Islamabad police is currently conducting an operation inside the Parliament Lodges and has made 10 arrests, including that of JUI-F MNA Salahuddin Ayubi.
The police action came after members of Ansarul Islam, a uniformed volunteer force of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), entered the Parliament Lodges in large numbers.
Islamabad Inspector General of Police Muhammad Ahsan Younus took notice of the group’s presence inside the lodges. According to a tweet posted from the capital police’s official account, he suspended the officials in charge at D-Chowk under whose watch the Ansarul Islam workers had entered the lodges. Subsequently, he personally led the operation.
Footage on Twitter showed police officials conducting a search inside the lodges and looking for “the ones in uniforms”. In separate videos, police officials were seen making arrests and forcing JUI-F workers out of the lodges.
Interior minister accuses JUI-F of torturing, locking up police
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid, while talking to Geo News, accused JUI-F of bringing 70 workers of Ansarul Islam inside the lodges.
“People were hidden inside the lodges,” he said. “We still wanted the matter to be resolved peacefully … but they beat and locked up police officials and did not hand over Ansarul Islam members.”
“We are also trying to prevent others from coming to parliament,” Rashid said.
JUI-F chief calls workers to either head to capital or block roads
Meanwhile, chief of the opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance Maulana Fazlur Rahman arrived at the lodges and also called on his party workers to gather in the capital.
“Our volunteers got here peacefully,” he said. “They (police) stormed into our lodges and attacked our MNA.”
“Our MNAs will be kidnapped through Islamabad police,” he spoke of the government’s purported plan.
“I will present myself for arrest. I want to tell my party workers to either reach Islamabad or block roads in their cities and resist this in incompetent govt,” he added.
PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique said he was in a meeting with Ayaz Sadiq when he was told that police had entered [the lodges]. “They said they have warrants for JUI-F workers. We tried to explain to them that you can’t enter the lodges this way,” he added, calling the move “illegal”.