RAWALPINDI: Police used tear-gas to disperse a slogan-shouting crowd which paraded the streets of the interim capital after a women’s demonstration organised by the Democratic Action Committee here today [Feb 1].

A two-hour hit-and-run battle was fought by the stone-pelting demonstrators who split into groups after Police action and used narrow lanes as escape routes. The trouble in the area around Trunk Bazar subsided towards sunset after Police squads started patrolling the lanes and by-lanes.

The women’s procession, led by Begum Manto, wife of the local DAC chief, terminated peacefully at the PDM office on College Road. The women carried placards denouncing “Police repression” and demanding restoration of democracy, acceptance of students’ demands, release of political leaders, dissolution of the Press Trust, and repeal of all “Black Laws”. In contrast to the previous women’s demonstration, the processionists shouted slogans such as “End Lathi, Bullet Rule”, “Pakistan ka Matlab kya — La Ilaha Illallah” and “Jumhuriat Zindabad”.

The processionists, most of them veiled, offered prayers at Shaheed Chowk on Sharah-e-Pehlavi for the victims of Police firing here in December. People showered flower petals on the procession at different places.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2019