GUJRAT: Participants in Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP’s) Wazirabad sit-in on Monday vacated the area where they had been encamped for the last 11 days as the government implemented most of the basic points of an agreement reached with the organisation at Islamabad.

Earlier, the vehicles carrying the TLP workers along with their baggage were spotted on the GT Road near the two adjacent parks at Wazirabad, leaving the town in the presence of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) personnel.

The TLP workers had been encamping in the town since October 29 the last. They had reached the town on their way to Islamabad participating in a march on the national highway, mainly demanding the PTI government to withdraw the TLP’s proscribed status and release its chief Saad Rizvi and other detained leaders.

The bridge on the River Jhelum in Gujrat district had been opened for traffic, while the one on the River Chenab was also opened late on Monday, District Police Officer Umer Salamat said.

‘White envelopes distributed’ among those leaving the town

Meanwhile, according to the eyewitnesses, participants of the TLP sit-in were being distributed white envelopes, possibly containing cash, from a car before they vacated the sit-in venue. They said some of the onlookers were caught by the TLP workers for capturing the distribution of the envelopes with their phone cameras.

One of the eyewitnesses said his mobile phone was snatched by the party workers and was returned to him only after deleting the pictures and videos he had captured. He added that he was made to raise slogans in favour of the TLP before his phone was returned to him.

He claimed that a policeman in plainclothes was also roughed up by these workers for capturing the distribution of envelopes.

The internet service that was suspended in Wazirabad town for the last two weeks had partially been restored.

However, both the City and Sadar police stations of Wazirabad remained locked due to the TLP sit-in, causing a great deal of inconvenience for the locals reaching there with complaints or for follow-up of their cases.

Similarly, the sit-in had also been hindering the shifting of patients to the Wazirabad Institute of Cardiology through the GT Road for the last many days. However, after shifting of the sit-in to a nearby park from the main GT Road, the patients and their attendants got some relief.

The local civic authorities and administration will have to launch a massive cleaning operation in and around the sit-in area, before normalcy returns to the town.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2021