Additional police force summoned: Rana

FAZAL SHER

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rana Sanullah on Thursday said that an additional police force has been summoned from provinces for dealing with a possible Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) march and in case the provincial governments refused to provide the force then action will be taken against them as per the Constitution.

Talking to reporters at the Parliament House, he said that if Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces, where the PTI is in the government refused to provide us extra force then we will take action against them as per law, adding we already have Frontier Constabulary (FC), Ranger, and Islamabad police at our disposal.

Responding to a question about the sealing of the Red Zone, he said that the law enforcement agencies have sealed the Red Zone as a precautionary measure during Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) protest and it will be opened today (Thursday).

However, he said that when the PTI chief, Imran Khan, expresses the intention or announces the date of the long march, the Red Zone will be sealed again.

“Khan is now starting preparation for the long march and we have already completed preparation to deal with the march,” he said, adding that modern techniques will be adopted for use of rubber bullets and tear gas shelling against the protesters. To a question that police have demanded drones for tear gas shelling, he said that yes are thinking about the use of drones.

To a question about talks with Khan, he said that talks are not possible with a “mad person” like Khan. “How will you talk with a person who is “mentally upset”,” he said, adding that he is “mentally sick”.

When he was asked it shows that you will deal with the upcoming long march like you deal with the PTI march on May 25, he said that we will deal with the upcoming march in a better way than the previous march.

To a query about the resurgence of Taliban in Swat, he said that our forces are fully competent and they would sort out the issue.