KARACHI: A firstinformation report (FIR) was filed Sunday night against 400-450 unidentified persons, including 13 locals, for rioting during the electoral rally of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Geo News reported,with the case including terrorism charges as well.
SSP City Samiullah Soomro said the location of the suspects has been traced by using their mobile numbers and that raids are under way to arrest them.
Earlier in the day, water-deprived citizens in Lyari's Bihar Colony pelted stones at the PPP leader, with some disgruntled protesters resorting to vandalism and one of the rioter's sticks breaking the windscreen of a vehicle in the caravan.
The residents stopped his rally, chanting slogans against him.Bilawal’s motorcade was halted as his car started to heat up and was later forced to change the route of his electoral rally.
Following the incident, he took to Twitter to talk about what had happened and how rioting and disturbing the metropolis' peace could not be termed "protest".
"Stone-pelting is not a protest. When a person throws stones at another, they should becalled rioters instead of protesters," Bilawal wrote, asking: "Should this continue, would using guns be called protesting as well?"
"Proud of people of Lyari who didn't respond to the politics of violence. Sending saboteurs to opponents events reprehensible," he added.
The Bhutto family scion went on to say: "LEA inaction & [interim government's] irresponsible statements are alarming. People of Lyari responded by coming out in droves to welcome along 8hr tour prove that such tactics won’t deter us."
Speaking about the incident prior to the FIR, PPP leader Yousaf Baloch had told Geo News that the protesters could never fall to the level that they did in Lyari.
"Those protesting do not belong to PPP," he remarked, alleging that protesters belonged to their political rivals.
Further, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Bilawal's spokesperson, had remarked that the PPP's rally was quite peaceful. "Parties who engage in politics of violence won't be able to stop our way. We have always responded to theviolence by political action."
Khokhar added that district administration, police, and rangers should play their part. "ECP should take notice of this incident and issue directions to finish hurdles [in way of politician's election campaign]," he noted.
In addition to this, the PPP leadership held the caretaker government responsible for the disruption of Bilawal’s caravan in Lyari. Maula Bux Chandio, who earlier served as information adviser to the chief minister of Sindh, questioned the interim set-up as to why it failed to ensure proper arrangements for Bilawal’s visit.
Party leader Saeed Ghani, in his reaction, demanded the interim communications minister of Sindh step aside, adding the latter's statement made it look like he was a minister of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rather than a part of the caretaker provincial set-up.
"If he is not asked to step aside, he would play a negative role towards PPP during the elections," Ghani said, adding that the PPP workers wanted to move forward but weren’t allowed to do so by the protesters.
“Some people even pelted stones at the PPP rally," he stated, adding: "We won’t be played by such miscreants."
“The nation will stand by me for my first election," the PPP chairman said.
Bilawal will contest the upcoming general election, the first of his political career, from his party’s traditionally dominant National Assembly constituency in Lyari — NA-246.
The PPP chairman had visited Lyari on Saturday to inaugurate his election office in the area.