‘Tell your people to return home,’ Fawad Chaudhry warns TLP protestors’ families

Islamabad (HRNW) The National Security Committee (NSC) on Friday commended the police for their professionalism and restraint despite being targeted directly by protestors belonging to the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), while Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry issued a stark warning to miscreants to return home.

Punjab Police have suffered multiple casualties — including four martyrs and over four hundred injured — and on Friday the government issued a stark warning that it has had enough.

“The state’s restraint should not be seen as a sign of weakness,” a press release issued by the NSC read.

“I am telling the protestors to return home. I am telling their families: call your people home. The state will not stop at anything to assert itself,” Chaudhry warned in a press talk shortly after.

Chaudhry warned that “No mob can stand up to the state,” as he warned that the government would be taking all possible measures to quell any further mischief.

“The civilian and military leadership are like one clenched fist on this issue,” he said.

The information minister said the state did not wish for blood to be shed in the streets, and asked the proscribed outfit’s members to return home.

Chaudhry said the government would not accept any demands put forth via blackmail and said that the state had asked even the Tehereek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to sit on the negotiation table.

The federal minister again asked protesters to not consider the state “weak”, reminding them that “Pakistan has defeated terrorist organisations before.”

The federal minister said the NSC had resolved to back the police force and the state would not tolerate this “mockery” for long.