TLP chief Saad Rizvi reportedly released from custody
Saad Hussain Rizvi, the chief of the recently proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), was released from Kot Lakhpat jail on Tuesday.
The development was confirmed to a private source by the public relations officer of the Punjab prisons department, Attiq Ahmed.
Shortly after being released, Rizvi reached Yateem Khana Chowk where he is expected to address his supporters.
His release came hours before a National Assembly session was scheduled to take place to vote on the expulsion of the French ambassador — one of the key demands of the party.
اسلام آباد۔ 20 اپریل
حکومت اور تحریک لبیک پاکستان کے درمیان مذاکرات کامیاب۔
وزارت داخلہ کی جانب سے اہم ویڈیو پیغام جاری.https://t.co/imkNgbg2d0 pic.twitter.com/pHaxAaztSS
— Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (@ShkhRasheed) April 20, 2021
On April 12, the government had arrested Rizvi after he demanded that the federal government expel the ambassador of France after blasphemous caricatures depicting Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) were published in France and supported by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The government had reached an agreement with the TLP on Nov 16 last year to involve parliament in order to decide the matter in three months. As the Feb 16 deadline neared, the government had expressed its inability to implement the agreement and had sought more time. The TLP agreed to delay its protest by two-and-a-half months to April 20.
Last week, Saad Rizvi, in a video message, had asked TLP workers to be ready to launch the long march if government failed to meet the deadline. The move had prompted the government to arrest him on April 12.
Police had swooped on Rizvi at around 2pm on Wahdat Road in Lahore where he had gone to attend a funeral. Outraged, the TLP had issued a call for countrywide protests.
The next day, police registered an FIR against the TLP chief under sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Within the next few hours, protesters took to the streets in Lahore and blocked the Grand Trunk Road on a number of points.
All main cities like Lahore, Gujranwala, Islamabad and Peshawar were cut off from each other and the rest of the country. The activists held sit-ins at various points in Hyderabad and Sukkur. They blocked highways, motorways and train tracks, disrupting life in a better part of the country and causing violence as protesters clashed with police at many places.
The violence claimed several lives and left hundreds injured before the government announced on April 15 it had decided to ban the TLP under the anti-terrorism law.
Govt to table resolution on French envoy’s expulsion
Earlier today, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed announced that the government will present a resolution on the expulsion of the French ambassador in the National Assembly later today.
In a video statement, he said the decision was taken after another round of talks with the TLP.
Rashid said that the TLP had agreed to call off protests across the country. “Talks with the party will continue,” he said.
The minister said that cases registered against TLP workers under the Fourth Schedule will also be withdrawn, adding that he will give a detailed briefing on the development via a press conference later today.
