Daily Times

RAWALPINDI: Awami Muslim League (AML) Chairman Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Friday reached his political secretariat Lal Haveli after breaking police barricades and braving worst baton charge.

Rawalpindi police placed containers to block all the roads leading to Lal Haveli including Committee Chowk, Teli Mohallah, College Road and Fawara Chowk.

Talking to media at Committee Chowk atop a TV channel’s DSNG van, the Pindi leader announced to cancel his public rally. He said the government has arrested as many as 450 workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and AML. He added that the plainclothesmen are not only apprehending the political workers but also torturing them severely and conducting raids on their houses.

“Our workers will deal with security personnel wearing plainclothes with iron hands. We will hold both Nawaz Sharif and these security personnel responsible for torturing our workers in jail,” he said.

He said that today’s protest has proved that people want to get rid of this corrupt system, adding that tens of thousands of people would march towards Islamabad on November 2.

“If some security personnel in plainclothes lost their lives then we would not be responsible as such people are behind incidents like Model Town genocide,” he warned.

The AML leader said, “It is a matter of deep sorrow that police is raiding houses of our brothers and sisters. It is our crime that we talk about accountability.”

Terming security personnel responsible for the arrest of political workers, he asked the media to make footage and pictures of the personnel “as we want to take revenge from these personnel as per law”.

The AML chairman said, “Our workers are still on roads, but when Nawaz Sharif would be sent to jail no one would take to streets to get him released.”

Sheikh Rashid started making rounds of the localities around Lal Haveli in different vehicles early morning to review the situation. Heavy contingents of police were deployed at Committee Chowk Underpass and outside Lal Haveli.

When some workers assembled outside Darbar Tahlian Shah on Murree Road and shouted anti-Nawaz slogans the police fired tear gas and baton charge to dispersed them. However, Sheikh Rashid reached Committee Chowk on a motorcycle of a party worker at 1530hrs via narrow alleys. He spoke to media there and disappeared from the scene.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmad had announced to hold a public rally outside Lal Haveli as a “warm-up match” prior to Islamabad lockdown on November 2. PTI Chairman Imran Khan was also invited to address the gathering. However, Kaptaan and other PTI leaders were barred from reaching the venue.

Strict security measures were taken to maintain “law and order” and avert any “untoward situation”. Metro bus service between Rawalpindi and Islamabad was also suspended.