LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Tahirul Qadri alleged in a late night press conference here on Friday that the police were attempting to kill him and his family.

Defending the violence by PAT workers in Lahore, he said they acted in defence as the police were attempting to occupy the headquarters of Minhajul Quran, a sister organisation of PAT, and his residence.

He alleged that the police were torturing peaceful workers and shot dead two activists and injured six others by firing at a caravan in Bhakkar which was on its way to the provincial capital. (Police, however, denied the claim.) He asked the people to remain peaceful but never to bow before any pressure.

He directed that each worker coming to join the Aug 10 'martyrs' day' function should carry with him/her a copy of the Holy Quran.

Addressing the provincial authorities, he guaranteed that the Aug 10 show would remain peaceful but warned that the government would be responsible for any chaos to be created by its highhandedness.

He alleged that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was the killer of 15 people, a reference to the killing of PAT activists during a police raid in Model Town on June 17.

He questioned under what law PAT workers were being arrested from across the province. He asked the US, the UK and other world powers to look into the harsh steps being taken against his followers. He alleged the police were being used for personal interests.

He said the workers had tried to remove the containers around Model Town for the cordon laid by the police around the locality had created a shortage of eatables and water in the neighbourhood.

Published in Dawn, Aug 9th, 2014