PTI supporters forcibly enter Sindh House after protest

Islamabad: PTI supporters on Friday forcibly entered the Sindh House in Islamabad after protesting outside for hours against dissident MNAs who are staying in the building.

Television footage showed PTI workers climbing over the walls of Sindh House with some of them later breaking down the doors to enter the building. They also carried lotas in protest against “turncoats”.

Islamabad police later cleared the area and said it had taken 13 of the protesters into custody for rioting.

A first information report (FIR) against the protesters was registered at the Secretariat police station on behalf of Qurban Ali Anwar, the station house officer who was posted there.

The FIR, was registered under Sections 427 (mischief causing damage), 186 (obstructing a public servant in discharge of public functions), 188 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 149 (members of an unlawful assembly being guilty of committing an offence in the prosecution of a common object) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

According to the FIR, around 15 to 20 PTI members were trying to enter the Sindh House, which is located in the Red Zone where all political activities and protests are banned under Section 144 of the PPC.

The FIR said police personnel reached the spot and asked the protesters to disperse but they did not listen.

The protesters raised slogans and uprooted a gate of the Sindh House in an attempt to enter its premises, the FIR said, adding that 13 of the protesters were subsequently arrested.