Interior minister vows to resolve D-Chowk debacle by Wednesday

ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday said that if protesters at D-Chowk in front of the Parliament building did not disperse tonight then the sensitive Red-Zone area of the federal capital will be evacuated ‘peacefully’ by tomorrow.

Speaking at a press conference here, he said few people were found involved in damaging government installations and inflicting injuries to the security officials.

“Many arrests have been made… details of these will be released tomorrow,” he added.

The minister said that people who damaged public properties will be arrested by the help of CCTV video footage.

Nisar said no dialogues with the protesters were held at political level and there were no plans of the government of doing so in the future. “Only administration dealt with the protesters,” he added.

“We want to evacuate D-Chowk area in presence of the media peacefully [on Wednesday].”

Meanwhile, mobile phone services remained blocked for a third day in Islamabad today as hundreds of activists belonging to various religious groups continued to protest the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, who killed former Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

The blockage was intended to be targeted only at the protest area but locations of the relay towers have caused wide swathes of Islamabad to be affected.

The protesters said they had communicated a list of demands to the government but had no response after clashes with police on Sunday that injured 60 people and left a metro bus terminal trashed.

The government had on Monday registered an FIR against Sarwat Qadri, Khadim Hussain, Afzal Qadri and Dr Ashraf.

The cases have been registered at the I-9, Secretariat and Kohsar police stations. Charges against them include violating the Loud Speaker Act, vandalizing public property, instigating hate against the government and violating section 144 at the Red Zone.

Chaudhry Nisar, in tonight's press conference, further said that 7,000 unarmed policemen stood standby at the D-Chowk, adding, despite criticism the government continues to stick to the policy of non-violence. “It is my utmost effort to avoid anyone being hurt.”

Chaudhry Nisar said guarantees had been given to the Punjab administration that the crowd would disperse after the Chehlum. However, he regretted that some elements tried to do politics under the garb of Chehlum.

Commenting on the attack on Junaid Jamshed, he said record in this regard has been summoned from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to ascertain the identity of the people responsible for this.

He said a large number of people who led the march on the parliament have been arrested and details in this regard will be shared with the media tomorrow.