ISLAMABAD: Worried over the trend of violence during the Friday’s protest demonstrations across the country, the PML (N)-led Punjab government has convened a conference today to discuss the causes and to devise a strategy to handle such a situation in the future.
According to a party spokesman, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has invited security experts and analysts, psychologists, religious scholars, lawyers and civil society representatives, social scientists and political experts besides high officials of the provincial government to discuss the causes of violence during the widespread protest demonstrations.
At least 24 people, including two policemen, were killed in sporadic acts of violence during rallies taken out by different religious organisations in protest against the anti-Islam film in almost all major cities of the country on Friday.
The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) later alleged that there were ‘political factors’ behind the violence during the protest and accused the opposition PML-N of inciting the protesters to resort to violence.
Two key federal cabinet members, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, alleged that the Punjab government did not take any step to prevent the protesters from entering the federal capital from the Rawalpindi city.
Talking to reporters on Friday night, the interior minister announced that a judicial inquiry would be conducted to ascertain as to who had brought the protesters to the capital after stuffing them into vehicles, alleging that these protests were held at the behest of the Punjab government.
Malik said despite a written request of the Islamabad police, the Punjab government did not stop the protesters from entering the capital.
Internews
