RAWALPINDI: With the release of five of the banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) activists on Monday, its 137 workers are still in Adiala jail.

According to sources, the authorities have been waiting for the release orders for the remaining activists.

The sources said 142 activists — 110 arrested from Rawalpindi and 32 from Islamabad — were shifted to Adiala jail.

The federal government on Sunday released 350 activists of the banned TLP, besides announcing that the cases against others would be withdrawn by Wednesday (Oct 27)

The interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, however, said in a tweet: “350 TLP activists had been released so far and the government was still waiting for the outfit to open both sides of the Muridke road as per the decision.”

Rawalpindi police had prepared lists of more than 320 TLP workers and activists, including 39 individuals of banned organisations who had been placed on the fourth schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

The police, however, was able to arrest 110 individuals, including TLP leader of the Punjab wing under section 3 of Maintenance of Public Order (3MPO) and shifted them to Adiala jail.

Police had also categorized the TLP workers and leaders in three tiers as 17 individuals have been placed in level 1, 25 placed in level 2 and the remaining in level 3.

As part of the security, police teams had been deployed at different points in the garrison city while the reserve police have been placed on the stand-by.

The Rawalpindi city returned to normality on Monday after the government announced TLP had agreed to call off a protest march on Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2021