MINGORA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl workers on Saturday expressed concern over the authorities’ move to place containers at all the entry and exit points of the Swat district in a bid to prevent them from participating in the Azadi March on Oct 27.

They said by placing containers and blocking the exit and entry points to Swat meant that the government wanted to deprive them of their constitutional right of staging peaceful protest.

“Staging protest and peaceful march is our constitutional right and the government must understand that it can never stop us from holding the march. The government must refrain from such illogical tactics,” warned a party activist.

Several containers were placed along both the sides of the roads at all the entry and exit points, including Landakey, Shamozo and Nawagai areas, and the authorities can block the entry and exit points any time to bar the JUI-F workers from proceeding to Islamabad.

However, the party activists vowed that thousands of workers would participate the JUI-F Azadi March, for which they had already made full preparations.

They said the JUI-F, Swat chapter, had already devised a proper plan to participate in the march, and claimed that Oct 27 would bring happiness on the faces of people by ridding them of an ‘inefficient’ government.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2019