TLP declared an outlawed organisation: Sheikh Rasheed
News Desk:
The Federal Government has declared Tehrik e Labaik Pakistan (TLP) an outlawed organisation on Wednesday. Federal Interior Minister, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed while addressing a press conference on Wednesday said the government has decided to ban TLP after violent protests in the country.
They were more prepared than us but today we’ve decided that [a] ban on TLP [will be placed] and this file is going to the cabinet for the approval from today,” the minister said.
His statement comes hours after law enforcement agencies and officials moved to clear TLP activists from roads in different cities of the country as protests entered a third day.
Rashid in his remarks said the TLP workers through blocking roads had stopped ambulances from reaching their destinations and impeded the transport of oxygen cylinders for Covid-19 patients.
Answering a question, Rashid said the government had kept Faizabad closed “as a precaution” and the interchange would be reopened by the evening.
Asked why the situation hadn’t changed despite the current administration coming into power, Rashid said in the recent violence police stations were attacked and policemen were abducted and brought down from their motorcycles and beaten up.
“When we did politics and opposition, we would allow ourselves to be arrested whenever a warrant was issued; we did not use to torture police through our workers and people didn’t use to die in ambulances [because of us],” he added.
The minister stressed that the TLP was being banned “not on the basis of the political situation but because of their character”.