The Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) announced on Monday that it was ending its sit-in in the Wazirabad town of Punjab’s Gujranwala district after more than a week, following an agreement with the government for the fulfilment of its demands.
Protesting TLP workers had reached Wazirabad on October 29 on their way to Islamabad, primarily demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador over blasphemous sketches of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and to exert pressure on the Punjab government for the release of its chief, Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi, the son of its late founder Khadim Rizvi.
Initially, they had kept the GT Road blocked for three days before shifting to an adjacent park after the TLP struck a deal with the government.
“The protesters will now move to Rehmatul Lil Alameen Mosque after the fulfilment of half of the demands [the government had committed to] in the agreement,” as had been guaranteed by the TLP leadership and Mufti Muneebur Rehman — who facilitated the negotiations between the two sides, a TLP spokesperson said on Monday.
The TLP had been de-proscribed, its members had been removed from the Fourth Schedule —a list on which suspects of terrorism and sectarianism are placed under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 — and a procedure for the formation of a committee for the French envoy’s expulsion had been started, he added, listing some of the group’s demands.
“The government should now fulfil the rest of the agreement within the [promised] time,” the spokesperson said.
He said preparations would now start for a urs to commemorate the death anniversary of TLP founder Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who passed away in November last year. The urs would be held at Rehmatul Lil Alameen Mosque from November 19 to November 21, he added.
“Saad Hussain Rizvi would be with us at the urs,” he said, adding that the group’s chief had conveyed to the authorities that they may keep him in detention all his life but must resolve the issue pertaining to the French envoy’s expulsion.
 announced on Monday that it was ending its sit-in in the Wazirabad town of Punjab's Gujranwal){kind=link}