Punjab returns to normalcy after massive crack down
LAHORE: Punjab is returning to normalcy following crackdown on violent protesters throughout the province.
The Punjab police with the help of Rangers eradicated 91 protest camps of the TLP which were mostly set up on the leading roads, intersections and exit-entry points of the districts.
The TLP had taken to the street across the country especially in Punjab after its chief Saad Hussain Rizvi was detained by security forces in Lahore on Monday last.
Fierce scuffles between the police and the activists of the TLP made Punjab a battlefield.
Amongst 36 districts, the provincial capital Lahore, Rawalpindi and Sheikhupura remained the most troubled areas.
Here enraged activists had created law and order situation by making frequent attacks on the police and even the public.
Capital City Police Officer Ghulam Mahmood Dogar said the police before and after the operation kept house-to-house search in the adjoining localities of the protest venue from where the activists were getting support including the food.
Police out of 22 cleared out 21 camps on Thursday.
Another senior police official said that on the second day of the protest police uprooted 60 camps out of 92 in Punjab. Many of them reoccupied next day.
On Thursday, there were only 20 protest venues of the TLP in Punjab which have now been cleared.
Police sources said the TLP had given tough time to the police in Rawalpindi, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Kasur, Faisalabad, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Mianwali, Jhang, Mandi Bahauddin, Jhelum and Sialkot where massive agitation launched.
In Pasrur tehsil of Sialkot violent mob of TLP attacked the police station, damaged property, injured policemen including a DSP and also occupied the police building.
In Mandi Bahauddin, the protesters held up the SP investigation who was later rescued in a massive operation.
“The security forces arrested 3,000 extremists/activists of the TLP during the last four days,” the Punjab police spokesperson told media.
Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry stated on Thursday Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan wants to change Islam’s identity.
