Long March Preps

Rawalpindi is gearing up for a million march as government warns of militant threat to Imran Khan

Rawalpindi: The local leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party in the garrison city of Rawalpindi is busy making arrangements for a mass gathering, and a possible sit-in, of what many leaders predict to be a million-strong crowd that is expected to arrive here on Saturday.

Meanwhile, PTI leaders across Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and elsewhere are reportedly busy mobilizing supporters in their respective regions to join what has been termed as the Haqiqi Azadi (real freedom) March, to be led by the PTI chief, Imran Khan. Earlier, Mr Khan had announced a public gathering in Rawalpindi on 26 November to stage a mass protest against the incumbent federal government.

The material needed to build a centre stage for the gathering has already arrived in Rawalpindi and is being assembled. Portable washroom facilities for the participants of the march have also been set up at Allama Iqbal Park in Shamsabad area, not far from Murree Road, the likely venue of the protests.

Significantly, the date of the protests coincides with the day the English cricket team is scheduled to land in Islamabad for a test match series. One of the tests is scheduled to start on 1st December at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, located close to Faizabad where the protests will be held.

There are reports that the law enforcement agencies have asked the PTI leadership to change the venue of the sit-in as it may affect the tour of the English team. The Rawalpindi district administration has reportedly proposed to the PTI to move the venue of its protest to Allama Iqbal Park, away from Faizabad. Will the PTI leadership consider these options is not known at the moment. The party’s plans so far suggest that its gatherings and marches will be mostly held in the city’s central Murree Road area, running right up to the Faizabad inter-change on Islamabad’s border.

Sheikh Rashid Shafique, a PTI leader, has said that former interior minister, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, will lead a rally from his Rawalpindi residence, the Lal Haveli, to Faizabad via the Committee Chowk at noon time on Saturday. Imran Khan will address the marchers at Faizabad later the same evening, he said.

Rashid Shafique, and other PTI leaders including Amir Kiyani, Ghulam Sarwar Khan and others are looking after the arrangements being made for the mass gathering, as well as a possible sit-in. The party’s Punjab Assembly members have been given the task to hold party conventions in their respective areas to mobilize people.

Punjab Chief Minister’s spokesman, Fayaz-ul-Hasan Chohan, told Bol News that at least one million people will be gathering in Rawalpindi. “People will be amazed to see the atmosphere in Rawalpindi once the long march arrives here,” he said.

Rashid Shifique also made similar claims about the possible number of the participants of the long march. “We are expecting one million people on Rawalpindi’s Murree Road,’’ he told Bol News.

During a recent PTI workers’ convention at Dhok Kala Khan, Rawalpindi, the vice chairman of PTI, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, stated that his son will lead the march from his native Multan region and arrive in Rawalpindi on 25 November. At another convention held in Rawalpindi, PTI leader Asad Umar said that Murree Road will be the venue of the long march, and security arrangements for it will be made by the Punjab Government

According to PTI sources, in case the march turns into a long-drawn sit-in, the top-tier leadership including Imran Khan may be accommodated at the official Punjab House residence, while local leadership will make arrangements for other participants.

Meanwhile, the authorities are in the process of making security arrangements for the event. They say that around 10,000 police personnel will need to be deployed in the Murree Road-Faizabad region. Of these, around 2,300 personnel have already arrived in Rawalpindi from the police training centre at Farooqabad in Sheikhupura district.

Police commandos will perform surveillance duties from rooftops of the buildings situated on both sides of Murree Road, officials say, adding that they will also keep the crowds at a distance of 30 feet from Imran Khan’s container. These arrangements come against the backdrop of a risk assessment report released by the Federal Ministry of Interior, stating that Imran Khan’s life may be under threat, and asking the PTI to postpone the march for now.

“The march is now expected to arrive in Rawalpindi soon”, says the ministry’s communique, shared with the PTI top brass. “It has been learnt through intelligence sources that a serious threat to the life of the former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, as well as the general public participating in the long march exists.”

According to the communique, a lone-wolf attack by the radicalized youth of the hardline religious Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) to avenge the police crackdown on TLP’s workers when Imran Khan was in power cannot be ruled out.

Besides, PTI’s alliance with the Shia Muslim group, Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM), and the expected presence of MWM cadres in the long march, may make the event a target of the anti-shia militant groups, particularly the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), as a large number of ISKP operatives have infiltrated into Pakistan since last year when Taliban took power in Kabul, the communique says.