RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: Protesters who are staging a sit-in on Faizabad Interchange have been chopping trees in the vicinity to use for firewood as the mercury has dropped.

Followers of firebrand cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi have also placed tree trunks and larger branches on the main road to block it.

“We have came to know that a large number of small trees, or branches from some big trees have been chopped down by the protesters, but the actual picture will only become clear once the area is vacated,” said Capital Development Authority spokesperson Mazhar Hussain.

He said the civic agency would have to plant new trees in the area if the denuding was too widespread.

Protesting group has not approached IHC, claims cleric

The organizers of the protest have also managed to turn the Faizabad Flyover into a tent city, erecting canopies, placing tables and chairs and other catering equipment wrapped in colourful covers despite the strict security measures put in made by the administration and law enforcement agencies.

A senior administration official was of the view that the protesters were protesting within the capital’s jurisdiction and it was the responsibility of the federal government to deal with them.

However, he said that extra personnel had been deployed there to prevent the supply of food and other goods to protesters, claiming that the number of the protesters was dwindling with time.

But police do not agree with this impression, saying that most protesters were still housed in nearby seminaries and mosques, and would descend upon Faizabad if any action was taken against the sit-in.

Pir Syed Hussainuddin Shah, a senior cleric, has called on activists and leaders of all religious parties to reach Jamia Rizvia Ziaul Uloom before Friday prayers, saying the protestrrs would march towards Faizabad Interchange to join the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah rally.

“We are ready to embrace martyrdom if Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal wants a repeat of the Model Town episode,” Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi told his followers on Thursday.

Another leader, Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri, dispelled the impression that the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah had approached the Islamabad High Court and announced the suspension of the membership of the lawyer who filed the petition.

A massive girdlock was also observed on all roads in Rawalpindi and several thoroughfares in Islamabad as diverted traffic choked all open roads. Nearly all business and commercial activities around Faizabad remained, while traders from Kuri Road also held a protest against the government for not removing the protesters who had occupied Faizabad Interchange and severed the link between the twin cities.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2017