Islamists yesterday announced they were disbanding their sit-in near Islamabad after Pakistani Minister of Justice Zahid Hamid resigned, caving in to the protesters who have been demanding his ouster in a three-week-long rally.
After Hamid’s resignation, the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah party, which is behind the protest in Islamabad and other cities and towns across Pakistan, said they were dispersing peacefully.
The developments underscored how a small party was able to pressure the Pakistani government and force it to accept its demands through a protracted standoff that started earlier this month.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah had demanded Hamid’s resignation over an omitted reference to the Prophet Muhammad in a parliamentary bill. He apologized for the omission in the bill, saying it was a clerical error that was later corrected.
However, the party persisted, taking to the streets and setting up their sit-in at the Faizabad intersection on the edge of the Pakistani capital.
Pakistani Minister of th Interior Ahsan Iqbal yesterday told Islamabad High Court chief justice Shaukat Sadiqui that the government has signed an agreement with the rally organizers to avoid a “civil-war like situation.”
Party leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi told supporters at the Islamabad sit-that they “are immediately ending” the rally.
He also thanked the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, for facilitating a deal, under which Hamid would resign and all detained party activists would be freed.
Rizvi asked his followers to pack up, but await the return of their detained activists so that they could all go back together to Lahore, the party’s base.
Under the deal, the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah agreed not to issue a fatwa, or Muslim edict that could endanger Hamid, whose home in Punjab Province was twice attacked in recent days, although he was not there at the time.
After Rizvi spoke, security forces began removing shipping containers surrounding the sit-in meant to prevent the protest from spreading deeper into the city.
Clashes erupted at the site on Saturday when riot police tried to disperse the sit-in and descended on the protesters with tear gas and batons, leaving six dead and dozens injured.
Hamid submitted his resignation to Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi late on Sunday after security forces held back from another attempt to disperse the protesters, three security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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