ISLAMABAD: A voice note of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was posted on the Maulana Fazl’s official Twitter account, urging the party members to not take to the streets following the release of the ‘security volunteers’ by the Islamabad police here on Friday.
The Islamabad police sprung into action last night when, what the government called the ‘private militia’ of JUI-F, stormed into parliament lodges. The government threw its weight behind the police and supported the decision of the Islamabad police of apprehending several workers along with parliamentarians.
Maulana Fazl said that the workers did not have to protest out on the streets now that the workers and the parliamentarians had been released. He condemned the police action in the audio note, stating that the police subjected the elected representatives to brutal abuse.
He also accused the Islamabad police of portraying the workers of the JUI-F in a negative manner. Highways were blocked by the JUI-F workers last night following the arrests. However, the party members were directed by Maulana Fazl to wait until 9am Friday – the deadline given to the government to release the workers – before taking to the streets, protesting the arrests.
