Qadri supporters hold Islamabad’s Red Zone under siege

ISLAMABAD: Thousands of supporters of Mumtaz Qadri have held the capital under siege, ransacking public property as they clash with the police and army officials.

The supporters set the China Chowk Metro Station on fire. They marched to Jinnah Avenue and set ablaze several containers.

The protesters have now staged a sit-in at D-Chowk.

The protesters demanded from the government that they be supplied drinking water and make-shift toilets, a demand which the government has refused to accept.

On Sunday, the protesters, a month after Qadri was hanged for shooting dead Punjab governor Salman Taseer, prayed for him in Rawalpindi, and then marched towards Islamabad’s Red Zone, breaking barriers erected at Faizabad on the way.

Police and Rangers threw tear gas shells on the protesters in a bid to contain them. At least 42 security officials and 16 citizens were injured in the clashes which followed.

Police has detained several people for vandalizing public property.

Meanwhile, mobile phone services in the capital have been blocked. The government has asked citizens to stay away from the area.

Qadri was working as a bodyguard for Taseer when he shot him 29 times in 2011 over the governor’s call to reform the blasphemy law, which he said was frequently misused to oppress religious minorities.

The Supreme Court sentenced him to death after which he was hanged in February this year.

Soon after his death, his supporters staged protests in different cities of the country hailing Qadri as a hero.