LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Sunday staged a protest demonstration and a sit-in in front of the Governor House against what it called target killing of the party workers.

The protesters led by PTI Punjab organiser and former Governor Chaudhry Sarwar placed the dead body of a party worker from Manga Mandi, Muhammad Hayat, on The Mall, who was allegedly injured in the firing by PML-N workers in UC-105 and succumbed to his wounds at the Jinnah Hospital on Sunday.

They chanted slogans against the government, ruling PML-N and police. The relatives of the “victim”, MPAs Shoaib Siddiqui, Saadia Suhail and Shunila Ruth, and party chairman’s political advisor Ejaz Chaudhry and others were also among the protesters.

Addressing workers and speaking to media persons, Mr Sarwar warned the PML-N government that the PTI would jam Lahore and hold sit-ins across the province, if the ruling party “goons” targeted any PTI worker from now onwards. He said the PTI’s 11 workers had so far fallen victim to “target killing” in Punjab. He warned the Punjab rulers and police that they should stop testing PTI’s patience, otherwise results would be “too dangerous” for all.

Mr Sarwar said the rulers were afraid of party’s “ever-increasing popularity” and the rulers were targeting party’s active workers to silence them. “If the police did not arrest the target killers, the PTI will have no option but staging protests on roads for the acceptance of their demand,” he said.

He alleged that the Punjab government and PML-N were protecting and supporting the killers of PTI workers. “Enough is enough”, he warned.

The PTI Punjab organiser said the prime minister and Punjab chief minister should listen to the shrieks of the relatives of the victim and order police to arrest the killers at the earliest.

Ejaz Chaudhry said the Punjab rulers had become killers and were targeting PTI workers openly. He regretted that the police were also supporting the killers. He said the PTI would no more tolerate any violence against its workers and use all constitutional options to hold the killers accountable.

Talking to media persons, Mr Chaudhry regretted that people in Punjab were feeling unsafe because of police atrocities and PML-N rulers. He said the police were playing role of a silent spectator despite the fact that party’s 11 members had been targeted and killed.

Chaudhry alleged that the Punjab Assembly speaker was creating hurdles in the way of justice and protecting Hayat’s killers.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2015

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