ISLAMABAD: After law enforcement agencies failed to remove protesters from Faizabad and after the army politely declined to act against the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah activists, experts say the government is only left with the option of negotiating with the leaders of the protest.

Activists of the religious group have been holding a sit-in at Faizabad for almost 20 days now and are demanding the resignation of Law Minister Zahid Hamid.

The experts Dawn talked to agreed that the government should first convince leaders of the protesters that the public has been facing hardships due to the sit-in and that they should therefore move somewhere else and continue with the dialogues.

Security and defence analyst retired Brigadier Mahmood Shah told Dawn that leaders of the operation did not plan ahead and just went through the motions due to which the personnel in their teams were demoralised.

Term operation against protesters ‘half-hearted, ill-planned’ attempt

“I assume that the half-hearted attempt was made because the decision makers were thinking of calling in the army if the operation failed. It is unfortunate that the government did not hold dialogues with full will in order to address the issue. All resources were also not used during the operation,” he said.

Asked how the government can address the issue now, Mr Shah said the best option is to re-start negotiations.

“If the government wants to use power against the protesters, it should use full force because the operation should be decisive. The time has now come to train the police force because the current police are not capable of conducting such operations,” he said.

Security and political analyst Imtiaz Gul said the army has politely declined to remove the protestors and that the government now has to clear the roads.

Talking to Dawn, he said, “I still do not know how it is possible for some persons to block roads across the country and how the government was unable to remove them. The government needs to stand its ground and remove the protestors.”

He added that the government cannot accept the demand of removing the law minister as the parliament has already passed the law in question.

“Also, if the law minister is removed, his life will be in danger as it will be seen as proof that he committed a crime of made a mistake,” Mr Gul said.

He added that if the government gives in to the protesters, it will encourage other groups to make their own demands in the future.

“It should also be investigated if this is part of a conspiracy as thousands of trucks have been stuck across the country and the economy is suffering,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2017