CT Newsroom
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) remained firm in their plan to protest in Islamabad. The federal government deployed the army in the capital amid escalating violence during the protests.
On Tuesday morning, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi issued a notification under Article 245 to authorize the deployment of the army in the capital to address the law-and-order situation. The notification also granted the army authority to impose a curfew and, if necessary, employ a shoot-on-sight policy.
The government directed the army to take all necessary measures to counter terrorist activities by disruptive and extremist elements within PTI rallies. This includes identifying and bringing to justice any criminals involved.
This decision followed a tragic incident on Srinagar Highway, where PTI miscreants reportedly drove a vehicle into Rangers personnel, resulting in the martyrdom of four Rangers. Additionally, more than 100 police officers have sustained injuries, many of them critically, highlighting the severity of the ongoing violence.
Mohsin Naqvi warned the PTI to prevent their march on D-Chowk in the federal capital and offered them an alternative to place to sit-in at Sangjani, rather than entering the capital’s sensitive Red Zone.
He saif that,”No one has ever been given permission to protest in D-Chowk. We offered them Sangjani. We asked them to give application and sit in Sangjani. My information is that they got approval from Imran Khan but we haven’t got a final answer from PTI”.
Speaking to the media during a visit to D-Chowk and the funeral of martyred police Constable Mubashar Bilal in Rawalpindi, the minister revealed that the government had offered the PTI an alternative to stage their sit-in at Sangjani, rather than entering the capital’s sensitive Red Zone.
For the past two days, the federal capital has been under a security lockdown to block convoys of PTI protesters led by Bushra Bibi and KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur. Highways into the city have been barricaded to control the situation,
