Pak Islamic political party claims police killed 10 workers during Abbottabad clash

Islamabad [Pakistan], October 18 (ANI): Pakistan’s Islamic political party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has claimed that the police killed 10 of its workers and injured hundreds during a clash in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Abbottabad district on Sunday night.
TLP said they also revealed the arrest of 34 workers for arson attacks, firing, damaging public and private property, and other acts of terrorism, the Dawn newspaper reported. However, the police said that over 33 officials suffered injuries after being hit by gunshots fired by workers of religiopolitical party workers.
The clash occurred as the Abbottabad police stopped thousands of TLP workers, Led by TLP chief Allama Saad Rizvi, from heading towards Havalian tehsil to attend an Eid procession.
TLP activists tried to remove shipping containers placed before them and on the bridge after a ban on processions and gatherings by the administrations of both districts, according to Dawn.
The TLP claimed that the police fired bullets at them while the police said they baton-charged them and fired teargas on them only to disperse them.
The police firing killed over 10 workers of the party and left 50 critically injured and hundreds injured, while several were missing following the police’s action, said TLP Information Secretary, Hazara Zone, Syed Qasid Ali Shah.
“The police fired straight shots and teargas on our peaceful workers on the way to Havelian,” Shah told Dawn over the phone here on Monday evening.
Earlier on Monday, media reports said even after a ban on gatherings in Haripur district in Hazara city, TLP workers entered the region carrying sticks and marched on towards Havelian in the adjacent Abbottabad District.
“We allowed them to enter and cross the urban limits of Haripur peacefully as we avoided taking action fearing loss of property as hundreds of Rizvi’s followers were wielding clubs,” said a police officer, reported Dawn.
In the limits of Haripur, there is notably a ban on carrying out processions and gatherings for 15 days. However, TLP chief Allama Saad Rizvi was defiant to the rules as he planned to address the Eid Miladun Nabi procession.
Eid Milad-un-Nabi is celebrated annually to commemorate the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad and is observed in the month of Rabi-ul-Awwal, the third month of the Islamic lunar calendar, which commences with the sighting of the moon. The occasion also marks the death anniversary of the Prophet. (ANI)