Pakistan Prime Minister-led Imran Khan government on October 31 reached an agreement with the hardline outlawed radical Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan…reports Asian Lite News
Pakistan Prime Minister-led Imran Khan government on October 31 reached an agreement with the hardline outlawed radical Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) as the two sides negotiated for the release of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party chief Saad Rizvi, as well as expel the French ambassadors.
The talks came as the violent protests flared across the country with tens of thousands of protesters of the radical Islamist group marching in Islamabad, heading to Gujranwala, Pakistan’s third-largest industrial centre approximately 80kms from Lahore and an estimated 220kms from Islamabad.
Weeks after the radical Islamist protesters threatened to bring Islamabad to a halt, the Imran Khan-led government announced that it has reached a mutual agreement with TLP, ANI reported. The announcement came after Pakistan released 350 activists of the banned outfit Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan arrested during the unrest after they threatened of holding a “long march” against Prime Minister Imran Khan for not releasing party chief Saad Hussain Rizvi.
The issue will be resolved peacefully by Tuesday, ending the 10-day long conflict, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said, according to Geo TV. The dialogue was held amid the partial closure of the populous cities of Lahore and Rawalpindi and demands from the rebel groups for the permanent closure of France’s embassy in Pakistan.
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“Police and Rangers are deployed on the route, the law enforcers did not stop the TLP workers on the order from the top as some government functionaries have engaged its leadership in talks,” a government official from Pakistan’s Punjab province told news agency PTI. Although, neither Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi nor religious leader Mufti Muneebur Rehman gave out the details about the meeting despite that both were a part of the meeting.
A committee panel of 12 members was earlier constituted to act as a negotiator between the Imran Khan-led administration and the outlawed Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) that has been protesting for two weeks to put pressure on the government to release the party’s leader. Minister of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Pir Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, had told Pakistani media last week that the panel is in negotiations with both the PTI administration and the leaders of the outlawed group.