramilitary force.

The CCPO press statement said “at least one oil-tanker with 50,000-litre petrol was hijacked by the miscreants and taken to their Markaz”. “The miscreants were armed and they attacked Rangers and the police with petrol bombs,” the statement said, adding that the police and Rangers pushed them back and cleared the police station.

The police statement said there was no police plan to conduct any operation against the mosque or the madrassa of the banned organisation. “The action, if any, was in self defence and to protect public property,” added the statement.