"Ransacking, vandalising public and private properties could not be allowed to go unchecked," says PPP
Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday strongly condemned violence in different parts of the country during the last three days.
The PPP chairman, in a statement, lamented the violence in "which two policemen among seven people were killed in different incidents".
"This kind of violence, ransacking, vandalising public and private properties and mob-attacks on policemen could not be allowed to go unchecked," the PPP chairman said.
Bilawal called for dealing with those involved in violence as per the law. "The gov[ernment] cannot be allowed to abdicate its responsibility."
"This week’s naked violence shows that the selected regime has dragged the country into a deadly quagmire, where no one is safe ... under the PTI regime, even the police seems to be in need of protection, as the govt has abandoned the people."
The party chairman expressed sympathies with the martyred policemen as well as the innocent people who lost their lives in violence in Punjab and other parts of the country and stressed for best possible medical facilities to those wounded.
In an important development that took place earlier in the day, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed had said the federal government had decided to impose a ban on the TLP under the anti-terrorism law.
"We are forwarding a summary to the federal cabinet to impose a ban on the TLP," Rasheed said in Islamabad, as protests were held across various cities of the country.
Protests by the religious party have caused problems for the masses in major cities across the country for the past two days and have claimed the lives of three people, including two policemen. Nearly 100 policemen have also been injured in clashes with the protesters.
Speaking about the TLP's negotiations, Rasheed said the government wanted to table a resolution in the National Assembly and wanted to form a consensus on it but they (TLP) insisted on marching to the Faizabad Interchange.