Faizabad sit-in: Court declares Khadim Rizvi, others proclaimed offenders

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday declared Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi, and other party leaders as proclaimed offenders in cases related to the last year’s Faizabad sit-in. 

The ATC judge declared them fugitives over their perpetual absence from trial proceedings despite repeated summons.

At the previous hearing, the court repeated non-bailable warrants for their arrest and directed police to get published their summons in newspapers to ensure their appearance in the court.

On March 06, ATC declared Rizvi and other leaders of Tehreek-e-Labaik absconders and initiated the process of declaring them proclaimed offenders over their failure to face trials in cases pertaining to the Faizabad sit-in.

The National Assembly had passed an amendment to the Finality of Prophet-hood ( Khatm-e-Nabuwwat) oath for electoral candidates, which triggered protests by a number of religious parties in the country, including TLYRA.

As many as six people were killed and hundreds wounded when the law enforcement agencies had launched a crackdown to disperse protesters of TLYRA from Faizabad that had paralyzed the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi for more than a fortnight.

Protesters had been demanding action against those behind the controversial amendment in Khatm-i-Nabuwat declaration.

Former premier Nawaz Sharif had also expressed displeasure over the mishandling of the sit-in and the surrender of his party’s government to the protesters to end the sit-in.