Jail Bharu Tehreek: What went on among the police and Tehreek-e-Insaaf workers throughout the day?

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has started the first phase of the 'Jail Bharu Movement' across the country. In this movement that started from Lahore, dramatic events took place in a single day and until the last moment it was not understood which strategy was better, Tehreek-e-Insaf or the police.

Workers started gathering at the Tehreek-e-Insaaf headquarters on Jail Road at 11 am on Wednesday, while Yasmeen was the first leader to reach there.

According to the schedule given by PTI to the media, the central leadership was supposed to arrive in front of the Jail Road office at 12:30 and from there, in the form of a rally, voluntarily arrest the police at Charing Cross in front of the Punjab Assembly.

When the caravan left the central office at 1 o'clock, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that he was forbidden by the Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaf from arresting him.

Similarly, the strategy of Tehreek-e-Insaf seemed to be planning to arrest the workers instead of the leaders.

This caravan of Tehreek-e-Insaf had reached Charing Cross at around 2 pm. A big stage was built for the leadership while PTI workers also built symbolic prisons made of iron forests which were the focus of media attention.

In Charing Cross, hundreds of Tehreek-e-Insaaf workers and leaders were repeatedly inviting the police to arrest them, but there was no sign of any preparation from the police.

Only two prisoner-carrying vehicles were seen parked while some two dozen policemen were seen providing security duties.

When Shah Mahmood Qureshi in his address directed the workers to gather outside the office of the Lahore Police Chief i.e. CCPO, which is located on the road in front, then suddenly the situation started to change dramatically.

As the workers started walking towards the CCPO office, the leadership on the container also started coming down. And in a short time the situation was such that the entire leadership of Tehreek-e-Insaaf including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, Azam Swati, Jamshed Cheema etc. were seen sitting in a prison van.

Workers were clinging to the roof and all sides of the van. When this van left, PTI workers attacked another van and someone climbed on its roof. Someone sat inside. This van also left from there.

Then gradually the number of Tehreek-e-Insaf workers began to decrease.

After that, suddenly around a dozen vehicles carrying prisoners appeared from all sides along with heavily armed police force.

The police started announcing over loudspeakers that those who wanted to be arrested should sit in the cars, but no workers were sitting now.

Now the situation was that the leadership of Tehreek-e-Insaf was locked in a van and the workers were sitting on its roof and the rest of the workers dispersed.

Meanwhile, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while giving an interview to a journalist inside the van, said that he was tricked into sitting in the vehicle by the police.

This prison van stopped outside the first prison camp. After that he was sent to Kot Lakhpat Jail.

Now the reports are that the van carrying the leadership of Tehreek-e-Insaf has reached Kot Lakhpat Jail while Hamad Azhar and other leaders have reached Kot Lakhpat Jail in their vehicles.

Heavy security has been deployed at the main gate of the jail while riot police have also taken up positions.

Tehreek-e-Insaaf's strategy did not include arresting the leadership, but the police rounded up almost all the leadership present in a van. But till now the police has neither shared any details of the cases nor legal arrests with the media.