Capital on near lockdown after rally in support of cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi in row over electoral oath wording

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Pakistani police have clashed with protesters and arrested dozens in an attempt to disperse an anti-blasphemy sit-in staged by a hardline cleric, which has blocked a main entrance to Islamabad for a week, choking traffic and putting the capital on near lockdown.



Thousands of supporters of Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the leader of the Tehreek-e Labbaik Pakistan party, are demanding that the law and justice minister, who they accuse of undercutting blasphemy laws, resign.

Fearing violence at a combustible time in Pakistani politics, police have blocked several roads with shipping containers to prevent protesters from reaching government buildings.

“The police have beaten up our peaceful protesters,” said one protester, Faisal, 37. “We are ready to get our heads cut off for this cause. We are protecting the prophet, because if we won’t, who will?”

On Wednesday, the clashes seemed to escalate. A police spokesman, Naeem Iqbal, said police were waiting for orders from the government before moving against the rally.

“We want to end this protest in a way where the least number of people are harmed. We don’t want this to end violently,” Iqbal said.

The showdown on the edge of the capital adds to turbulence that has gripped Pakistan since the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was forced from power in July. It is the latest in a series of controversies exposing the government’s discomfort in dealing with extremist groups.

The latest spat erupted when the government changed the wording in an electoral oath declaring the prophet Muhammad as God’s final prophet.

Protesters claim the words “I solemnly swear” were replaced with “I believe”, in the context of declaring the minority Ahmadi sect non-Muslim, to appease the minority community, whom official policy regards as heretics. The government put the matter down to a clerical error.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Buses block a highway to Islamabad as members of the Tehreek-e Labaik Pakistan party hold a sit-in in Rawalpindi. Photograph: Caren Firouz/Reuters

Ahmadis, who according to different estimates constitute between 500,000 and 4 million people in Pakistan, have long been persecuted. They came under renewed pressure in October when the deposed prime minister’s son-in-law in parliament called them “a threat to this country” who should be banned from the armed forces.

Protesters say anyone who attempts to accommodate the beleaguered community is attacking the sanctity of the Islamic faith and should be hanged under the blasphemy laws.

“We have come from far and wide to protest these changes that have been made. They are changing the very definition of Muslim, and that is wrong,” said Hassan Abdullah, 32, a businessman from Lahore. He said the government was not taking the issue of blasphemy seriously.

“The government is in collusion [with the Ahmadi]. The change of words was not a mistake, and if it is a mistake, then the person responsible for this, Zahid Hamid, should resign,” Abdullah said. “Our [country’s] ideology is weak and it needs to be strengthened.”

The rally has disrupted life in the capital. Schools were shut and workers commuting between the capital and its sister city, Rawalpindi, spoke of spending hours on the road.

A provincial spokesman told Reuters police had arrested dozens of protesters since last week.

According to local media, police also filed investigation reports against eight protesters for abducting and torturing four police officers on Saturday.

Dozens of people have been sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Tehreek-e Labbaik has been especially active in fuelling sectarian and religious fervour in the run-up to elections slated for 2018. In recent byelections they were able to chip away at the vote bank of the ruling, centre-right party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.