Over 100 social media activists of radical Islamist party arrested in Pakistan

Lahore, Oct 23 (PTI) Pakistan's anti-cybercrime agency has arrested over 100 social media activists of a radical Islamist party -- Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) -- for inflammatory posts, a provincial minister said on Thursday. "We have arrested 107 social media activists (of TLP) for inflammatory posts besides blocking 75 such accounts," Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari told a press conference here.  Around 16 people including policemen were killed and over 1,600 injured in clashes between the police and supporters of TLP at Muridke, some 60 km from Lahore, last week.

Punjab police claim to have arrested over 6,000 TLP activists so far following last week's violent clashes over the issue of holding an anti-Israel demonstration outside the US embassy in Islamabad.

The government has so far sealed 61 seminaries run by the radical Islamist party. The Auqaf Department of the Punjab government has also been given control of all TLP mosques and seminaries.

The TLP claimed that dozens of its supporters were killed while thousands injured as police opened fire straight on the "unarmed" protesters who wanted to express their solidarity with the people of Palestine.  The Punjab government has already recommended a ban on the TLP to the federal government, and an official source told PTI that the federal cabinet obliged the request and placed a ban on the party.  Minister Bokhari further said the government has identified 3,600 financial backers of the TLP both inside and outside the country, and that weapons seized from police in 2021 by this extremist group were also used in recent violent protests.

She warned that the Punjab government will make it impossible for anyone who takes up arms against the state to operate freely, stressing that the writ of the state is supreme and there will be no compromise on the protection of citizens’ lives and property.

The minister called for the immediate surrender of all illegal weapons and warned that anyone involved in incitement or violence will be booked under the cyber laws.

She announced that licences for 28 arms dealers have already been suspended, and no new arms licences will be issued in the Punjab province. PTI MZ GRS GRS GRS