An Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi has sentenced 86 workers and supporters of the Threek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) with prison sentences of 55 years each.
What are the details? The 86 people were convicted in a case pertaining to resisting and rioting against the police. The people convicted include TLP chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s brother Ameer Hussain Rizvi and nephew Mohammad Ali. Moreover, the court also ordered the convicts to collectively submit Rs12,925,000 and directed authorities to seize their moveable and immoveable assets. What happened? The court was hearing a case registered in the Pindighep police station last year against TLP workers who held violent protests and clashed with the police over the arrest of party chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi. After the verdict was announced late on Thursday night, the convicts were escorted to Attock jail in three vehicles by Elite Force officials. Rizvi was arrested along with other party leaders in 2018 in a crackdown by security forces in Lahore. Soon after the news of his arrest spread, hundreds of activists of the two parties took to the streets and blocked many roads for traffic. A constable was seriously injured at Multan Road where the violent activists clashed with police. Following the unrest and severe clashes, contingents of paramilitary force Rangers reached Lahore, taking control of the city’s major arteries. Prior to the agitation, a police officer said, hundreds of trained police commandos and personnel of the anti-riot force were dispatched to the Multan Road after the information that violent activists of the TLP had held a senior police officer — Iqbal Town SP Syed Ali — hostage along with his guards. The arrests came months after the party held a sit-in in Islamabad against a Supreme Court verdict acquitting Aasia Bibi in a blasphemy case. However, the government had insisted that the arrests had nothing to do with the sit-in. “The action was prompted by TLP’s refusal to withdraw its call for protest on November 25 2018. It’s to safeguard public life, property and order,” then information minister Fawad Chaudhry had shared on Twitter. Keep up to date with more news at ProperGaanda: Royal special to be released about #Megxit