Pakistan: 11 dead, 50 wounded in police firing on anti-Israel Islamist group march
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In the 1970s, Pakistan President-cum-Army chief General Zia ul-Haq launched a policy of low-cost long war, by sponsoring terrorists against India to inflict a “thousand cuts” to pulverize the country that split Pakistan in 1971.
In October 2011, the visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Pakistan that “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors.”
Both these foreign policy moves are now biting a nearly bankrupt Pakistan back, which has reared dozens of terror groups in the last five decades as an instrument of its state policy.
The Pakistani Army massacred civilians in Khaibar Pakhtunkhwa, recently, even as its own terror groups now routinely kill soldiers. Amid the ongoing military action against various hostile terror groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the latest meltdown may have started in Islamabad itself.
The protest march taken out by Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), against the killings in Gaza by Israel, turned violent as the agitators clashed with police. It paralysed life in Islamabad and Rawalpindi for a second day on Saturday, the media reported.
Violent clashes continued between police and TLP in Lahore on Friday and Saturday as the security forces tried to stop the protesters from marching towards Islamabad to stage a pro-Palestinian rally. Calling the Punjab police “Israeli goons,” the TLP claimed that police fired upon them indiscriminately, killing 11 of its members and injuring over 50.
“11 TLP people have been killed since the morning. Continuous shelling and firing is happening,” a leader of the far-right Islamist group could be heard saying in a viral video amid sound of gunshots in the background.
The TLP also attacked several police stations and took hostage many policemen, the reports said.
The protests, which began on Thursday against the Israeli killings in Gaza, intensified on Saturday as police fired tear gas and baton-charged agitators at multiple locations. The protesters responded by throwing stones at the police, with The Dawn reporting that dozens of cops were injured.
Clashes intensified near Lahore’s Azadi Chowk, where several police vehicles were set on fire and multiple officers were injured.
In many areas, police erected barricades, put shipping containers and even dug up trenches to prevent thousands of TLP protesters, being led by the outfit’s chief Saad Rizvi, from proceeding towards Islamabad for their demonstration near the US embassy. Lahore is around 370 kilometres from Islamabad.
The US embassy has advised its citizens to avoid large gatherings and remain aware of their surroundings.
“Arrest is not a problem, bullets are not a problem, shells are not a problem – martyrdom is our destiny,” the TLP chief reportedly told the protesters in Lahore during Friday prayers.
The unrest coincides with Israel and Hamas agreeing to the first phase of the Gaza peace deal mediated by US President Donald Trump. Fearing outrage within, Pakistan has officially rejected Trump’s 20-point peace plan but that has not satisfied terror groups, which accused the government of surrendering to the US.
The protests and the ensuing violence paralysed life in Islamabad and Rawalpindi for a second day as the two cities turned into a fortress, with key roads sealed, businesses and schools shut, and internet services suspended.
Pakistani minister Talal Chaudhry accused the TLP of misusing the issue for “political gain”, and asserted that the government would not allow any group to use violence or blackmail the state.
