ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday condemned the police action against the activists of the recently-banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in Lahore and termed it a “state brutality”.

Speaking at a news conference at his residence in Islamabad, the JUI-F leader alleged that the injured TLP activists were not being shifted to hospitals and they did not have access to ambulances. He said his party considered the PTI and its ministers as “terrorists” and it would continue its struggle till the ouster of this government.

“It seems that things are now slipping out of the hands of the state forces,” the Maulana said, adding they would not tolerate such scenes and would not make any compromise on Namoos-i-Risalat.

He declared that if the TLP activists decided to march on Islamabad with injured and dead bodies then his party would join them in protest.

“Why has the government made the expulsion of the French ambassador an issue? The French ambassador will have to ultimately leave the country,” he declared.

The JUI-F chief asked the Punjab Police personnel not to follow the orders of their officers. He said when India and Israel committed such crimes in India-held Kashmir and Palestine, they were called terrorists.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2021