Govt says it will take 'all measures' to reopen blocked roads amid protests in Pakistan

• Govt says it will take "all possible measures" to reopen roads blocked by protesters of a religious party across the country.
• Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed presides over a high-level meeting to review the law and order situation in the country.
• Rasheed says strict action will be taken against lawbreakers.
• If the situation worsens, mobile and internet services will be shut down for 24 hours, govt says.

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to take "all measures" to reopen closed roads across the country which have been blocked due to an ongoing protest by a religious party. 

According to Geo Urdu, a meeting on the law and order situation was held under the chairmanship of the Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed today, while it was virtually attended by the minister for religious affairs, chief commissioner, inspector-general of Islamabad, chief secretary, and the inspector-general of Punjab.

During the meeting, the interior minister reviewed the situation created by the protest and said that strict action will be taken against lawbreakers and all steps will be taken to unblock the roads so as to facilitate citizens. 

The meeting also decided that in areas where the situation worsens, mobile and internet services will be shut down for 24 hours.

'Islam does not permit violence': Tahir Ashrafi

Earlier in the day, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Interfaith Harmony Maulana Tahir Ashrafi had appealed to the protesters of the religious party to talk to the government instead of resorting to aggression because "Islam does not permit violence."

Speaking to Geo News via telephone, he regretted the incident in Dera Ghazi Khan where a police officer was subjected to torture by workers of the religious party staging protests.

"This police officer is also a member of the Holy Prophet Muhammad's (Peace be upon him) Ummah. It's not as if he isn't a human being," lamented Ashrafi.

Ashrafi appealed to protesters to think of the people who were in danger from the violence and the women and children who were stranded for the past 24 hours.

"As the chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) I would like to appeal to the protesters to realise the danger that the people in need of oxygen are in," he said. 

"Whoever it is, whether it is a police officer or a common man or the worker of a religious party, at the end of the day, the blood of a Pakistani is being shed," he added.