PESHAWAR, Jan 12: The workers of Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have already reached Islamabad to participate in the Jan 14 long march, according to TMQ provincial chief Mushtaq Ali Khan Suhrawardy.

He told Dawn here on Saturday that TMQ had changed its long march strategy and therefore, activists were dispatched to Islamabad two days in advance.

“Around 90 per cent of our workers have reached Islamabad,” he said, adding that the long march strategy was changed as the government was planning to block entry of marchers to the federal capital.

“The rulers will watch a sea of people in Islamabad on Monday,” he claimed.

TMQ had tasked its leadership in the province with bringing half a million people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Islamabad, the venue of the scheduled march.

TMQ workers have displayed banners and posters in Peshawar and other major cities and towns of the province asking the people to take part in the march if they want to change their lot.

“We have accomplished our task and Tehrik workers are in Islamabad waiting for Allama Qadri’s call,” said Mr Suhrawardy.

He said women and children from different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and all sister organisations of TMQ had the responsibility to make arrangements for participants of the long march in the federal capital.

He said the remaining would leave for Islamabad today (Sunday) to take part in the long march, which was meant to provide clean leadership to the country and resolve the most pressing problems facing the nation today.

The TMQ leadership and activists are optimistic to make the federal capital as Tahrir Square and forced the rulers to accept their pressing demands for reforms in government before the coming general elections.

Though MQM and others political parties and groups withdrew their announcements for participation in the long march, Qadri is hopeful of achieving his targets even through solo flight.

Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has ordered deployment of contingents of provincial reserve police force in areas which had been relinquished by the Frontier Constabulary (FC), sources said.

The interior ministry had recalled around 4,000 soldiers of the paramilitary force from the troubled province to Islamabad to cope with the TMQ’s long march.

The sources said the reserve police’s contingents were being deployed in sensitive areas to fill the gap.

They said the FC personnel had been deployed in areas adjacent to the tribal area to assist police and other law enforcement agencies to stop infiltration of miscreants and militants in the province.

The sources said the required number of FC contingents had already reached Islamabad.