The Punjab government has frozen all bank accounts and halted the funding of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), the provincial information minister, Azma Bokhari announced at a press conference, saying both brothers, Saad and Anas Rizvi, are being traced and will soon be brought to justice.
According to the 24NewsHD TV channel, the minister announced that 95 bank accounts and both stolen and un-stolen properties registered in the name of Saad Rizvi have been sealed.
She accused the group of using the cause of Gaza and Palestine to incite violence and to collect large sums in the name of Islam. Authorities recovered one kilogram and 920 grams of gold, 898 grams of silver and 28 gold bangles from the house of a religious leader, and investigators found anonymous property purchases around the group’s headquarters.
Azma alleged the group’s leaders had organised cells to threaten politicians and journalists. She denied any graves were being relocated or mosques demolished, but warned that using graves to collect funds or incite unrest would not be permitted.
The minister said all mosques associated with the organisation will be handed over to the Auqaf authority, with the government already taking over 330 mosques and geo-tagging 223 madrassas; the group’s madrassas will be reopened under Ahl-e-Sunnat-wa-Jamaat scholars’ control and she noted six madrassas had been constructed on government land.
Finally, she said a special prosecution cell has been established to pursue cases against the religious group.
Azma said the TLP’s protests were used to spread propaganda around dead bodies, noting that the violent demonstrations left 110 police personnel injured, three civilians dead and 48 civilians wounded.
She accused the party of misleading gullible citizens in the name of Palestine and said 3,800 individuals had been regularly funding the religious group; those funders’ accounts have now been frozen and anyone attempting to finance the group will face terrorism-related FIRs.
Azma added that strict action will be taken against those spreading unrest on social media and that 33 people named in terrorism cases will be arrested.
She said the federal government has been asked to ban the group and that authorities hope the extremist organisation will be proscribed soon.
Azma alleged that in Mureedke TLP activists seized eight police vans along with weapons and used bricks-filled trolleys and other means to attack police, and that the party’s social media cell continues to run propaganda while its workers allegedly confiscated vehicles including Stahra Punjab and Rescue 1122 units and assaulted staff.
She described a three-tier leadership structure within the group and said the provincial chief minister has inaugurated 33 mobile police stations, seven of which are women-staffed “pink” mobile stations, with formal schedules to be issued.