ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: An employee of a cinema house died of suffocation, while about a dozen people were injured, as the activists of Millat-i-Islamia (MI) resorted to rioting after saying the funeral prayers of Maulana Azam Tariq in front of the Parliament House here on Tuesday.

About 2,000 people attended the funeral prayers led by Maulana Azizur Rehman. National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain and some MMAs attended the funeral prayers.

Moving scenes were witnessed, as the MI activists were crying, hugging each other and chanting slogans against the government, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and a rival sect.

After the funeral prayers, the body of the slain MNA was airlifted to Jhang, the ancestral town of Maulana Tariq. The bodies of the driver and the bodyguards were sent to Jhang by road.

Speaking on this occasion, the National Assembly speaker criticized the parliamentarians for not attending the funeral prayers of their colleague.

Heavy contingents of police and paramilitary troops were deployed in the vicinity of the Parliament House to avoid any untoward incident. However, soon after the funeral prayers, the police and paramilitary troops left the area, providing an open field to the mob to destroy public property, eyewitnesses said.

Immediatley after the funeral prayers, the emotionally charged activists charged towards Melody Market, the adjoining Food Street and Aabpara bazaar and attacked anything that came in their way. “We will avenge the killings,” they shouted.

An eye-witness said the protesters were carrying a gun-like weapon that fired fireballs at the buildings setting them on fire. The police fired tear-gas shells to disperse the protesters. The rattle of the tear gas shelling echoed all around forcing people to run for cover.

Another eye-witness told Dawn that the people were seen looting cold drinks, biscuit packs, ice cream cups, shoes, garments etc from the shops.

Smoke billowed out of the roof of nearby Melody cinema. Witnesses said at least two people with burn injuries were taken out of the cinema, one of whom, Naveed Mohammad, died on way to the Federal Government Services Hospital. “The cinema house has been completely gutted,” a cinema worker said. Luckily, the show was not on, otherwise, the casualty would have been unimaginable, he added.

A gas station near Aabpara market was smashed and its tuck shop ransacked. A police motorcycle (IDP 1264) was torched, while a police post was destroyed at Aabpara Chowk. According to police sources, a tear-gas gun of Islamabad police has gone missing in the process.

The protesters then attacked the shrine of father of Hazrat Bari Imam. Afzal, an eye-witness, said he tried to close the doors of the shrine, as Holy Quran was being recited inside, but of no avail.

The MI activists also damaged the public property at China Chowk. They smashed some 40 traffic signals, the superintendent of traffic police, Zubair Hashmi, told Dawn. The cost of each traffic signal is Rs700,000, he said.

Meanwhile, the Aabpara police arrested 47 demonstrators for torching the cinema building, attacking an Imambargah and damaging cars and buildings.