GUJRAT: Police on Monday besieged the residence and seminary of cleric Pir Afzal Qadri, emir of Aalmi Tanzeem Ahle Sunnat Pakistan, to thwart the religious outfit’s planned march on the Punjab Assembly, Lahore.

Some 40 activists, including the scion of the cleric, have been arrested on their way to Lahore where they wanted to agitate against the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri, assassin of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

The march was planned under the aegis of an alliance of different religious outfits.

The law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) besieged the residence of Mr. Qadri located adjacent to his seminary at Mararrian village along Gujrat bypass late on Sunday night to prevent him from marching on Lahore on Monday morning as the police had barricaded Chenab river bridge on GT road.

Police arrested a number of activists of the outfit by raiding their houses late on Sunday whereas two vans carrying activists to Lahore were intercepted at a picket near Chenab river. More than 20 activists, including Siddique Afzal Qadri, were arrested and a few were disembarked from some passenger buses at the same picket.

The preventive measures thwarted the march plan whereas Mr. Qadri was confined to his house; however he reportedly delivered a speech to the participants in a sit-in in Lahore through telephone.

According to a press release issued by the religious outfit, its main leaders including Hafiz Khadim Husain Rizvi, Waleed Sharaqpuri, Mukhtar Rizvi, Ziaul Islam Shah, Pir Zaheerul Hasan Shah, Qari Abu Turab Baloch, Siddique Afzal Qadri and many others from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and other parts of province had been arrested.

A case has been lodged against the 40 arrested activists with the Saddar Gujrat police under sections 7-ATA, 341 and 506 of PPC, 11-WE and 11-EE on the report of a police official.

Official sources told Dawn that the local administration had made several attempts to dissuade Pir Qadri from the march. The administration held a meeting with his aides and finally his house was besieged to avert any such rally.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2015