RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: Police continued to crack down on the PTI members and detained former provincial minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan under the 3MPO and also shifted five party activists arrested on Sunday to Adiala Jail.

The police also conducted a raid on Lal Haveli to arrest PTI leader Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, but the arrest did not take place.

However, Mr Chohan was picked up by police when he was going to address a press conference at the press club in Rawalpindi. He was on bail till May 18 in another case, but the police detained him under 3 MPO and shifted him to Adiala jail. Another PTI activist was also arrested in the Ratta Amral area on Monday.

The five activists who were arrested by the police in connection with a protest in Westridge on Sunday were sent to jail. During the protest, they had asked motorists to protest the arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan. Police said that they carried party banners, shouted slogans and forcibly stopped cars and provoked people in the area to protest the detention of Mr Khan last week.

PTI criticises Islamabad police over PDM sit-in in Red Zone despite Section 144

Those who were arrested were Mohammad Zahid, Asghar Ali, Said Wali, Ahsan, and Sheikh Mohammad. All the arrested were shifted to Adiala jail after the registration of an FIR with the Westridge police.

Violation of Section 144

Meanwhile, the PTI criticised the violation of Section 144 in the capital and questioned the absence of the army and police when workers of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) entered the Red Zone to protest outside the Supreme Court.

In a statement, PTI Islamabad Region President Ali Nawaz Awan said that despite imposition of Section 144, the Islamabad police were facilitating the sit-in in front of the apex court. He said that according to Article 245 of the Constitution, the security of the Red Zone was entrusted to the Pakistan Army, but ironically the security personnel were seen nowhere.

Ali Awan, who is one of those few leaders who could not be arrested, went on to say that Islamabad police were busy only doing “homoeopathic tweets that the situation was still peaceful and under control”.

Another leader Dr Iftikhar Durrani claimed that the ‘London Plan’ entered its final phase, as the “tyrants imposed on the nation through conspiracy” decided to ban the PTI and imprison its Chairman Imran Khan.

In a video message on Monday, he revealed that the ruling elite has decided to ban the PTI and imprison Imran Khan as per the ‘London Plan’. “Entire nation witnessed the scenes of how the private militia men were facilitated to enter the Red Zone despite the imposition of Section 144 in the federal capital. Contrary to it, when PTI announced to sage a peaceful protest, Section 245 was imposed in Islamabad,” he said.

He said that police tortured even students and children who were supporting the PTI. However, he added that on Monday neither there was any flag march, nor any incident of violence.

Mr Durrani claimed that PTI’s peaceful protestors were welcomed with bullets and batons while the “armed private militia men” – a reference to JUI-F volunteers dressed in mustard – were welcomed with rose petals.

“Pakistan has been divided into two parts, one is ruled by the mafia, who has been provided with all facilitations… In the second Pakistan, innocent and peaceful protestors were tortured and women and children were kidnapped from their homes,” he claimed.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2023