ISLAMABAD – The federal government has given the protestors an ultimatum of two hours to vacate Islamabad’s Red Zone area, a private news channel reported.
Thousands of protestors are staging a sit-in outside the Parliament House in the federal capital. The channel reported that all preparations have already been carried out to launch an operation against those protesting in the Red Zone area, with heavy contingent of the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps and police on alert and awaiting orders.
“An operation will be conducted if the participants of sit-in do not disperse in a few hours,” a foreign news service quoted an unidentified security official as saying. “Leaders of the protesters have been given a notice in this regard,” he said, adding that they had been given two hours to disperse.
“If they do not the law enforcement agencies shall take action by removing them,” he said. A legal notice issued to the protesters, accused them of attempting to frustrate the government’s drive against terrorism. Hundreds of protesters, who stormed the Red Zone on March 27, had converted their demonstration into a sit-in outside the Parliament House, refusing to budge from their position until their demands are met.
The government had called in the army troops a day earlier after thousands of protestors forced their way into the high-security zone and laid siege to important installations. On Monday, the demonstration continued after turning into a sit-in with leaders of some ‘religious’ parties joining in.
The protestors have either burned the containers placed near the D-Chowk to restrict their movement or pushed them aside to create space.
