Islamabad March 24 (TNS): An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad on Saturday issued fresh arrest warrants for Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi and others after they failed to show up before the court in terrorism cases filed against them during the Faizabad sit-in.
When the ATC judge resumed hearing in the cases against the TLYR leadership, the Islamabad police told the court that Khadim Hussain Rizvi and other did not cooperate with the police despite notices were served on them.
The Islamabad police told the court that they have registered 26 cases against the TLYR leadership over the vandalism they wreaked on the property during the Faizabad sit-in. The ATC issued fresh arrest warrants and directed the police to arrest Rizvi and other TLYR leaders and produce them before the court.
Earlier, the TLYR leadership warned to take to the streets from April 2 to “fight a decisive battle” for what they say over the government’s failure to honour its commitment it had reached with them through the guarantors to end the sit-in.
In a video message, Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri, flanked by Khadim Rizvi and other TLYR leaders, said that the government has backtracked from its commitment regarding the agreement over the sit-in and instead of doing away with the cases, the TLYR leadership was being implicated in cases, which, he said was not acceptable to them and they will resist it tooth and nail.
In the video, Qadri had demanded to do away with all Abdus Salam chairs at leading universities and replacing them with the chairs of religious figures. The LLYR leader has appealed to his followers to converge on Data Darbar in Lahore on April 2 to thrash out a future strategy to launch a decisive movement across the country for the sanctity of the last Prophet (PBUH).
The Faizabad sit-in saga ended after over three weeks of agitation and aborted operations several times by the federal government.
The Faizabad sit-in was an all-out humiliation for the local administration and the democratically-elected government as the protesters and the stubborn TLYR leadership kept them on tenterhooks. The whole drama came to an end after the army chief played the role of a guarantor and later an army general distributed money among participants of the protest rally and they sum was termed travel fair.
