LAHORE (Staff Report) – Renowned Islamic Scholar and head of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Tahirul Qadri on Wednesday announced a “grand protest” against the government.
Dr. Qadri, while talking to newsmen in Lahore shortly after arriving in Pakistan, said that the authorities had failed to deliver justice in the Model Town firing incident which claimed 14 lives.
“This is a protest as well as a sit-in. I will announce the details on June 17 at Mall Road,” he said, as jubilant supporters of his party welcomed him.
“Two years have passed [since the killings]. No other example of this worst form of state terrorism can be found in Pakistan’s history,” he said.
Pakistan Awami Tehreek supremo reiterated his stance of state terrorism against his followers “This was no police encounter. This was a one-sided massacre perpetrated by the Governments of Pakistan and Punjab,” he said.
Tahir ul Qadri expressed gratitude to Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif for “having the First Information Report (FIR) registered in the case.”
Related: Tahirul Qadri back in Pakistan to lead June 17 sit-in
Dr Qadri said it was now the army chief’s “responsibility to give justice to these oppressed people.”
The Model Town incident in 2014 claimed 14 lives and injured over 100 people. It provided impetus for sit-ins by PAT in federal capital Islamabad that lasted for 67 days.
An anti-terrorism court last year indicted 46 suspects, among them police officials and PAT workers, in the Model Town firing case.
