Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) Chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi and hundred of workers have been taken into custody by law enforcement agencies from Lahore, reports say.
A family member of Rizvi confirmed that the TLP chief has been taken into custody.“He was arrested from his hujra in Lahore,” a family member of Rizvi told South Punjab News.
Rizvi's son, Saad, while talking to mediamen said along with his father, all district leaders of TLP have been arrested.
When contacted, Punjab information and law ministers said they did not know about any such action being taken against Rizvi.
According to police sources, a crackdown is currently underway against TLP leaders in several major cities. TLP leader Pir Afzal Qadri in a video message corroborated that police was raiding their mosques in order to arrest leaders.
At least 30 of the party's workers have been arrested from various parts of the capital, the sources told DawnNewsTV.
Around a 100 police personnel have been deployed at Faizabad interchange, where the TLP had last year staged a 20-day long sit-in.
At least 59 TLP leaders and workers have been picked up from the Rawalpindi area, and reports say raids are still being carried out to arrest more activists.
The district authorities in Rawalpindi have issued detainment orders for TLP divisional leader Inayatul Haq. According to the notification, Haq will be detained in a jail for 15 days.
The crackdown comes ahead of Rizvi's call to party members to observe martyrs’ day on November 25. He had asked workers and supporters to gather at Faizabad in the federal capital.
The reports of his arrest come weeks after the TLP led three-day protests across the country against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman whose blasphemy conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court at the end of last month.
The demonstrators during the protests had termed the chief justice “liable to be killed” and had called for a rebellion against the army chief “because he is a non-Muslim”.
This had led to Prime Minister Imran Khan issuing a stern warning to the agitators and telling them: "Do not clash with the state".
“Do not take us [to a situation] where we are compelled to take [strict] action,” the prime minister had said in a televised speech.
Two days later, however, the TLP had agreed to end the nationwide protest sit-ins after reaching an agreement with the federal and Punjab governments under which the latter agreed to initiate the legal process to put Aasia Bibi's name on the Exit Control List (ECL) and refrain from objecting to review of the court judgement.
In November 2017, TLP workers demanding the resignation of then law minister Zahid Hamid had staged a weeks-long sit-in at the Faizabad interchange that had virtually paralysed the federal capital and led to several people losing their lives.
On November 21 of the same month, the apex court had taken notice of the sit-in and directed the defence and interior secretaries to submit a detailed report on the matter.
Days later, the then PML-N government had launched against the protesters an operation which, when failed, had forced the authorities to cave and Hamid to resign.
The Supreme Court yesterday reserved its verdict on the suo motu case over the Faizabad sit-in. The reserved verdict pertains to a variety of issues stemming from TLP's infamous sit-in, including its party registration as well as its violent protest.
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