ISLAMABAD: A police team was manhandled by men from a religious seminary after they were caught with a banner inscribed with slogans against a federal minister on Friday night.

Three separate cases have been registered over the issue of the derogatory banners at different police stations of the capital, sources told Dawn.

Read: Religious groups protest information minister’s remarks

The banners, targeting Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed, had been spotted at various points across the capital over the past week and called for his hanging, ostensibly over his remarks where he termed seminaries “centres of illiteracy”.

Presence of banners calling for information minister to be hanged troubles law enforcers

According to the police, separate patrol teams found the banners in Aabpara and Sector F-11/1 and removed them after informing their superiors.

Later, separate cases were registered at the Aabpara and Shalimar police stations under sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) and 505ii (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

According to the FIRs lodged, the banners were put up by the Islamabad chapter of the Jamiat Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (JASWJ).

Later on Friday night, an Aabpara police team spotted motorcyclists near the F-6 Super Market carrying the same banners and tried to intercept them. The police party caught up with the fleeing men near the National Press Club and recovered the banners from them. All five motorcyclists and their vehicles were then taken into custody.

However, before police could take the men to lock-up, a couple of dozen men appeared at the spot and prevented the police party from leaving the scene. They threatened the police personnel and asked them to hand the five men over to them, saying that the policemen would be allowed to go on their way if they complied with the demand.

However, when the officials tried to contact their control room, a number of men attacked them and beat up a number of officials, including a sub-inspector, who was repeatedly punched and kicked to the ground.

In the interim, other police teams reached the spot and prevented the attackers from freeing the men in custody. The assailants fled the scene when they saw reinforcements arrive. The police gave chase, but their pursuit ended at a religious seminary in Sector F-6/4. Police sources said the attackers were later identified as seminary students.

A case was registered against the attackers at Kohsar police station, but no action has been taken so far.

The banners had previously been spotted in Sector F-8, the F-10 roundabout as well as Aabpara Market. They were put up in reaction to remarks made by the information minister at a Pakistan Academy of Letters event in Karachi on May 3, where he had criticised religious extremists for promoting ignorance, hatred, illiteracy and a culture of “unlearned hordes in Pakistan”.

When asked to comment on the issue, Pervaiz Rasheed evaded the question, merely saying, “the issue of provocative banners is a police matter, what can I say about it.”

Not a great deal is known about the JASWJ, the organisation whose name appears on the banners. Uneeb Farooqi, spokesperson for the similarly-named Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat told Dawn that “Jamiat Ahle Sunnat is a local group formed by clerics and former office bearers of the JUI-F – it is a different organisation from our party which is known as the ASWJ.”

According to police, the men confessed to having printed the banners in Rawalpindi on the orders of the JASWJ during interrogation and said they had been ordered to display the banners at different localities in the twin cities.

The men were produced before a magistrate on Saturday and have been sent to jail on judicial remand.

A senior police officer told Dawn on condition of anonymity that police were now investigating the JASWJ leadership, adding that further legal action would be taken against those who attacked policemen after clear directives were issued by the senior officials concerned.

However, a number of police officers Dawn spoke to indicated a reluctance to proceed against religious organisations and seminaries.

“We do take action whenever there are specific complaints or directives from the top,” a police officer from Margalla Police Station told Dawn. “But who is willing to confront these banned groups or Taliban, who knows, maybe they will blow up this police station next,” he said, explaining that police preferred to steer clear of such matters.

This is a strange state of affairs, and makes it seem as if the momentum to act against extremism and terrorism in the wake of the National Action Plan (NAP) has dissipated.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had said on Jan 3 that the government would leave no stone unturned in eradicating religious extremism, sectarianism and terrorism from the country.

“Banned outfits – even those who have come up [under] new names, will not be allowed to collect donations and sacrificial hides and their known bank accounts will be seized, they will also not be allowed to use social media,” the interior minister had said.

However, analysts blame the government for failing to seize the opportunity afforded by the national consensus against violent extremism, given that sectarian wounds were reopened by last week’s horrific attack against Ismailis in Karachi.

“Instead of taking stern action against them, the government is gradually losing its grip on the situation. It looks as if, in the coming days, the authorities would merely seek to pacify religious elements rather than holding them accountable for their deeds,” said Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2015

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