Police baton charge PTI's workers in Islamabad
The tortured persons included women members of PTI, claims Shah Mehmood
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Police have raided and baton charged participants of a youth convention of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday in Sector I-11.
Supporters of the party were convening a gathering nearly a week before PTI’s announced sit-in in Islamabad on November 2. During the raid, police allegedly took several participants in custody.
The development has come in the same day when Section-144 was imposed in Islamabad which disallowed gathering of people across the city and permitted the law enforcement agencies to subject the violators to penalties.
According to the Additional Deputy Commissioner, the action was taken over imposition of Section-144
PTI’s reaction
The political organisation has claimed that over 100 supporters were unlawfully taken in custody by the police this evening.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Vice-Chairman of the party arrived at the scene and strongly condemned the incident while stating that police had tortured peaceful participants of the convention.
Qureshi asserted that he had telephoned Deputy Commissioner (DC) around three hours ago and informed him about the ongoing convention, responding to which the officer allegedly assured Qureshi of contacting him back in a while to clear standing of the department in the matter.
He further said that the tortured persons included women members of PTI. Qureshi lambasted the government for revealing its ‘true face’.
The vice-chairman of the party urged the police to side with the democratic forces and not with the autocratic rule.
Two of the party leaders who were to address the convention over mobilisation of assets for November 2 sit-in, Qureshi and Member of the National Assembly (NA), Asad Umar demanded Assistant Commissioner (AC) concerned to come see them and answer their questions.
Shah Mehmood and Umar, after clearing party’s stance announced that they were leaving for Commissioner’s office right away to seek answers for the alleged brutality.
Inspector General (IG) of police and Commissioner were demanded by the representatives of PTI to immediately release detained workers of the party.
In an exclusive talk with Dunya News, Imran Ismail said that the political party refused to function under Section-144 that was imposed in a "monarchy."
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