New Delhi: Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Wednesday that the Rangers were being called in to maintain law and order in the Punjab province for 60 days after recent clashes with the proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Dawn reported.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the minister said a summary in this regard has been sent to the Federal Cabinet for approval. However, he still requested the group to end their protest.
The minister’s remarks came as fresh violence erupted between law enforcers and TLP supporters near Sadhoke in Punjab’s Gujranwala district on Wednesday. At least four policemen were killed and dozens injured.
Shortly before the Interior Minister’s press conference, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry categorically said that the TLP will not be allowed to challenge the writ of the state and will be treated as a “militant” group and not a religious party, the report said.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad after Chaudhry’s press conference, Rashid said that the group had “another agenda”. “So I am authorising Punjab govt to call in Rangers.”
He said that he had spoken to the banned group at 3.30 a.m. last night and told them to look at the situation in the country. “I told them that the French Ambassador is not even in Pakistan. This shows that they have another agenda.”
IANS