HARIPUR: Life returned to normal in Havelian and Haripur areas on Tuesday following an uneasy calm over a clash between the police and Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan workers in the Chamba village amid varying claims about deaths and arrests.

No incident of violence was reported in the day with the police remaining on a high alert all through the day.

“The situation is under control but even then, we [police] are prepared to deal with any law and order situation,” Havelian station house officer Haroon Khan told Dawn.

He said 44 more TLP workers were held taking the number of arrests for arson attacks and terrorism to 78.

The SHO said the arrested men were with the police investigators on a three days physical remand.

He said more arrests would be made as scores of TLP workers tried to breach the Havelian entry ban besides removing shipping containers and barricades and firing gunshots on the police and pelted them with stones.

Mr Khan claimed that no TLP activist was killed or injured in the police action and instead, the marchers injured 33 policemen, some of them critically, by gunshots and stones.

“We arrested 34 TLP workers from Sunday night to Monday morning and 44 more in different areas on Tuesday,” he said.

The SHO said none of the senior TLP leaders, including Allama Saad Rizvi, Mufti Umair al- Azhari and Mufti Shafiq Amini was arrested.

TLP zonal information secretary Syed Qasid Ali Shah reiterated his claim that the police firing killed his party’s 10 workers.

He also said 50 ‘peaceful’ marchers suffered injuries after the police opened gunshots and teargas on them.

Mr Shah said that he saw several of his party workers critically injured but their whereabouts were not known.

“At least 250 of our workers are missing and nobody knows about their fate. Our party’s leadership is compiling their lists,” he said.

The TLP leader said most of the injured were admitted to hospitals in different cities and that their names along with medical reports would be shared with the media ‘very soon’.

However, there was no confirmation of the alleged deaths or arrests by any other TLP leader or the police. The TLP confirmed the burial of workers Hafiz Shakeel and Hafiz Mubashir in Mansehra district. The family sources claimed that the two had lost life on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan took notice of the clash between the TLP workers and the police and formed a high-level committee to look into it. He tasked the panel with submitting a probe report to his office.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2022