As Lahore prepares for a rally organized by the PTI, roadways leading to the Minar-e-Pakistan are blocked by containers.
The route leading to the GT was blocked so that PTI convoys arriving from various cities and towns in Punjab could not pass.
Being the provincial capital of Punjab, Lahore has been preparing for a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demonstration that is set to take place today by placing containers in the streets leading to Minar-e-Pakistan.
Other parts of Lahore, such as GT Road, Cup Store, and Du Maurya Bridge, have also seen the introduction of shipping containers.
The government and police have made measures to prevent PTI supporters from traveling to the rally location from other cities and towns in Punjab.
According to the PTI leadership, police have been conducting raids on the homes of PTI workers and leaders for the past five days in an effort to round them up and put them in jail.
No matter the “tactics of the police and administration,” they insisted, the rally would go on as planned today.
Continued crackdown
Rawalpindi PTI central officials Aamir Kayani, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Raja Basharat, Mian Imran Hayat, and Raja Usman reportedly were not apprehended during nighttime raids, as reported by police.
According to the same sources, PTI officials are currently in hiding to escape being arrested. Almost a week into the police raid, 33 activists had been arrested and later released on bail.
Ahead of today’s gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan, which is taking place in the midst of the police raids, the PTI established a venue committee yesterday.
The announcement states that PTI politician Shabbir Siyal has been appointed as coordinator, Fawad Rasool Buhlar as deputy coordinator, and Wing Commander Khawaja Kamran as a member.
The “arrest and abduction” of “approximately 750 leaders and workers,” including Azhar Mashwani and Shahid Hussain, was condemned in a statement released by top PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry.
In the days leading up to the demonstration, the Punjab police conducted searches around the province in an effort to apprehend PTI leaders and supporters.
Hammad Khan Niazi and Bajash Khan Niazi, leaders of the PTI, both have homes in the Manawan neighborhood, but the police were unable to apprehend them during a recent raid.
Hammad has promised that today’s gathering in Lahore will go down in history. They declared, “We will not be scared by such actions [police searches]” and pledged their allegiance to PTI Chairman Imran Khan until the end.
Similarly, Malik Mubasher Lal, the PP-145 candidate for the PTI, was not home when the police came to arrest him during a raid on his home in the Samnabad neighborhood.
We will not back down to police intimidation. Lal accused the police of destroying the walls of his home and seizing goods in the pretext of an arrest, saying, “The government has become a victim of cowardice.”
The future of this country is in the hands of Imran Khan. We will stand by him until our very last breath,” Lal pledged.
Lal said he and his loved ones would show up to the meeting no matter what. The cops have taken my children and other family members into custody. Still, we want to attend the rally.
