LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri has demanded the government withdraw all the cases registered against his party activists.

Speaking at a press conference after leading funeral prayers for the 11th victim of last week’s police raid on his party secretariat here on Tuesday, Mr Qadri alleged that registration of cases against 1,400 unknown people by the Islamabad police for torturing law-enforcers was aimed at arresting the PAT leadership.

The crackdown on PAT, he said, was planned to scuttle its declared anti-government movement.

He demanded that the government withdraw the cases and release the activists who had so far been taken into custody.

He alleged the people who tortured law-enforcers in Islamabad and shown by various TV channels were in fact police in civvies.

Holding some photographs in which some plainclothesmen were riding police vehicles, he said these people were transported to the airport to create a law and order situation and put the blame on the PAT activists. He said all that was done to use it as an excuse for diverting his flight to Lahore.

Dr Qadri said his party would hold rallies for four consecutive Fridays to show solidarity with the armed forces fighting against terrorists in North Waziristan.

Fully supporting the Zarb-i-Azb operation, he said the army was in fact waging a Jihad against the militants.

He said he would personally visit camps of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and announce setting up a fund for them.

As an immediate relief measure, he said, 25,000 food bags were being dispatched to the IDPs’ camps.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2014