Daily Times

The government on Thursday deployed police and paramilitary force in Rawalpindi as Jamiat Ulema-I-Islam-Fazl geared up to launch the ‘Plan B’ of its Azadi March.

The religio-political party, under its ‘Plan B’, intends to block main roads in all the federating units of the country, including the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Wearing protective head gear and equipped with safety shields and tear gas, the police and FC personnel were seen manning Chungi Number 26 – a key entry point into Islamabad.

A day after ending its 14-day sit-in, the JUI-F is expected to spread their protests throughout the country; blocking major thoroughfares across in all four provinces is on their agenda.

Meanwhile, Islamabad’s H-9 Ground and Kashmir Highway looked like different places after the JUI-F protesters packed up their belongings and left Wednesday evening. They had been staging a sit-in for 13 days.

The ground has been turned into a dump site and people even complained that it has been stinking. The Capital Development Authority swung into action and has started an operation to clean the area. “There is a lot of trash here,” said the supervisor of the operation. We have called four dumpers and 350 people are working on cleaning the area, he said. The Islamabad deputy commissioner tweeted a video of workers cleaning the ground.

People say they are done with political parties staging protests and blocking main roads. Previously, the PTI and TLP have staged sit-ins in the city, which caused a lot of trouble for commuters and residents alike.

The government should implement a new law to stop political parties from staging dharnas on main roads, said an Islamabad resident.