By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: Police mounted a sweeping crackdown on the hardline Islamist group Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan on Thursday night and into Friday, sealing offices, mosques and seminaries linked to the organisation while arresting scores of its members in an effort to head off planned protests across Punjab Province after Friday prayers.
The actions followed a decision by the provincial government to urge federal authorities to impose a ban on the TLP, and came amid intelligence warnings that its activists might still attempt to sow chaos in the streets despite many leaders having gone underground after a deadly clash earlier in the week.
Although most TLP leaders have vanished into hiding following the crackdown in Muridke, the authorities remained apprehensive about the hardline group’s plans to take to the streets after Friday prayers to stage another protest.
These anxieties stemmed from a statement by TLP Balochistan president Wazir Ahmad Rizvi, who had called on protesters to converge on Lahore’s Data Darbar on Oct. 17, as well as intelligence reports suggesting that TLP activists may engage in violent clashes and widespread chaos after Friday prayers.
Officials said the law enforcement agencies had received a list of the TLP activists and had been assigned special tasks to launch a large-scale crackdown on Thursday night to ensure a large number of arrests before Friday.
They said that the Punjab police senior command held a series of important meetings to arrest the “leftover” leadership of the radical outfit that had gone into hiding following the Muridke crackdown. Officials said that a series of meetings was held in this regard on Thursday to devise multiple strategies in this respect.
Chairing a high-level meeting, Punjab police chief Dr. Usman Anwar approved a deployment of 30,000 personnel on the roads across the province, besides assigning special duties to 12,000 plainclothesmen of the Punjab Special Branch. At least five locations in the provincial capital have been declared “sensitive” since these have remained the hub of violent attacks carried out by the TLP in recent demonstrations. These included the T.L.P. headquarters on Multan Road, Shahdara, Chungi Amar Sidhu, Baghbanpura, Thokar Niaz Baig, and the Babu Sabu interchange.
During the meeting, the police officers were given instructions on how to “handle the mobs” in case of violence. “We have decided to treat the violators under anti-terrorism and other heinous charges to take them to the court of law for punishment up to 10 and 14 years,” Punjab police chief Dr. Usman Anwar said.
He said Section 144 has been imposed across Punjab, banning all kinds of gatherings, demonstrations, process ions and rallies. The Punjab Home Department has formally issued a notification enforcing Section 144 across the province, he said. “If anyone tries to attack law enforcers, vandalise public property or take the law into their hands, we are here to deal with them with iron hands,” Dr. Usman said, adding that instructions have been issued to trace and arrest the TLP violators with the help of the AI-based technology. He said that the data of the TLP men wanted by the Punjab police had been updated in the record of the Safe City cameras and vehicles of the patrolling police to trace and arrest them.
The escalation stemmed from a deadly confrontation on Oct. 13 in Muridke, about 20 miles north of Lahore, where security forces clashed with TLP protesters during their march toward Islamabad for the solidarity with Palestinians. Police said they launched an operation to disperse hundreds of demonstrators when the group’s supporters opened fire on officers and set over 40 vehicles ablaze in clashes that lasted more than three hours.
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